Open Discussion

It’s hard to do off-topic comments in articles that are specifically about something. If you want to ask me something or talk about something I don’t normally talk about, feel free to do so in the comments below.

Plugs

I have stated this before, but I will literally plug anyone at any time for almost anything. There’s a few exceptions (I won’t plug things that are actively working against my religion or are aimed at hurting hurting me in some way without a lot of counterbalance) but otherwise I’m pretty wide open for this.

This is something I wish was more common - writers need some initial mass of subscribers to get the motivation to keep going long-term, and that’s a very hard and luck-based thing to do. If any of these fit into the kinds of genres you read, subscribe to them - it’s a chance to have an outsized effect on some writer, somewhere.

Nicomachean Exhortations

A blog that is exactly what it says on the label - it’s deep-dive articles on Nicomachean philosophy. If you are curious as to what that is and want me to explain it, too bad - I’d do a real shitty job at it and this blog does a good one. Just go there.

Nicomachean Exhortations

How to live well from the greatest philosopher of all time

By Shadow Rebbe

The Presence of Everything

This is a blog that centers around various kinds of spirituality and the implications thereof. I like it because it pushes back on general new-atheism (and thus is aligned with me) but dislike it because it’s not specifically Christian (and thus sort of counter to what I want in a different direction).

The Presence of Everything

Better stories for a better world

By Carlos

Dadsfordads

This blog (link in headline, and here) is a non-Substacker who found me through alternate means. It’s aimed at helping train dads into being better, more committed fathers, which I’m into. It’s also written from a similar perspective to mine (Christian, more-or-less conservative) although the author, paraphrased, said something like this:

I’m Christian and conservative, but the blog is specifically aimed at being welcoming to people who aren’t. There’s no profit for anyone in saying “oh, I’m writing something specifically to exclude a lot of people who could also benefit from it.

If you need credentials, said guy is to my knowledge an exceptionally good Dad; as a so-so dad, I appreciate his hustle.

Data Secrets Lox

DSL is a forum I use that came out of the SlateStarCodex NYT-hit-piece diaspora. It’s rationalist-lite discussion of various topics. Like Aslan, I am also there but under a different name, and also like Aslan I’m convinced you can where’s-waldo find me there if you look hard enough for someone who shares my characteristics.

This is the only discussion forum I like enough to actually post in.

Yakread

Jacob, who makes Yakread, is a longstanding internet friend. He made The Sample, which I’ve talked about before and like.

I am not smart enough this early in the day to be like “here’s how Yakread works” but it’s something something learns from you as you read to give you better stuff to read something something. He has explained it to me several times, and it’s gone now.

Normally I’d be suspect of that but everything I’ve used that Jacob built manages to do learning-algo stuff in a way that actually gets me better stuff to read, so I’m into this.

Please note: Both the links to Jacob’s sites are cross-promotion links, which means that if you sign up for either thing through them he gives me advertising credit. Last time I did this, I got enough credit that I basically broke the system and learned to control the matrix, and then got to give him shit about that for months. I’d really, really like to do the same thing again.

The Discord Server

If you go out to my main page, there’s a link to my discord server, in which you can lose respect for me at previously unimagined rates. Things the discord server has:

1. Good folks

2. Lurkers, who might be good folks

3. Me talking about bass guitars and nobody caring

4. A place you can recommend articles

5. A blood arena in which people rip each other to shreds

6. Me asking you to proof-read my articles, which I’m bad at

7. Pictures of my pets, and sometimes pictures that don’t focus on but still contain images of my unusually small hands

8. Cassander being an arch-capitalist

9. Nick making fun for me for trying to spell the name of the philosopher Neitche without looking it up first

I keep thinking I’m going to stop posting about the server, but every time I do it we get a few more people who just missed other times I’ve talked about it. It’s important to me purely because I want people to be able to have access to me if they need it for any reason - whether that’s critiques, friendship, advice, or just a generic need to know more about vintage cast iron pans.

Updates/Housekeeping

Guest Spots

I’m going to be trying to do more podcast appearances/guest spots here and there moving forward. Most of you saw the crosspost between me and Karlstack; it should mostly look like that. If there’s some reason I shouldn’t do this, you should tell me now.

Podcasts

I really, really like doing podcasts and want to do more of them. I’ve managed to stumble into a few opportunities like this, but I have an unlimited appetite for more.

The difficulty with this is that the best way to never go on a podcast is to ask the person who runs it to interview you - it comes off as needy, or something. So if you have a podcast you listen to that you want me on, you should mention it to the podcaster themselves - if I try to do it, it won’t work.

Non-Newsletter Articles

If I make too many posts, people unsubscribe. I’ve usually interpreted this in a way that makes me do 3-4 posts a month, but no more than that; I also try to keep various posts in long-form article format.

Sometimes I want to do stuff that isn’t that, like “how-to” stuff, or rehashes of things I’ve written before documenting changes in how I think about it now. My current plan is to post these, but not send them out as newsletters.

From your end, that means you wouldn’t be bugged unless you went looking for these, but also means you’d have to periodically go looking for them and would probably miss some. I’m fine with that, but let me know if that’s a bad idea for any reason.

Ask me to plug your stuff

You can always ask me to plug your stuff, regardless of what it is. There’s a very narrow band of stuff I say no to, but for the most part I try to do this as a service; don’t worry about things like “is this good enough” or “is this in his genre”. I’m specifically trying to help you get going; please take advantage of my medium-sized audience to make that happen.

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