Commenting.
It’s a double-edged sword that can be both incredibly meaningful and endlessly ineffective.
On the one hand, it enables me to cultivate a certain amount of adaptability and reactivity to what I read. There are a handful of people that I consistently wish to engage with regularly, and on every platform, I find at least three or four that just grab my attention and inspire me to share my thoughts.
When that happens, I can write a mini article based purely on my divergent thinking as I swing from one thought to the next like Spiderman on a caffeine binge.
It’s a great way to “earn your keep” as a reader. There are a few times where I’ve even earned a subscriber or two when I least expected it.
On the other hand, it also can take up an inordinate amount of time that might be better used to focus on writing, creating, and digging deeper into topics that lead to more insights. In the past, I’ve found myself reading article after article and engaging with others at a rapid clip, allowing my mind to travel in abandon like a kid locked into the candy shop after hours. No supervision. No limits.
For a person who has children, a 9-5, and several community obligations, the time spent on reading and writing is very limited.
What is the ratio that you choose for this when your time is limited?
It depends…
As with many other aspects of life, this comes down to quality and quantity.
Yep, that old chestnut.
I mostly keep it light when it comes to Notes. You can’t write an encyclopedia on something that would feel at home on the TwiX app. Or if you do, it definitely comes across as desperate, and there’s not a whole lot of patience when it comes to scrolling through reams of text, even on Substack.
So yeah, if I feel something that pops into my head is appropriate and can be fired back with a distillation of what I’m thinking, I’ll throw it up there and hope that it brings a smile to the person or gives them something else to think about and maybe expand on.
That’s the point of commenting, right? To add to the conversation.
I do my best to keep to the improv rule of “yes and…”
If I disagree with something that I see, I tend to just skip it and move on. You don’t need to throw rocks into high-speed traffic. It’s not nice, and it’s not safe (for either party).
One of the coolest things about engaging Notes is that if you do it without an agenda, everyone can benefit from the interaction that results. New angles of discussion, unique takes and with different perspectives, flipping the narrative on its head, these are just some of the things that can happen. Toxicity is at a minimum in the section of Substack that I inhabit so it’s there’s plenty of room for this to take place.
When it comes to articles, I absolutely love writing longer responses to address everything that resonates with me. I find the challenge for myself is to take it all in like a podcast and attempt to thread all the points into a cohesive topic of some sort. It’s like taking the light that you allowed to penetrate through your being and splitting it into a kaleidoscope of colors, picking and choosing and highlighting different hues through your worldview, your values, and your beliefs.
Regardless of whether or not the author manages to read it (and I tend to do this for the bigger fish out here), it’s a meaningful interaction for me because other commenters can also get in on the action.
The limiting thing for me right now is the reluctance I have towards taking these longer comments and further expanding them into another article. For some reason, it feels like stolen valor to do so. Those of you whose articles I’ve done this for, feel free to comment below on whether this is accurate or not.
Drawing inspiration from a variety of writing styles is the fun part about this whole endeavor. It’s like learning to dance. You've got your signature style and movements, and the more partners you find, the more tricks and variations you come across, and the more ideas you have and are influenced by.
When you put it that way, using AI to write is kinda like using a gaming console to bust a move.
This how I see the “art” of commenting. Across all the social media platforms that I’ve been on, I can say that Substack is the one that I’ve had a pretty good experience with so far.
Twitter was where I really cut my teeth on because I didn’t know anything about real engagement.
On Medium, it felt like I had only long comments were the ones that were worth doing (and I still love doing it there occasionally).
Here on Substack, it’s the best of both worlds.
The added bonus is that the ulterior motive for engagement (making money in all its various forms) is nearly as rampant or nakedly apparent as it was in the other two. Maybe that’s changing now, but I personally haven’t felt inundated with DMs trying to pry my wallet open.
Anyway, the social aspect of being here is one of the fun ways to meet people across the world. If nothing else, it’s a way to keep my mind sharp for when I have more time to write longer pieces like this one. I don’t feel like there’s any one way that is “right” when it comes to engagement.
Just be yourself.
What’s your journey here felt like?
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