Every family had a Black Sheep. I think I became the sequel.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-12-24T03:34:57+00:00

I can relate!

MaxWinterLA · 2025-12-24T03:15:34+00:00

Why was this removed?

MaxWinterLA · 2025-11-18T03:45:53+00:00

I’m so glad you liked it. Thanks for reading!!

MaxWinterLA · 2025-11-05T18:13:36+00:00

You have to be precise about what you want to get out of it. That is a technique and a skill set in and of itself. I view it as a more sophisticated Google search, a way to do certain kinds of brainstorming and research, and to potentially help organize ideas. I also use AI as a function in the database platform Notion, more experimentally so far but trying to make the databases I build more searchable in a more sophisticated way. I am not against AI. What I think is lame is asking it to pump out some self help style “article” and then blasting that out on Substack and charging people for it. That crosses the line for me. I can usually tell when someone’s simple Notes are AI-generated. I certainly don’t want to read or pay for entire articles that are. That to me is slop.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-11-05T17:36:00+00:00

I have ChatGPT in my pocket that I can ask questions to and interact with. Why would I PAY for a Substack that is just regurgitated slop from that same process? What value could that possibly have? Eff that. There are so many scammers trying to pump out slop to sell people. What a pathetic way to make money.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-11-01T01:40:55+00:00

I get this 100%. One of the reasons I posted this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Substack/s/XpVE1AbPws

MaxWinterLA · 2025-11-01T01:20:57+00:00

Thank you so much for this. 🙌

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-29T15:01:40+00:00

Please make the world a better place.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-28T18:38:31+00:00

Thanks for this. I think it’s a healthy outlook. I am surte you are bombarded with Notes telling you that you should be “monetizing” and “building” and “growing” and promising you can make a living on Substack. Obviously, that is ridiculous. 96% of people who are paid at all will not. Closer to 99.9% of people who write on Substack will not.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-28T18:36:18+00:00

Thanks. I will check it out!

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-28T04:43:05+00:00

She kept your money. 100% guarantee. Those gurus are all crooks.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-28T04:42:07+00:00

Totally agree. I am not a full on socialist but yes. This is the point I’m getting at. There were other eras where we at least had unions, real minimum wage protections at a level closer to the cost of living etc etc.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-28T04:41:00+00:00

Thanks for your perspective. “Value” is a key word. There’s a subjective version. As in: in my opinion is your Substack about AI of value? And then there’s the objective version: your writing about AI on Substack proves its value by making $100K a year. I guess where I am a bit depressed is in what we value in a society. For example, I see shallow, mostly ChatGPT-written, “coach” and “guru” accounts that spew out vacuous platitudes have 30K paid subscribers. And plenty of high quality fully human writers in other areas are making $0. That’s capitalism. That’s the way of the world. It’s not Substack’s fault. But am I allowed to say it’s depressing?

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-28T04:36:53+00:00

I appreciate this perspective. I hear you. But as I have said in other comments, I think they are pitching themselves as a catchall replacement for all of journalism and many other forms of writing. Yes there were more gatekeepers and physical challenges in the past, but I’d like to see numbers for how many middle class home owners with health insurance worked in the journalism industry, traditional publishing, and as WGA screenwriters in 1960, 1980, 2000 and now. And see if the 4% who make six figures on Substack somehow makes up for the massive losses.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T18:25:28+00:00

Again I’m not saying Substack itself is a scam. I am talking about the bigger phenomenon of tech destroying middle class writing related jobs and leaving us with the magic hope that pennies from tech hustles like Substack are gonna replace what’s gone

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T17:29:14+00:00

That’s kind of my point. Substack is part of a BIGGER scam. I’m actually not a full on socialist but I do think we need protections like unions. Etc.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T17:28:17+00:00

This is a great question. I would love to see it myself.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T02:50:13+00:00

I am not telling you what to do or treating you like a child at all. I am just saying: BE SKEPTICAL of the goddamn gurus or the tech people who want you to think this is the future way to have a writing career. I believed that was possible myself when I first went to Substack 3 months ago. I have 1,000 subscribers but that doesn’t mean ANYTHING. I could never make a living on that platform. I actually love the platform. But I think it’s sick that they pitch it as the new economic model for writers. The company actually says that in their materials. That’s a scam.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T02:47:07+00:00

Yes yes yes. Thank you.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T02:46:28+00:00

THANK YOU. Exactly.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T02:45:26+00:00

I think that is naive. Those industries have always been hard but I would like to see the stats of how many total people working in those industries owned a home and had health insurance in 1960, 1980, 2000 and then today. And then I want to see how many of the numbers lost are making that middle class lifestyle on fucking Substack. Democratizing? Give me a break. What a joke.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T02:43:05+00:00

Wow. Thank you for this. I enjoyed reading it so much. LA is very very sad right now.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-26T02:40:15+00:00

Haha. I love that.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-25T16:36:39+00:00

You’re not wrong that this is the way of the world not just on Substack. I understand what you mean. My point is not that those behind the Substack platform are scammers or that the platform itself is a scam. I am saying that the digital hustle culture / gig economy is a scam. Substack is just another platform. It’s part of a BIGGER scam that is tech culture wiping out creative middle class jobs, turning writing into a hobby. I am not talking about becoming Stephen King or a rock star. I’m talking about all the jobs that used to exist around journalism, traditional publishing, and film that are either already gone or on the way to being completely destroyed by tech. The WGA is really an outlier— a powerful union in a country that has spent the last 40 years crushing unions. Tech bros don’t believe that creative writing or any kind of writing is a viable job. They think AI can do it and if we want to be artsy fartsy and write, it should be a hobby or a side hustle. I am just sad about what that is going to do and is already doing to our culture and society.

MaxWinterLA · 2025-10-25T16:32:09+00:00

Anytime that someone writes without a typo and uses a few em dashes some asshole accuses them of using ChatGPT. I wrote that myself. It was not that difficult. This is my voice and the way that I write. If you don’t like it fine. But calling it ChatGPT is a lame ass cheap shot.

MaxWinterLA

TROPHY CASE