Platformers are Platforming.

While Elizabeth Tai’s “Substack writers, you need a website!” hit the front page of hacker news today, it hit me with a slew of things.

First, gratitude. I am really grateful to have come across her blog. It’s a treasure island on a sea of bad internet. Clicking led to surfing. Surfing led to other writers, and a nostalgia for real blogging days. (And David Cain’s “How to Surf the Web in 2025” article which is also gold.)

Then, ire. Not at the article, but with it. It gave me that familiar urge to shout a similar message to the long list of people I know and care about that are pouring their whole business systems into LinkedIn and nothing else.

(THIS PLACE ISN’T GOING TO GO DOWN WELL IN THE LONG RUN, FOLKS.)

So then I thought a bit about fear. We have to use platforms! That’s where, uh, people are. What do we do when they change, which they always do?

I will never forget this one image in Philip Morgan’s “The Positioning Manual For Indie Consultants”. He has this chapter about “platformers”, and what happens when the platforms reach the part of their character arcs where they need to monetize their early users. He includes a photo of Francisco Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son”.

Tai’s call to writers to avoid making the platform (e.g. substack) their whole world. Those platforms change. You have no control over when. So, it makes perfect sense to be a defensive driver, own your own domain, and publish to both.

Similar to what I was trying to say in my writing a couple weeks ago about building on linkedin and ignoring your website.

PENULTIMATE EMOTION TO NOTE HERE: my brain decided to throw in a bit of guilt. That weird “why don’t you try to be a professional writer and write for the causes of good” guilt that seems to linger around as the years keep going, even though I long ago decided I like coding and helping people with tech issues more than writing.

The final one, I was inspired. We can have our own spots on the web and keep them updated. It’s pretty straightforward and other people are doing it.

When you’re a platformer, you’re platforming for the platform while thinking it’s for you.

But what’s cool about being a platformer, it can be one of the many things you are.