Trying Substack

Where thinking out loud is allowed

I’ve been circling the idea of writing on Substack for a while now. Not because I needed another platform, but because I’ve been looking for a place that can hold the parts of me that don’t fit neatly anywhere else.

After twenty years of farming, writing, working, learning, and collecting odd interests like stray animals — plus more online tools and misbehaving hobbies than I can remember — I’ve realised I’m not built for a single lane.

Some days it’s chicken psychology; other days it’s Pablo, my fictional bureaucrat from a parallel universe, or the psychological thriller I swear will be my pièce de résistance.

And then there are the days I’m writing fairy stories for kids, because of course I am.

I’ve never been just one thing, and I’m not interested in pretending otherwise.

I’m not here because I’ve worked anything out.

I’m here because I want a place that can hold uncertainty, contradiction, learning, and thinking in public — without forcing me to pretend I’m only one thing, or that I know where this ends.

If this becomes a record of thinking, practice, and the courage to keep going while not knowing yet, that feels like enough.

Medium felt freeing at first — all I had to do was put in a title and start writing.

I could write about anything.

But over time, it started to feel like I had to pick a lane and stick to it, and I began to feel confined, like a bull in a pen. I still write there, but it’s for a different reason.

I enjoyed seeing people follow and comment, but it sometimes still felt distant. I was also a bit disappointed that no one seemed interested in my Pablo Verse humor — the little quirky “I don’t know what” I wrote just for fun. It’s like I’m just entertaining myself, and I’m the only one who gets my jokes.

“A crowd is a tribe without a leader,” as Seth Godin says — maybe I’m still finding mine. (He means a crowd drifts, but a tribe has connection, leadership, and care. I’m hoping to find that here.)

When I started a post on Medium, getting the words down felt good. But then my editing brain would kick in, and I’d spend far too much time trying to perfect things that didn’t need perfecting.

I started to feel judged — how many claps, how many reads, how many comments — and, honestly, I often felt alone.

Now that I’m trying out Substack, I want to see if I can make a home for my writing here. A lot of my writing is fast and furious, then slow or quirky. At times, my humor is wry, at other times serious or distant.

I like the idea of Notes because I can capture those weird thoughts that just happen without warning, without having to explain myself too much. I want to be able to contradict, comment, and just be me — at least, that’s what I hope I can do here.

Yes, I am after the small, thoughtful, and curious readers out there. Are you my tribe? Or will I be figuring this out solo for a while?