Letters by Burk #141: We Don't Need More Creators

Also, important jobs, Substack organization, insulin, US states geography, and more

Burk

Sep 03, 2024

stop making stupid people famous signage — Photo by Brandi Alexandra on Unsplash

Hi friends,

You know, I am a content creator. And have been for quite a while.

It’s a great job, a great way to make money with all the freedom attached to it.

That being said, I believe we don’t need more content creators. At least not in the numbers we’re seeing right now.

First, we can only create so much (that’s new). Most content is already just reimagined content that already exists.

But secondly and much more importantly, we require more people doing the important jobs and those jobs to be paid like they're important!

Jobs like:

Teachers
Nurses
Daycare
Police
Firefighters
Doctors

and so many more.

Without those jobs, not much would be going on in our society. We’d all be in big trouble without those and many more critical jobs.

Kids these days want to become YouTubers, influencers, or athletes. And I don’t blame them. It’s flashy and a lot of money can be made. But we should do our best to make those aforementioned essential jobs more appealing. With money. Mostly through money.

It’s sad that teachers or nurses have to take second or third jobs to make ends meet while a person like Justin Welsh (really no offense to him, he’s a nice dude) makes millions by sending a short weekly newsletter (alongside some other projects, of course).

My wife just opened a daycare for children. And it’s heartwarming to see the effect. My parents are both teachers. In Germany, where I live, teachers are actually treated somewhat nicely in terms of salary and status, for now. Daycare too. Around the world, not so much.

There are many things more important than a newsletter. I do love mine, but I have to acknowledge that.

What do you say?

Fitting quote:

Summer sale → everything 50% OFF

You get everything in my Gumroad store 50% off right now. Head over here and sing up to get everything 50% off ↓

50% off

#1 Main Story:

Yes, I am still a content creator.

4 Ways to Organize Your Substack Content

So, you’ve got a Substack publications, loads of ideas, an existing story catalog in place, and all the best intentions to create a unique, appealing, and successful Substack newsletters.

But how are you going to organize your writing? What about different topics or niches, different pages, sections, and more?

Let’s see what Substack offers in terms of organizational structure for your posts and issues.

1. Starting with Sections

Segmenting Content for Targeted Delivery

Sections on Substack are a robust tool that allows you to segment your content into different categories, effectively creating sub-newsletters within your main publication.

Read the rest

#2 Off Topic:

A Century of Insulin

Imagine being told you had a year to live, tops.

That was the reality for diabetics before 1921.

Diabetes was a death sentence, plain and simple. Kids would waste away while their families watched helplessly. The only “treatment” was basically starving yourself, which bought you a bit more time but made life miserable.

Then came insulin, and everything changed.

The beginning

The insulin story kicks off with a bunch of doctors and scientists poking around in animal guts (quite literally), trying to figure out why diabetics couldn’t process sugar.

They knew the pancreas was involved somehow, but they couldn’t nail down exactly what was going on.

Enter Frederick Banting, a young Canadian doctor with more guts than experience.

Read the rest