Well, that was anticlimactic.
When Twitter acquired Revue in January of 2021, many people (myself included) were excited to see what Twitter did for creators by tightly integrating a newsletter function into their already established platform. Twitter ran a similar playbook with major success against Clubhouse, spinning up Spaces and leveraging their already built-in audience base and “we’re the internet’s town hall” credibility to crush them.
But Revue never truly took off, and Substack maintained market dominance in the newsletter space—innovating faster, improving discoverability, and altogether kicking Revue’s teeth in. Now that Twitter has announced plans to shut down Revue altogether, I and many others are migrating our email lists over.
So, uh, welcome to my new Substack 🤷♂️
What to expect
Those of you who’ve followed my infrequent TestLab editions have an idea of what to expect (I’ve also added the back catalog to Substack)—but I’m making some changes.
1. More frequent updates
After a busy 2022 where I didn’t prioritize my personal writing, I’m committing to doing more in 2023, and Substack is going to be where I do that. If you stay subscribed to this newsletter, you’ll get an email twice a month in 2023.
2. What will I be writing about in 2023?
You can expect similar topics to what you saw in my Test Lab newsletter. I’ll be covering content on the future of society as driven by technology, such as:
Software development
The attention economy
Climate tech
Crypto/Web 3
AI
I’m also very open to diving into particular topics that my readers bring to my attention—want to discuss some of the latest research on psychedelics or a big new story? Tweet or email me about it, and I’ll plan to include it in my next edition.
3. What will be in each email?
Twice a month, I’ll be sending out free newsletters featuring:
A write-up on something I’m thinking about, generally aligned to the topics noted above. In this first edition, that’s laying out why I’m switching from Revue and what to expect in 2023.
What I’m paying attention to: a section to feature some of the best content I’ve recently come across that I think subscribers to this newsletter will find valuable, particularly aligned with the themes of the technology and social changes driving the future and changing how we interact.
Content from me: as per usual, I’ll include a short write-up on the content I’ve worked on recently, including podcasts, blogs, videos, and more.
What’s next: I’ll close each edition with a sneak peek into some of the things I’ll be up to next.
I may evolve the format somewhat as the year goes on, but I’ll always plan to include these elements.
Have you subscribed?
Look, if you’ve read this far in this first edition—something is resonating with you. If you’ve already subscribed, thank you. I appreciate you.
If you’re not subscribed, but you’re still reading, doesn’t it seem like you probably ought to subscribe? Luckily it’s easy 👇
Now that we’ve got that out of the way read on to see some of my favorite pieces of content from the past couple of weeks, get some news about my recent content, and hear more about what’s coming in 2023.
What I’m paying attention to
Some of my recent favs
YouTube vs Twitch: Those of you who’ve been reading my content for a while know I’m a big believer in the online shift to an attention economy. One of the most successful such creators? Ludwig. Fresh off hosting a massive chess boxing event with more than 300,000 viewers, Ludwig released a video breakdown of his first-year performance after switching from Twitch to YouTube. If you’re interested in understanding the dynamics of modern internet content for the top echelon of creators, the first 12~ minutes of his breakdown are an intriguing and entertaining look behind the curtain.
History’s greatest frauds: With the horror of the FTX collapse sweeping crypto and the broader financial markets (I’m still shaking my head at how SBF got released on bail), take some time to join the Acquired podcast on their three-and-a-half-hour deep dive into the backstory and complexity of the 2001 then-largest bankruptcy in US history: Enron. Ben and David’s storytelling and research bring the story to life and draw important parallels to recent events. Listen here.
The impact of AI & ChatGPT: Look, it’s probably apparent to everyone that AI is changing the world—and it’s doing so in both obvious and non-obvious ways.
My friend Luca Rossi dove deep into AI, the workflows it enables, how the models can improve, what these innovations mean for software development, and more.Lead by listening: I had the pleasure of meeting Adrienne Shulman at DevOps Enterprise Summit this year and had a great conversation with her about building team culture and leading by listening. Adrienne’s recent article sharing five tips for leading a global team was an excellent follow-up. Read it here.
New from me
Some of the new content I’ve put out since I last emailed + exciting project updates
Season 3 of Dev Interrupted is coming January 3rd & I have 8 new ideas: We had an incredible Season 2 of Dev Interrupted—440% growth in streams, breaking into Apple’s Top 100 US tech pods for the first time this week, recording in person pods at events, and much more.
But I want to make Season 3 even better. I wrote up 8 ideas to help us improve in 2023.
You Don't Need to Sacrifice Developer Experience for Productivity: I firmly believe that high-performing engineering teams are highly-engaged, not heavily policed in a way that inhibits culture. Why and how? Read my blog to find out.
Snarky Twitter quotes: It’s always my snarky tweets that get quoted by the media 😂 such as this one about the audio mixup on Amazon’s Season 3 launch of their flagship Jack Ryan franchise. Reporters from Games Radar and Cinema Blend included it in their recaps of the audio syncing issues.
Doubling down on YouTube: One of the big focuses for the Dev Interrupted team in 2023 is going to be building our YouTube presence even further. We saw great success in 2022, going from a tiny 179-subscriber channel with just a few uploads to over 1,000 subs today and a 438% increase in watch time as of December 23rd.
As part of that effort, we’ve started to put out some YouTube exclusive content, such as my interview with Adeva CEO Katerina Trajchevska, covering everything from Twitter trolls to test-driven development and how to craft the perfect MVP.
Decentralizing the web on Flux: As part of the final edition of my Test Lab newsletter on Revue, I wrote about an upcoming Twitter Spaces I was co-hosting, discussing building decentralized infrastructure that could underpin the Web 3 movement—and why that decentralization movement matters to avoid single points of failure. We had a fantastic hour-long conversation that you can listen to here.
130k views and counting on DZone: Part of my role at LinearB involves writing about both our Dev Interrupted Podcast and the software engineering industry more broadly. I’ve had more than 130,000 views of my episode recaps and articles on DZone in the last year, and I just recently shared two new ones:
Treating Devs Like Human Beings: I was joined by three incredible engineering leaders for an empathetic look at the human element of software development
How to Train Devs to Disrupt Industries: Lessen’s CTO joins me on Dev Interrupted for a look at how to disrupt industries with developers through a phased approach
What’s up next?
I’ll be closing out 2022 and kicking off 2023 with a write-up of my approach to the next year, including:
Core beliefs I have about the future
Skills and habits I’m working to build
Some successes from 2022 and some failures
Resulting intentions for 2023
Happy holidays and talk to you in the new year,
Conor
PS - If you didn’t already, be sure to go back and vote in the poll at the start of this newsletter! I’d love your input on what to name it.