kevin_indig

Everybody’s reaction to the many GPT-3 demos on Twitter have been the same: First, it’s “oh my god, is this real?” Then, it’s “People are gonna lose their jobs.” The fear of GPT-3 replacing writers and designers is real. While I think some of the concerns are realistic, many are not.

Aggregation theory describes the shift of power from supply to demand, growth based on zero marginal cost, and direct relationships with users. Platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others were able to become aggregators because of the internet.

The next step in the evolution of aggregators is Platform Confluence: the combination of several apps and sites owned by the same company into an ecosystem in which user signals and ads reinforce each other.

That was one of the reasons I decided to go with my own platform. But Substack is not like Medium because it provides less discovery and more of a platform for writers. Medium, on the other hand, is more like an aggregator.

Got it. What's the incentive for readers? Discovery of better content?

Not that I know beyond the stack I mentioned in my article. Ghost is another one that comes to mind.

What did you switch to?

> We're sharing our revenue with you, not the other way around!

Gotcha. So, what's the value I'd get as a creator, i.e. why should I not charge through another platform?

> All that matters is the content, not the way it is delivered to the user.

I think it matters for the creators, though.

> If you write for big medium publications you can get a lot of traction.

If you leverage their algorithm cleverly, yes. But you still don't own your content or the platform. You're at the same mercy as on Facebook, Twitter, or Google.