The Balance of Creativity and Structure

Today's guest, Ernie Smith, has been writing for the internet for 15 years. He's been writing his current newsletter, Tedium, for almost 10. We spoke about his approach to newslettering, turning down money from Substack, and making cool stuff for the internet purely for the sake of it.

00:00 Who is Ernie Smith?

01:30 Why (and how) Ernie coded his newsletter himself

05:35 Has personality been stripped from the internet?

12:44 How Ernie grew his audience

15:20 UDM14 — Google without all the fluff

18:56 Ernie’s approach to side projects

31:39 Is the creator economy good for the internet?

41:28 Hopes for the future of the internet

45:10 What’s next for Ernie?

Intro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.