Announcing the Escape the Algorithm ᵐⁱᶜʳᵒsupporter Program

Welcoming tiny acts of codependence

My little newsletter about taking control of our attention and finding a more human side of the internet recently surpassed 5000 subscribers! The good-little-newsletter-boy playbook dictates that I immediately launch a paid subscriber program and start sowing the seeds that will eventually allow me to quit my job and profit from the resulting media empire.

Here’s the problem: I have no aspiration for all of you to become my main source of income. I am privileged to have a full-time job that I enjoy and no offense but I’m pretty sure that if writing a newsletter was my full-time job I would hate it!

I don’t covet the economic pressures of paid subscriptions, but I do covet the mutuality: giving readers a way to say “we care about and value your work.” Money is only one way of doing that, and it may not even be the best way.

So starting today, if you would like to become a ᵐⁱᶜʳᵒsupporter of Escape the Algorithm, you can do so by performing a tiny act of codependence:

• Send me a gift (something you’ve made, something with a story, or something you think I in particular would enjoy)

• Write me a thoughtful postcard

• Take me out for a cup of coffee in person when you’re in Philly

• Contribute a guest post to Escape the Algorithm (pitch me!)

• Support Escape the Algorithm financially, either through Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

• A secret sixth thing (email me an idea, I’ll probably be down)

No matter which of the above you choose, I’ll mark you as a paid subscriber in my mailing list.

For now, the perks of support are simple:

• Soften the para part of our parasocial relationship

• Support my commitment to only sending out emails when 1) it brings me joy and 2) I have something to say

At some point I’ll take a ᵐⁱᶜʳᵒsupporter pulse check to see if there should be any other benefits (group chat? escape the algorithm workshops?).

All Escape the Algorithm posts will remain free.

If you’re new to Escape the Algorithm, here are some nice things that people have said about it:

“One of my very favorite newsletters and a continual source of incisive, lyrical observations about life online.”

Caitlin Dewey (Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends)

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“It can seem that as our tech wizards conjure up new things for us to click, they're also magicking away the parts of the internet that I fell in love with. If you feel that way, too, then check out [this] incomparable newsletter.”

John West (Lead R&D Technologist, The Wall Street Journal)

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[One of the people] quietly keeping the spirit of the human, personal, creative internet alive.

Anil Dash in The Rolling Stone

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