I would rather die than ask you to like and subscribe

People with self-effacing communication styles will flounder, and probably die out, in the creator economy—and the digital age more broadly.

Last month, I read something that charmed and delighted me. Justin Smith-Ruiu, one of my favourite writers, has a forthcoming book about psychedelics, and in a recent dispatch from his newsletter, The Hinternet, he tried and failed to drum up a sales pitch:

I recall years ago hearing an interview with Tracy Chapman where she recounted that early in her career her promoters were pressuring her to pump up her crowd by shouting things like “Are you guys ready to rock?!” between songs. And she replied with quiet dignity: “I just don’t do things like that.” I feel I may have to say something similar in response to the usual expectations placed upon a trade-book author these days to be out there perpetually pumping, with a strange sort of monotone glee, the greatness of their own work and the urgency of your helping to move it up the bestseller list. I just don’t think I have that in me.

I felt an immediate kinship with both Smith-Ruiu and Chapman upon reading this, thrilled to witness their …