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I remember really liking lifehacker when it was basically a blog. I think the issue is that these sites don’t generate enough income for whole teams of editors

I remember really liking lifehacker when it was basically a blog. I think the issue is that these sites don’t generate enough income for whole teams of editors and to be bought by media companies like ZiffDavis. Maybe they are better now, that’s nice. But I think what works is a single person or maybe 3 finding life hacks and writing about them. I’m not even sure what lifehacker is supposed to write about now. But I think until they get back to someone’s passion project, they won’t be very good.

pbronez 4y ago
This is my dream for a strong social safety net, maybe up to a UBI. If you could actually provide for people’s basic needs by default, people would lean in to passion projects like these. I think these are some of the most wonderful parts of being human.
- AH4oFVbPT4f8 4y ago
  Mine as well, being able to give advice about personal finances, computers, providing mentorship. Lifehacker used to be one of my favorite websites, it's a shame what it has become.
  - Ensorceled 4y ago
    Let us say “had become” and give them a chance here.
    - AH4oFVbPT4f8 4y ago
      100%, i'm hoping it can reclaim its former glory
- JohnBooty 4y ago
  This is my dream for a strong social safety net, maybe up to a UBI Amen. Many, many artists in the UK have commented how they could not possibly have pursued a career in the arts without the safety net of the NHS (National Health Service)
  - version_five 4y ago
    Is there evidence the UK has a better arts scene, by any measure, than the US?
    - jwagenet 4y ago
      I’ve always felt the UK has an outsize contribution to music, especially in modern electronic/dance music, compared to the US.
      - TylerE 4y ago
        Arguably at least 3/5 of the greatest rock and roll hands of all time were British (Pick any of: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Queen, Pink Floyd, Tne Clash…) A very large percentage of the musicians in those bands were graduates of the “Art Schools” of the time, which were like STEM schools, just, well, art.
        dboreham 4y ago
        Except Queen, where three of the members have real degrees. <ducks>
        TylerE 4y ago
        The arts schools were more like high school/trade school hybrids.
        jwagenet 4y ago
        Yes absolutely. In my mind, the US has had a robust rock and pop history, but name an artist pre 2000 and a good chance they are from the UK. The US slays now with hip hop and r&b, but the UK has their own unique scenes like grime, which aren’t big in the states.
    - yusefnapora 4y ago
      How would you even measure that? Art is inherently subjective, and the “arts scene” even more so.
- PragmaticPulp 4y ago
  Even the most generous UBI proposals are basically a “don’t starve to death” level of income. Maybe fine for a 20 year old who is couch surfing and working on their blog for a while, but UBI isn’t a realistic solution to free everyone from the need to work. The idea of a UBI that provides a comfortable lifestyle for anyone who doesn’t want to work a normal job is just a pipe dream.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    But they could then supplement that income with their blog. Once the bare essentials are taken care off, you have more options with low paying passion projects
  - mumblemumble 4y ago
    I think there's room to assume a little more steel in the man you're responding to. The statement wasn't "UBI frees people from the need to work"; it was something more like "UBI might embolden people to pursue passion projects since they'd have reduced fear of financial ruin." The latter seems plausible to me. I have personally decided not to pursue a startup idea because I didn't want to take a ride on the venture capital pain train, and I also didn't want to drop my income all the way to zero and start burning through my savings in order to do it. UBI might have changed that calculus.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      Opposite opinion, why should society fund your startup idea and take the risk if you couldn’t convince investors to back your idea or you don’t have enough confidence in your own vision to take the risk with your own savings? Now I do believe in universal healthcare.
      - richk449 4y ago
        Who is saying that society should fund someone’s startup idea?
      - dfinninger 4y ago
JohnBooty 4y ago
I think the issue is that these sites don’t generate enough income for whole teams of editors Unfortunately the challenge isn't just "make enough enough money to pay the writers and keep the lights on." They have to do that, and then make enough additional money to keep the corporate overlords happy and interested. A great recent example is Defector Media, formed by the former staff of Deadspin (also of G/O media) who quit en masse and then formed their own employee-owned blog, Defector.com with minimal advertising and a direct reader supported revenue model. Direct reader support isn't the right model for every blog, but the larger lesson is that they were able to switch to a sustainable and spam-free format once they no longer had to pay the bills and generate some additional zillion dollars of revenue for their corporate masters. "The company has 19 employees, each of whom own approximately 5% of the company" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defector_Media Since their founding, they've offered annual financial updates and are doing well. https://defector.com/defector-annual-report-year-two They've got something like 40K annual subscribers paying $80+ for annual subscriptions and $3.6mil in revenue as of Aug 2022.
- EwanG 4y ago
  "Unfortunately the challenge isn't just "make enough enough money to pay the writers and keep the lights on." They have to do that, and then make enough additional money to keep the corporate overlords happy and interested." Which rather well describes what just happened to DPReview. One wonders if some of the community there might be able to do something like this...
  - suddenclarity 4y ago
    Does it? They host a ton of media content reached by most likely millions of page views with a full staff and little to no ads. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been running the site at a loss for most of its life.
nborwankar 4y ago
There may be an audience for “GPT Lifehacks”

pbronez 4y ago

This is my dream for a strong social safety net, maybe up to a UBI. If you could actually provide for people’s basic needs by default, people would lean in to passion projects like these. I think these are some of the most wonderful parts of being human.

AH4oFVbPT4f8 4y ago
Mine as well, being able to give advice about personal finances, computers, providing mentorship. Lifehacker used to be one of my favorite websites, it's a shame what it has become.
- Ensorceled 4y ago
  Let us say “had become” and give them a chance here.
  - AH4oFVbPT4f8 4y ago
    100%, i'm hoping it can reclaim its former glory
JohnBooty 4y ago
This is my dream for a strong social safety net, maybe up to a UBI Amen. Many, many artists in the UK have commented how they could not possibly have pursued a career in the arts without the safety net of the NHS (National Health Service)
- version_five 4y ago
  Is there evidence the UK has a better arts scene, by any measure, than the US?
  - jwagenet 4y ago
    I’ve always felt the UK has an outsize contribution to music, especially in modern electronic/dance music, compared to the US.
    - TylerE 4y ago
      Arguably at least 3/5 of the greatest rock and roll hands of all time were British (Pick any of: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Queen, Pink Floyd, Tne Clash…) A very large percentage of the musicians in those bands were graduates of the “Art Schools” of the time, which were like STEM schools, just, well, art.
      - dboreham 4y ago
        Except Queen, where three of the members have real degrees. <ducks>
        TylerE 4y ago
        The arts schools were more like high school/trade school hybrids.
      - jwagenet 4y ago
        Yes absolutely. In my mind, the US has had a robust rock and pop history, but name an artist pre 2000 and a good chance they are from the UK. The US slays now with hip hop and r&b, but the UK has their own unique scenes like grime, which aren’t big in the states.
  - yusefnapora 4y ago
    How would you even measure that? Art is inherently subjective, and the “arts scene” even more so.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
Even the most generous UBI proposals are basically a “don’t starve to death” level of income. Maybe fine for a 20 year old who is couch surfing and working on their blog for a while, but UBI isn’t a realistic solution to free everyone from the need to work. The idea of a UBI that provides a comfortable lifestyle for anyone who doesn’t want to work a normal job is just a pipe dream.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  But they could then supplement that income with their blog. Once the bare essentials are taken care off, you have more options with low paying passion projects
- mumblemumble 4y ago
  I think there's room to assume a little more steel in the man you're responding to. The statement wasn't "UBI frees people from the need to work"; it was something more like "UBI might embolden people to pursue passion projects since they'd have reduced fear of financial ruin." The latter seems plausible to me. I have personally decided not to pursue a startup idea because I didn't want to take a ride on the venture capital pain train, and I also didn't want to drop my income all the way to zero and start burning through my savings in order to do it. UBI might have changed that calculus.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    Opposite opinion, why should society fund your startup idea and take the risk if you couldn’t convince investors to back your idea or you don’t have enough confidence in your own vision to take the risk with your own savings? Now I do believe in universal healthcare.
    - richk449 4y ago
      Who is saying that society should fund someone’s startup idea?
    - dfinninger 4y ago

JohnBooty 4y ago

I think the issue is that these sites don’t generate enough income for whole teams of editors Unfortunately the challenge isn't just "make enough enough money to pay the writers and keep the lights on." They have to do that, and then make enough additional money to keep the corporate overlords happy and interested. A great recent example is Defector Media, formed by the former staff of Deadspin (also of G/O media) who quit en masse and then formed their own employee-owned blog, Defector.com with minimal advertising and a direct reader supported revenue model. Direct reader support isn't the right model for every blog, but the larger lesson is that they were able to switch to a sustainable and spam-free format once they no longer had to pay the bills and generate some additional zillion dollars of revenue for their corporate masters. "The company has 19 employees, each of whom own approximately 5% of the company" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defector_Media Since their founding, they've offered annual financial updates and are doing well. https://defector.com/defector-annual-report-year-two They've got something like 40K annual subscribers paying $80+ for annual subscriptions and $3.6mil in revenue as of Aug 2022.

EwanG 4y ago
"Unfortunately the challenge isn't just "make enough enough money to pay the writers and keep the lights on." They have to do that, and then make enough additional money to keep the corporate overlords happy and interested." Which rather well describes what just happened to DPReview. One wonders if some of the community there might be able to do something like this...
- suddenclarity 4y ago
  Does it? They host a ton of media content reached by most likely millions of page views with a full staff and little to no ads. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been running the site at a loss for most of its life.

nborwankar 4y ago

There may be an audience for “GPT Lifehacks”