If You’re on Substack for Discovery, You’re Dreaming

Originally posted on Substack on October 10, 2025 Here

I was told Substack would be a haven for creators. A place where stories find their audience. Where truth rises through the noise. What a load of crap. Not a small load either. Dump trucks, container ships, full of crap.

If you’re here hoping your work will be discovered organically, you’re deluding yourself. Substack doesn’t reward depth. It rewards popularity. It’s not a launchpad. It’s a mirror. If you already have a following, it reflects it back. If you don’t, it reflects silence.

Don’t believe me? Take a good long look at the “People to follow” section when it pops up. Huge political figures or media stars, not real people.

These people don’t have problems; they have stories crafted for engagement. Every crisis is performative, every heartbreak calibrated to get reactions. Their “authenticity” is a script, their struggles a brand. You scroll through, nod along, maybe even feel pity, but none of it is real, except for the attention they’re harvesting.

That’s the ecosystem Substack amplifies, not real human creators wrestling with real work.

Most of the ones in my “People to follow” don’t have a real job, not one that makes them wrestle with what bills they can pay this week. They’re not using Substack to escape the real world.

The world sucks sometimes, and this is some creator's only outlet.

Substack creators should be real, with real emotions and real problems. Not fake people pretending to be authentic. Those people would step over you having a heart attack to gain one more follower.

Screw them and their overinflated egos.

Why I’m Here

But here’s the thing. I’m not here to chase algorithms or play platform games. I’m here to post what matters to me. My blogs, my audio, my mythos. I’ve built my own sites, my own infrastructure, my own rhythm. Substack is only good for one thing in my world: as a copy machine. A place to echo what I’ve already created elsewhere.

And yes, I get the irony. I’m posting a piece about how useless Substack is on Substack. I don’t give a damn. The beauty of building your own world is that you don’t have to care about contradictions this small.

Where the Real Work Lives

So if you’re reading this, understand this isn’t the center of my universe. I send posts to this alien planet of Substack. The real work lives on my site. That’s where I control the feed, the format, and the ritual. That’s where the stories breathe. That’s where the podcast lives. That’s where my world grows.

Think of Substack as a telescope looking at my world, which thankfully is far, far away.

If You Want to Build Your Own World

If you want substance over fluff, ritual over routine, truth over convenience, follow me there.

If you want to know how you can build your own world, I can help you with that if you want.

If you're going to shout into an echo chamber, you might as well own the damn thing.

Dispatch