Oversubscribed
I love Jeff Tweedy, but his newsletter helped me see I was … oversubscribed.
Jeff Tweedy was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Not Jeff Tweedy the man, but Jeff Tweedy the subscription landing in my inbox, in the form of a paid Substack newsletter, Starship Casual.
Look, I love Jeff (I feel like I can call him that) and I’m pretty devoted to his work. How devoted? Well, I’ve been with Wilco ever since Uncle Tupelo broke up; I bought every album by Wilco, back when buying albums was a thing; I stream his music daily, both Wilco and Jeff’s solo stuff (“Impossible Germany” is playing as I write this); I’ve been to see the band 7 times and paid for my grown kids to go see them as well (they liked it); I have 5 Wilco t-shirts; and I even have a coffee mug that only I recognize as a Wilco coffee mug, because the lettering has long ago worn off (I have a picture of this mug, but it’s pretty boring).
Clearly, I’m a fan, so when Jeff started a Substack newsletter, I subscribed and I enjoyed the first few exploratory posts. Jeff was wry, self-effacing, and insightful, just like his between-song banter at the shows. I liked it enough that when he announced that pretty soon, he’d be putting the “good stuff” behind a paywall, I thought it would be worth paying. As he wrote: “I really think it’s gonna be worth it if you have the spare cash.”
But it wasn’t. Too many times it was clear he didn’t have much to say, but was posting because the same playbook that told him “hook them on free for a month before setting up a paywall” was now telling him, “be sure to post twice a week.” His Substack posts just didn’t match up to the incredible beauty and poetry in his songs; perhaps I was asking too much to think that they would. But it was in my second month of paying–and being disappointed by the vast majority of posts–that I said to hell with this, and unsubscribed.
And right then, I realized: my problem wasn’t just with Jeff Tweedy, who I probably “loved” as much as any content creator going (even now, I’m hoping that if he reads this he won’t feel bad; it’s not him, it’s me). My problem was with paid subscriptions in general. I had contracted a very modern disease: I was oversubscribed. My insatiable appetite for content had run smack up against the paywalls that were popping up all across the subscription landscape (and rightly so).
Luckily, it was easy to clear up this outbreak of the disease. I simply unsubscribed. Problem solved: I could go back to digging Jeff and Wilco as I always had. Music, yes. Substack, no.
But that leaves me with all the other subscriptions I’ve got cluttering up my life…. How do I decide what to keep and what to let go?
That’s a bigger problem, too big for this post anyway. But for a content junkie like me, it’s a pressing and very intriguing question. I’ve got 40+ subscriptions, some free, many paid, and I’m often wondering what should stay and what should go. I’ll come back to this, and I hope you’ll share how you manage if you’ve got this same problem.
As for my humble newsletter, I’ll just say if it makes you smile, keep it. And if it doesn’t, ditch it. Life is too short for bad content … especially if you’re paying for it.
While we’re here, let me just mention a couple of my favorite subscriptions, ones I don’t want to live without:
Ian Leslie’s Substack The Ruffian is one I really enjoy and pay for. Its eclecticism is an inspiration for my own newsletter. His book Conflicted is also really great.
Oliver Burkeman is just always so sane and pragmatic and grounded. I love his monthly newsletter The Imperfectionist and his book, Four Thousand Weeks. In fact, he gets partial credit for me ditching the corporate scene in favor of whatever the hell you call what I’m doing now.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Oh, MG newsletter is free, which is good, because I’d be tempted to pay. Gladwell is the world’s most curious guy and he opens up so many interesting facets of life to inspection.
Next time I discuss subscriptions, I’ll call out some that I’d like to subscribe to—but I’m reluctant to pay more than I already do. You’ll find out how cheap I am.
Have you ever added up how much you pay in subscriptions? I did that once and that alone had me reconsidering many of my subscriptions. Today, I have almost none I pay for. And that's because, frankly, I don't read them all. They sit and sit and sit.