Happy 2nd Birthday to Small Potatoes

“At two years, children are caught between babyhood and childhood. They are driven by the excitement of their new skills, the intensity of their emerging will, and the frustration of still being dependent. The challenge for parents is to guide this stormy passage with both firmness and understanding.”

T. Berry Brazelton’s Touchpoints: Your Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Development

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This is the two-year birthday of Small Potatoes. I couldn’t be happier about how it’s been going.¹ My first post began with this.

I’m starting this Substack because of a personal failure. A writing project that I had been counting on fell through suddenly and unpleasantly. I was complaining to a friend (hi, Azim!) and he suggested that I do something entirely new with my writing. I should start a Substack. And I thought: Huh. Worth a shot.

It does seem like fun to have a place to just write and get feedback on my ideas, without editors and other gatekeepers. A while ago, I read Erik Hoel’s piece on the joys of Substack writing and though I’m more pro-editor than he is—I’ve had some wonderful editors, especially at The New Yorker and The Atlantic, who have made my essays much better—he made a convincing case for the value of this less constrained sort of writing. So here we go.

Since August of 2023, I’ve had a new post every week. I now have over 19,000 free subscribers, and have enough paid subscribers to be a Substack Bestseller—they sent me a sticker!

Most of all, I’ve been having tons of fun. Writing is how I think, and I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to think about all sorts of things. I also learned a lot from the discussions in the comments sections, getting emails from subscribers, and being invited to discuss my posts on podcasts like Econtalk. Once I added a paid tier, I gained the bonus of regular meetings with subscribers over Zoom “office hours”—also fun and engaging.

If you are tempted to buy Small Potatoes a birthday present, can I recommend a paid subscription? You get posts that are just for paid subscribers, and you get access to my subscriber-only conversations with Robert Wright on NonZero and all other pay-walled podcasts (such as one I had with Sam Harris last month) and, of course, the Zoom office hours. (I’m about to announce one for later this week, so if you subscribe, I can see you there.)

Click the giant link below for a special Birthday Offer, which is good until the end of August. (You can also click on it to sign up for a free subscription.)

GET 30% OFF FOR ONE YEAR

To get a feeling for what Small Potatoes is all about, here are some of my favorite posts from last year.

Do children improve your life? Do parents regret having children?
Six ways I use AI when writing
Progressives should worry more about their favorite scientific findings

Would you still love me if I were a worm? (for paid subscribers)
What doesn’t kill you (for paid subscribers)
The hour edit: Turning bad writing into ok writing when you're pressed for time (for paid subscribers)

And here are some in-progress posts that I’m now working on and will likely release in the next couple of months.

• Against “Against Empathy” (what I feel I got wrong)

• Some non-obvious advice for graduate students

• Why aren’t psychologists more useful?

• Jerry Fodor’s advice on being interdisciplinary

• The case against viewpoint diversity

• Is it good to be famous?

• When should a shoulder rub end?

So, happy birthday to Small Potatoes and huge thanks to everyone reading this for their support and engagement.

1. Why in the world is it called Small Potatoes? I tell the story here.