I've got a few that I read most, if not every time they hit my inbox:
Slow Boring by Matthew Yglesias: https://www.slowboring.com/ - Daily column of moderate/rational takes on politics and government.
ParentData by Emily Oster: https://emilyoster.substack.com/ - She's an economist who writes about parenting by just reading the relevant studies. If you've got kids or are planning to, start with her book Cribsheet.
Astral Codex Ten by Scott Alexander: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/ - I'm guessing the HN crowd is already largely familiar with Alexander and Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten.
Do you mean newsletters in general or do you literally only mean substack?
The only newsletter I read when it comes out is Matt Levine's, I think. Or maybe I only remember this one because it comes out daily and others come out weekly or monthly.
(This also isn't because I have impeccable taste but because few of the people I'd like to follow even seem to have subscriptions so I get notified about their new posts via Twitter mostly.)
After many years I'm still a big fan of Astral Codex Ten (previously Slate Star Codex).
I don't read every single thing that comes across, but Scott does a particular weird brand of fiction now and then that I really love. I also enjoy the book reviews a lot. It's just a good hodgepodge of stuff I find interesting and I think Scott is a pretty good curator and commentator.
I choose not to engage in proprietary newletter programs, but do read a lot via RSS. Here are some that I consider insightful and/or interesting, above average quality, have limited or no commercialization/monetization, and have a chance of being interesting to someone else:
There's one called Technically Food by Larissa Zimberoff, where she talks about food and food technology. I'm not involved in the space anymore, but I used to sell CPG food and it's fun to read about what's happening in that space.
Money Stuff by Matt Levine - he's great at explaining what's going on in the financial industry.
Ridgeline by Craig Mod - Guy walks around Japan and takes beautiful pictures and writes about it.
Not a substack, I think it’s hashnode or ghost or something custom made, but https://unzip.dev.
Quick and dirty summaries of interesting stuff I don’t really dive into. Guy’s clearly a talented dev and has a knack for drawing diagrams that make sense
- Lenny's newsletter. While lately it's become mostly about how to succeed as a PM in Big Tech, he occasionally covers juicy startup tactics. For example, "What is good retention?" was solid gold.
- Casey Newton's Platformer. Balanced and insightful coverage of breaking industry news
- Data Analysis Journal. Goes deep on many growth topics, with tons of real SQL code from an experienced practitioner, which is extremely hard to find.
The Pragmatic Engineer[0]. Gergely Orosz has very pragmatic, practical advice and stories about just being a successful software engineer. He also covers the differences of working at different places, and how to suss out if a work environment is likely to be a good one
Full of great resources. Also access to a great job board. Big fan of his work thus far.
Noah Smith[0]. I appreciate his level-headed analysis and how he usually backs up all his claims with sources and statistics. I was never much into economics before I found his Substack, but now I read it regularly and I feel like I've learned a lot from him.
Can we please keep the responses relevant to OP’s request? It’s pretty clear that OP is looking for a curated list of newsletters to check out but some people are seeing this as an invitation to get on a soapbox about how they don’t like email/newsletters/whatever.
I love Letters of Note. Each post features reflection on letters that were sent/written at some point in time, often but not always by notable people. They are whimsical, short, and have introduced me to many interesting facts and rabbit holes.
I really just use Google with Tools set to Verbatim, and search strings like, for example:
site:substack.com transformer LLM OpenAI
It's generally more productive to find a topic you're interested in and then collect a wide variety of articles on that topic from many different sources, rather than to follow any individual source. This isn't really what substack writers like, they want you to pay to follow them, and I guess if you can afford dozens of subscriptions it's a charitable thing to do.
Charlie Guo - Artificial Ignorance. I don't have time to keep up with everything going on in the AI world, and Charlie's writeups each week keep me up to date enough to not feel lost.
Shameless plug, I write Mostly Python, so I read that many times before it hits my inbox. :)
None, because the absolute last thing I need is more email and I’m really not sure who ever though that trying to get people to sign up to get more email was a good idea.
I read Adam Tooze's Chart Book[1] and it's become the only source of information I really need to understand general macroeconomics and how it relates to the events of the world.
blackbird spyplane mostly for the incredible prose.
luke o'neil's welcome to hell world also for the very good prose in a totally different style.
small bow is the best recovery-focused one I know of.
alec karakatsanis for justice system stuff; that thread about prison chess this morning made me wish y'all read this.
used to read ed zitron and he's still very good but honestly I already hate bosses & owners enough and the bullshit they're getting up to is rarely novel or surprising, just odious, so I've been dropping off.
Lots of good suggestions here. One that's missing is I Might Be Wrong by Jeff Mauer[0]. All the content is free.
He's a former speechwriter at the EPA who did stand up comedy on the side, was discovered by one of the The Daily Show producers and got hired to write on John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight".
He's super-smart, super-funny, and walks just the right political line, at least for me. I.e. he finds things to criticize about both the left and the right.
He releases audio versions of his essays which are not to be skipped, even if you've already read the print piece, because he riffs on the material as he speaks.
Not substacks, but I start my mornings reading the TLDR and the TLDR AI newsletters. Lots of overlap with the sort of tech that HN covers. TLDR AI is very useful to keep your finger on the rapidly changing pulse in the world of ML.
Related: I go out of my way not to receive articles in my inbox. I keep my bills (which do reach my inbox) in "interruptions" mode while my entertainment operates in "poll" mode.
Not because I agree with or idolize the guy, but simply because what he says tends to veer on the provocative side. Provocative, by definition, is interesting.
For me, Substack has a reputation problem. All Substack's I've seen shared (on HN) have spouted outlandish claims and had zero (or little) "evidence" to back their claims up. Of course it's just a platform and it is probably made up of some great content too, but the bad content has turned me off to the platform.
There are a lot of wannabes on Substack. There are wannabe "journalists" who don't leave the house and wannabe philosophers who don't study philosophy. There are lots of tech and VC types like PG who are nowhere near as interesting as they think they are.
Despite all these wannabes, there are probably 30 or so high-quality substacks that are actually worth reading. I wouldn't dismiss the entire platform.
idopmstuff|2 years ago
Slow Boring by Matthew Yglesias: https://www.slowboring.com/ - Daily column of moderate/rational takes on politics and government.
ParentData by Emily Oster: https://emilyoster.substack.com/ - She's an economist who writes about parenting by just reading the relevant studies. If you've got kids or are planning to, start with her book Cribsheet.
Jatan's Space by Jatan Mehta: https://blog.jatan.space/ - Pretty high-quality space-related stuff.
Astral Codex Ten by Scott Alexander: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/ - I'm guessing the HN crowd is already largely familiar with Alexander and Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten.
Patent Drop by Nat Rubio-Licht: https://patentdrop.thedailyupside.com/ - A regular look at some interesting patents that have been filed recently.
eatonphil|2 years ago
The only newsletter I read when it comes out is Matt Levine's, I think. Or maybe I only remember this one because it comes out daily and others come out weekly or monthly.
(This also isn't because I have impeccable taste but because few of the people I'd like to follow even seem to have subscriptions so I get notified about their new posts via Twitter mostly.)
nocoiner|2 years ago
epiccoleman|2 years ago
I don't read every single thing that comes across, but Scott does a particular weird brand of fiction now and then that I really love. I also enjoy the book reviews a lot. It's just a good hodgepodge of stuff I find interesting and I think Scott is a pretty good curator and commentator.
bgun|2 years ago
bkohlmann|2 years ago
Also coined the term “luxury beliefs”
https://www.robkhenderson.com/
aaronax|2 years ago
OldHouseGuy Blog: https://www.oldhouseguy.com/ Has great taste regarding old buildings
Syonyk/Sevarg/Russell Graves: https://www.sevarg.net/ Some combination of /homesteading/off-grid/tech passion/tech skepticism/
The Long Now Blog - makes me think different things
Early Retirement Now - in depth financial writings regarding saving money more than the common person.
Tynan.com - eclectic person
Hugo Landau: https://www.devever.net/~hl/ - Thoughtful insights on tech and adjacent topics.
Casey Handmer - Crazy dreams about space and carbon
scripting.com - Old guy shouting at clouds, old-school Internet guy building stuff. I just read it for variety.
dhr|2 years ago
Money Stuff by Matt Levine - he's great at explaining what's going on in the financial industry.
Ridgeline by Craig Mod - Guy walks around Japan and takes beautiful pictures and writes about it.
lostfocus|2 years ago
tomgs|2 years ago
Quick and dirty summaries of interesting stuff I don’t really dive into. Guy’s clearly a talented dev and has a knack for drawing diagrams that make sense
jkkramer|2 years ago
- Lenny's newsletter. While lately it's become mostly about how to succeed as a PM in Big Tech, he occasionally covers juicy startup tactics. For example, "What is good retention?" was solid gold.
- Casey Newton's Platformer. Balanced and insightful coverage of breaking industry news
- Data Analysis Journal. Goes deep on many growth topics, with tons of real SQL code from an experienced practitioner, which is extremely hard to find.
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/ https://www.platformer.news/ https://dataanalysis.substack.com/
no_wizard|2 years ago
Full of great resources. Also access to a great job board. Big fan of his work thus far.
[0]: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/
mkaic|2 years ago
[0] https://www.noahpinion.blog
enumjorge|2 years ago
xrendan|2 years ago
If you're interested in in-depth analysis of current events in finance, tech and other related musings.
Capital Gains is more focused on ideas in finance and how to think about them.
[0] https://www.thediff.co/ [1] (With referral code) https://capitalgains.thediff.co/subscribe?ref=zlPGzwicD7 [2] (Without referral code) https://capitalgains.thediff.co/subscribe
sdfghswe|2 years ago
lachlan_gray|2 years ago
https://news.lettersofnote.com/
P.s. My favourite one so far, where among other things, I learned about the infamous and hilarious “please advise” CBS memo surrounding Miles Davis : https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/this-is-my-favorite-memo-ev...
photochemsyn|2 years ago
site:substack.com transformer LLM OpenAI
It's generally more productive to find a topic you're interested in and then collect a wide variety of articles on that topic from many different sources, rather than to follow any individual source. This isn't really what substack writers like, they want you to pay to follow them, and I guess if you can afford dozens of subscriptions it's a charitable thing to do.
japhyr|2 years ago
Shameless plug, I write Mostly Python, so I read that many times before it hits my inbox. :)
https://www.ignorance.ai
https://mostlypython.substack.com
rebeccaskinner|2 years ago
esperent|2 years ago
Go wild
sdfghswe|2 years ago
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/
Truly high quality writing.
Also, Matt Levine.
ciguy|2 years ago
1: https://adamtooze.substack.com/
iamgoat|2 years ago
I wouldn't say immediately or even regularly, but I do like to catch up on them every so often. Short food for thought.
jger15|2 years ago
-Bookbear Express: https://ava.substack.com/
-Cedric Chin (not a Substack): https://commoncog.com/
-Henrik Karlsson: https://escapingflatland.substack.com/
-Rob Henderson: https://www.robkhenderson.com/
-Robin Hanson: https://www.overcomingbias.com/
jot|2 years ago
But there are more ConvertKit based newsletters I read.
giraffe_lady|2 years ago
luke o'neil's welcome to hell world also for the very good prose in a totally different style.
small bow is the best recovery-focused one I know of.
alec karakatsanis for justice system stuff; that thread about prison chess this morning made me wish y'all read this.
used to read ed zitron and he's still very good but honestly I already hate bosses & owners enough and the bullshit they're getting up to is rarely novel or surprising, just odious, so I've been dropping off.
ifyoubuildit|2 years ago
I started off with Glenn Greenwald because of his past with the Snowden work, but over time his style put me off.
caldarons|2 years ago
collyw|2 years ago
Dead Man Talking. https://metatron.substack.com/
PANDA Uncut. https://pandauncut.substack.com/
Some data driven sanity in the last 3 years.
pnzrdrgoon|2 years ago
It’s the best OSR news.
mahathu|2 years ago
https://haleynahman.substack.com/
rcarmo|2 years ago
TheLoafOfBread|2 years ago
maroonblazer|2 years ago
He's a former speechwriter at the EPA who did stand up comedy on the side, was discovered by one of the The Daily Show producers and got hired to write on John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight".
He's super-smart, super-funny, and walks just the right political line, at least for me. I.e. he finds things to criticize about both the left and the right.
He releases audio versions of his essays which are not to be skipped, even if you've already read the print piece, because he riffs on the material as he speaks.
[0]https://imightbewrong.substack.com/
WirelessGigabit|2 years ago
crosen99|2 years ago
unknown|2 years ago
[deleted]
menotyou|2 years ago
probably_wrong|2 years ago
Workaccount2|2 years ago
1MachineElf|2 years ago
Not because I agree with or idolize the guy, but simply because what he says tends to veer on the provocative side. Provocative, by definition, is interesting.
slothtrop|2 years ago
unknown|2 years ago
[deleted]
chewmieser|2 years ago
So I guess none here as well.
vehemenz|2 years ago
Despite all these wannabes, there are probably 30 or so high-quality substacks that are actually worth reading. I wouldn't dismiss the entire platform.