Why I do this

My first Substack post was published June 2021—about five years ago. I guess that makes me somewhat of an early adopter. As I continue writing consistently many years later, I ask myself: Why?

It’s a fair question.

When I first started here, it wasn’t out of some grand plan. It was because my old blog had encountered some technical difficulties and much of my work had vanished overnight. Substack was, at least initially, just a place to recover what I could and start again.

Back then, I wrote random little essays about fairly uncontroversial things. Almost no one read them. And I do mean almost no one. Maybe ten people, if I’m being generous. I really was, for all intents and purposes, writing for myself.

And yet, somehow, within that tiny audience, I ended up with at least one famous reader. I still don’t know how he came across it, but there was something a bit thrilling about seeing someone whose work I admired quoting my own words back to me. It taught me how you never know who’s read…