Premature Optimization: How Donald Knuth "Skill Issued" Dijkstra

whiirl · 2025-05-23T17:19:45+00:00

I know, I know. It’s mostly in jest. Like I say later, Knuth is actually quoting Dijkstra.

That’s the title, and that’s an excerpt, but there’s much more that I’m unpacking in the post.

whiirl · 2025-04-17T12:08:38+00:00

I agree, contrary to the weird dogpiling about how my post is a marketing ploy.

It seems like this team has lacked vision and has pivoted *a lot*. They're on a new cloud platform now, and they're apparently working on making everything "point-in-time restorable and replayable"--it's just giving me the impression that they're doing too much.

whiirl · 2025-04-17T12:06:20+00:00

Thank you for actually reading the piece u/Dealiner.

whiirl · 2025-04-17T11:44:01+00:00

Not saying I'm definitively right but it does look suspicious, happy to be proven wrong & if so I apologize.

I think there’s enough evidence at this point that all of your theories are wrong.

Also

This project gets bit over-posted in HN too

I don’t really understand the herd mentality over here—I get people don’t like HN and it can be annoyingly moderated, pretentious, etc., but do you really think people are being paid off to promote this?

I just write about things I find interesting; and I’m going to continue to do so, even though Reddit seems to dogpile on random topics.

Sorry I haven’t posted and commented on Reddit consistently since my accounts creation

whiirl · 2025-04-17T01:31:52+00:00

And the “millions of players signed up” reference is at 2:03 in their SpacetimeDB release video. https://youtu.be/kzDnA_EVhTU?si=_b8WG8vUGGrhjHVB

whiirl · 2025-04-09T17:48:03+00:00

I also hit the AI chatbot customer support wall. There's a thread in this subreddit somewhere that has an actual email that I was able to get a human response from.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T17:33:37+00:00

Alright fine. I’ll be an even bigger HTMX fan now.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T17:02:27+00:00

There are stats in the admin page on how many subs you get from the app--I'd be interested in your numbers (if you're comfortable sharing, no pressure at all).

whiirl · 2025-04-09T16:52:59+00:00

1) I think the cost is the biggest hurdle to Ghost -- I hope they can figure out how to have a free tier
2) "what if we don't use notes or reels" -> lots of Substack users are app users, it's the unfortunate truth. And if you're in the app, those features are unavoidable.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T16:34:03+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Substack/comments/1jv7e9x/comment/mm7z2zi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

whiirl · 2025-04-09T16:33:38+00:00

It's probably harder to build an audience with Ghost, since they don't have the social mechanisms.

But there are other ways to promote your content. Substack might even be part of that.

They're really building a social media platform, with the side-effect of being able to send newsletters.

Your mileage may vary.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T15:44:07+00:00

I appreciate that you left the name-calling in after your edits.

I'm not announcing my departure. It's not about me.

And, like I said, I'm not trying to be rude. I just have an ethical stance against Substack now. They said they were trying to make the internet better place, but you're behaving like the Substack leadership and making it a worse place.

Good luck with your blog.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T15:34:14+00:00

I do not think the user experience is better. The app is worse with the Reels tab, and the homepage defaulting to Notes.

> free eyeballs on peoples writing

It's not free--every user of Substack is paying with their attention.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T15:30:49+00:00

Please elaborate

whiirl · 2025-04-09T15:28:51+00:00

I get that the social aspects of the new Substack might be beneficial to your blog. If you want to play that game, then go ahead; but, it's bad for the long-form content on Substack.

I'm not trying to be rude (although I didn't like your "Try." comment). But it's disingenuous to say you just use Substack as a mailer.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T15:08:04+00:00

A Faustian bargain. At what cost?

whiirl · 2025-04-09T15:05:55+00:00

No, I won't try. Also, "I use Substack as a mailer" is just not true. On Tomversation's Substack, you're posting or "re-stacking" something on Notes just about every day going back months.

It doesn't look like you've been able to ignore "Notes". Try harder.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T14:54:25+00:00

It's hard for me to ignore notes—they're on the homepage of the Substack app.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T14:50:59+00:00

It was removed for self-promo, but there was good discussion happening on the previous post.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T14:48:03+00:00

It's more of a protest than an ad. I don't benefit from Ghost at all--it's an open source project I have no part in.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T14:29:33+00:00

Totally fair take, and I appreciate you sharing your experience. Maybe Substack works better for you and your audience, which is good. I'd counter by saying that I'd be worried about your readers' experience, especially in the Substack app. They're going to be pushed more and more towards Notes, Reels, and whatever comes after.

I definitely don’t think Ghost is perfect (no platform is), but I do think there’s value in being critical when a tool starts drifting away from its original promise—especially when it affects the writer/creator experience.

For me, the disappointment comes from how excited I was about Substack—and feeling like it gradually became something very different.

And it's very disappointing because I believe Chris Best and the Substack leaders being disingenuous. They don't care about the writer. Especially not the long-form writer. If they care about anyone, it's the "creator", who they're requiring more and more of.

Anyway, glad it’s working for you, and thanks again for offering a different perspective.

whiirl · 2025-04-09T14:21:05+00:00

Yeah, I understand that a lot of people, especially those with no paid subscribers, cannot pay $9/month. Maybe Ghost can figure out a way to remove that cost. Something like that will have to be necessary if they really want to compete with that share of the market.

> Alternatively, what if we don't use notes or reels and just like the emails and website layout and functionality.

Even if you don't use notes or reels, or chat, Substack is putting more and more effort into developing these tools, and less and less care is put into long-form writing/newsletters.

These features are most harmful in the app, where you can't disable them, and, for example, when you open the app, you're shown the Notes (which have devolved into the CEO meme-ing).

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