You know that expression about “heating for the birds”, when your heating system is working at maximum capacity but the windows are open, for instance, so that the produced heating quickly disappears out in the open.

On Substack, there are many writers working at maximum capacity – creating wonderful texts that are readable, insightful, and definitely worth a visit – but nobody reads them.

I sometimes wonder how it is possible, because all articles are being announced by emails to the subscribers, also on commercials at the top of Notes, and the writer may even share the article through Notes or on other platforms. On top of that, Google actually does index articles from Substack, so it should be likely, one would say, that they will be found when people do Goggle searches.

But despite all of these openings, the writers often end up with “writing for the birds”.

To help promote some of these unread articles, I have searched and found some that I like, which didn’t have any or many likes when I found them – and which I would be happy to recommend reading.

Please look at them, enjoy them, and give them (and their writers) some love with likes, comments, etc., which is the fuel that keeps this machine going for many writers.

A society out of balance

I will immodestly start with one of my own articles, that has gained no traction at all. It tells about some drive forces behind the election of a fascist as the president of a nation that would otherwise be seen as doing well – because of a lacking balance, a difference between people that has grown too big.

Turning Life by Inidox

MAGA, Neo-Nazism and Friends

With the repeated election of a man with extremist opinions as the president of the USA, most Americans have become aware of one way in which their society has changed…

Read more

a year ago · Jorgen Winther

Fitting in – norms of the society

it is not easy to fit in, but sometimes there are circumstances that are outside our immediate control but where we feel that we are expected by the surroundings to have that control anyway. It leads to many thoughts and adjustments on our plans and behavior. And a great story!

Stories - A Journey To Self, Peace & Love

Not Lonely, Just Alone

Image: Arranging Summer Blooms, Delphin Enjolras…

Read more

3 years ago · 6 likes · 3 comments · Stephanie Clemons

The unique beauty of aging

“New and sterile” is a phrase from this article. Somehow, beauty grows out of the lifetime of things (and humans too?), making them become unique and therefore more interesting than the new. This is a photo-story, displaying quite a lot of not only aged beauty but also interesting color contrasts and historical glimpses, hints to the development of the world.

Lens of Perception

Finding Beauty Where Others See Ruins

This article was originally published on Medium, where it gained significant traction and was featured as a member-only story. I'm excited to share it here on Substack and continue the journey of exploring unconventional beauty with you…

Read more

2 years ago · 4 likes · Davor Katusic

The beginning of a dream

People have dreams, and often they keep dreaming for years, or all life, even. Dreams are what makes us keep going when reality looks a bit misty or rough, when we lose confidence or the trust in our ability to develop enough to actually get anywhere. Dreams, however, start somewhere, and we often forget how that happened. Here is how!

Serial Writer

My first post

Well, here I am…

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a year ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Serial Writer

Archiving is boring? Nah…!

People often think about certain occupations as boring or without contact to real life, mostly as a result of prejudices and lack of knowledge. Archiving could possibly be the top scorer of such unqualified verdicts, but there are people out there with a story that tells otherwise. And with humor. At least one person, who wrote this article.

I should bring an advertisement/warning for some sexually related words in the article, plus some nerdy words as well.

Visual Liquid Mega Zine

Essay: That Time I Processed Archive Collections at a Republican Think Tank.

In light of my last essay…

Read more

a year ago · 2 likes · Tess McCarthy

Here is the second part of my reading list, open for everyone to follow. Each of the substacks on the list are regularly updated, so it makes sense to drop in now and then to see what’s new — or to read more of what is already there.

Personally, I try to get through every substack on the list every week, while still keeping an eye open for other articles to read and maybe more substacks to follow.

You can find the first part of the list here, describing more in detail what this is all about, plus mentioning some substacks to come, and some people to keep an eye on.

Please support the fellow writers behind the substacks with likes, comments, restacks, and subscriptions — if you feel for it. It will make them happy.

And please feel free to suggest more substacks or link to your own lists, in the comments.

The list, #2

There are some (both hard and soft) limitations on how much can be put in one article on Substack, so each part of the list will contain only a few references to substacks.

I try to avoid substacks that have only paid contents, even though some of them may contain a mix of paid and free. This, in order to make the list as useful as possible (I keep a list of my own for the paid subscriptions).

Also, I will seek to add a new list now and then, to get more weekly inspiration. When there are too many lists to go through in one week, I will simply pick and choose from them each week.

Here we go with the second bunch:

6. Journey Jots by

Travel publication by Gabrijela, who has visited a lot of places and made a lot of beautiful photos. Informative and dream-inspiring. Check also her other substack: FlashFacts.

A couple of examples:

My travel choices in 2024 (part 1) on Journey Dots

⚡Croatia: Birthplace of Nikola Tesla⚡ on FlashFacts

7. Hrot by

Language, translation, and literature. Adam is diving deep into some of the topics that are making up the ocean around my island.

An example: Azores — The Chronicles

8. Business Witch Academy by

Business coaching by storytelling. An interesting and entertaining concept that deserves a closer study.

An example: Mountain Mud Pepper Pie: My Baking Adventure with Ophelia

9. Life Lessons by

Very special style – like a long list of memes, but ordered into meaningful blocks of advice. I like it!

An example: Make Your Next Moves In Silence...!

10. Doublethink by and

Thoughts with a drawing. Short texts illustrating a thought, and a matching cartoon. Good for a moment of disruptive thinking.

An example: How to Stand Out

11. Work Chronicles by

Funny and thoughtful cartoons, mostly about work life.

An example: (comic) Creative Problem Solving

12. P.Q. Rubin / Prompting Culture by

Articles about tech and AI, also about crafting AI output. Interesting read for an AI-skeptical AI expert like me :)

An example: Should we let AI do the writing?

13. Stories - A Journey To Self, Peace & Love by

Stories from a life – by a person in the process of discovering herself.

An example: When I Grow Up...

14. The Honest Broker by

This substack has 200,000 subscribers! I just want to see what it takes to become that popular. Besides, I have a book with exactly that painting of Anna Akhmatova on the cover… The site is a mix of different kinds of texts around music, books, and culture.

An example: The Parable of Anna Akhmatova

15. The Lemon Tree Mindset 🌳🍋 by

Veronica is a nice person and dedicated to be successful. She works hard for it and is careful with details and quality. Such an amazing person I cannot measure up against, but I can admire her skills and progression and keep an eye on how everything develops for her. She is heading for the stars.

I have read some of her books, they are well written, and her posts here are equally nice. They are about moving from problem to solution and further on towards success.

An example: 18 Ways To Write Engaging Notes on Substack (And Prove You Are Not A Bot)

One of the main attractions of a platform like Substack is that it is full of inspirational writing. There are more than 20 million accounts, and I suppose that most of these correspond to a person writing something regularly — over the years, this means many millions of articles, of all kinds.

Millions of sources

Think about this, the next time you feel a bit out of inspiration, don’t know what to write about, or how you can put this in a more interesting way. The examples are right there, next to you — a few clicks with the mouse or taps with a finger, and you are reading something that was written by a person like you.

Or maybe you just want to read for the pleasure of reading, but cannot immediately think of what you should read — you need a hint, maybe to something you once saw and liked, but cannot find again.

But here comes the problem: you can, of course, subscribe to interesting substacks, and you can bookmark them in your web browser, maybe take advantage of advanced bookmarking plugins such as OneTab or Readwise, and it will all help you.

To me, however, these tools never really fit my way of working and thinking — I get too much collected, and there may be no way of describing it, so that I forget what each of the links is about; why I kept it. And then the collection of links becomes rather useless in reality.

My solution from now on is this post!

Here, I will list some of the substacks I bump into, that I find the most inspiring, and which I want to get back to regularly: to see what is new, or to read more from the back-catalog.

I expect to look at each of these substacks approx. once per week.

There is no possibility to mark what I have read already, so I just have to remember it, but to help me with that, I want to make sure that I give hearts and comments on everything I read, and restack as well, whenever I feel for it. Clever, isn’t it? ;)

All such interactions will make the writer happy, so this way I get happy for reading, the writer gets happy for my response, and then we are both happy.

And that’s really the point, or one of them.

Of course, I will continue to be forever on the outlook for additional interesting substacks, and possibly list those as well.

All the good reasons

Let me try to summarize all the good that comes out of such a list and corresponding interaction:

1. You’ll remember the good places and have an easy way to finding them again.

2. You’ll be equipped with a tool that can provide you with some inspiration whenever you need it, both for topics to write about, and ways of writing.

3. You’ll get into a habit, or you have a good chance for it, to read regularly, instead of just writing your own things or, even worse, doomscrolling the millions of bits of nonsense that most social media are full of.

4. You’ll make every single one of the writers you interact with happy.

5. Other Substackians will see that you exist and may visit your publication, maybe even subscribe to it or follow you.

6. You’ll be actively strengthening the community and help others feeling welcome and appreciated.

I can see nothing negative! Nothing at all. There is no backside of this medal.

As I will possibly find more good publications on Substack than I can fit into one list, if it should be manageable, I have prepared for future lists by adding a number and the month to the post name — with more lists, I can then decide which of them to follow in any given week.

Oh, and it should be understood by now that I cannot know about or study all the millions of substacks in existence, and even just remember all of those I have seen and found great, so a lot will be missing, and those mentioned will be in no particular order.

For you

You are welcome to use the list, if it makes sense to you. Also, you are welcome to suggest more substacks and people to put on future lists. If you decide to do something similar (or perhaps already have done so), feel free to tell about your list, with a link, in the comments — then other readers can find them.

If you check out and happen to like any of the writers and substacks in this list, please consider subscribing and following them. Also, read their articles and click on like, comment, and restack.

Such things can seem superficial and without any real value, but for the writer, they are proof that their words have hit something, touched someone, which they cannot know otherwise. Like a kiss is better than hidden admiration ;)

Some additional thoughts

Substack is a big universe, but outside of it, in every corner of the big Internet, there are even more sources of inspiration. So, I will probably make one or more lists (later) with links that can be anywhere outside Substack.

The list

Each substack is mentioned with its name in clickable form, and with a short text to describe it.

Also, for each substack, I have linked to one or more articles that I found interesting, to have some examples to start with.

Remember that this is not an exhaustive list. I am just not very good at remembering where to find all the good stories I read, so I’ll have to write down a link to them in this and the coming lists, and this will happen along the way.

Besides, Substack limits the length of posts, so I would in any case have to split the list.

Here we go with the first bunch:

1. Better Writers by

Short articles with topics interesting for writers. Quick and interesting reads.

An example: Useful Links for Writers

2. Multilingual Writers by

Half is inspirational articles by Coach Phil, mostly about writing and being a writer, and the other half is articles by the members of the Multilingual Writers Community, just as inspirational, and with a wider scope. I am myself one of them.

Two examples:

Sonic Writing: Do Your Words Sing Sweet Music or Hit The Wrong Note? by

Feedback on Your Writing Hurts Bad – But Here’s How You Can Change That by

3. Lens Chronicles by

Davor is a gifted photographer and a great storyteller. He combines the two with a main focus on photos here, and on stories at his other substack: Thoughtful Corner.

An example from each:

Do We Really Need to Play the Game of Winning and Losing? from Thoughtful Corner

The Charm of Paris Through the Lens of a Street Photographer from Lens Chronicles

4. The Additional f-Stop by

An artist with a philosophical strain, showing her photos and telling stories about life, this way connecting the art with the artist and person.

A couple of examples:

Does Your Work Really Exist?

You Have a Voice

5. Philosophy and Beyond by

Many highly qualified and inspirational articles for people interested in philosophy. Romaric describes philosophy, philosophers, and the connection with society, and it all triggers my wish to examine the full scope of the human mind.

Besides, as a positive addition, the site is full of colorful pictures.

Some examples:

Andrew Robinson: An Existentialist on Substack

There Are No Old Books to Read

Up-coming substacks

People I know as great writers have substacks without (yet) writing to them, so I want to keep an eye on them to read what appears, when it happens.

1. Sameer’s Substack by

Sameer already wrote articles for Turning Life and Multilingual Writers:

AI and Human Disconnect for Turning Life

Why “It Depends” is the Best Answer to Most Questions for Multilingual Writers

Writing Books That Are Hard to Review for Multilingual Writers

2. Dana’s Substack by

Dana already wrote for Multilingual Writers:

Feedback on Your Writing Hurts Bad – But Here’s How You Can Change That

3. Pilar’s Substack by

As far as I know, Pilar hasn’t written on Substack yet, but she did publish some pieces on Medium.

People

These are on Substack, have great writing skills, but have no substacks of their own, so far — I am looking forward to the day they will make one:

I am sure that many more people I know as good writers are here, so I will add to all of these lists when I notice their profiles or substacks.