Why I Moved My Blog to Substack

Picking my battles, Substack and the need for attention

I’ll be honest: I’m being inconsistent.

In my previous posts, I talked a lot about “techno-feudalism,” the “indie web” and the importance of digital sovereignty. I wrote about the joy of DIY and how we’re losing the art of building our own spaces online. I used to say that the medium is the message.

From that perspective, moving to Substack feels like a contradiction of my own principles.

But there’s a side to this I hadn’t fully considered. I didn’t start a blog to reach thousands of people or turn it into a full-time career. I started it to motivate myself to create more, to share my projects and document my journey.

With that in mind, it makes sense to minimize the friction between my thoughts and the page.

Managing a self-hosted blog, dealing with code, deployments and maintenance is rewarding, but it’s also an extra layer of complexity. It’s one more barrier between having an idea and actually publishing it. Right now, that’s a complexity I’m just not interested in managing. I was forcing it. And let’s be real: there’s nothing wrong with changing your mind.

Actually, I don’t even think I’ve changed my mind. Everything I said before still holds true. It’s just that, sometimes, you have to pick your battles.

My Take on Substack

I think we’re all here for more or less the same reason: we’re looking for attention.

As I understand it, Substack was created as a meeting point for people who want more than just short-form content. It’s meant to be a place for deep dives, long-form articles, and thoughtful reading: a space where time still has value.

The reality, however, feels a bit different. I get the impression that we’re mostly here to be seen, rather than to see others. To write, rather than to read.