Happy New Year
A brief state of the 'stack
Dear readers,
Happy New Year to you all! I’m using the first post of 2026 to take a brief inventory — and to warmly thank you for discovering this blog/newsletter, for following it (in some cases for a long time), and for supporting it through likes, article shares, or even paid subscriptions.
In 2025, 52 articles were published: 24 LETTERS = essays, 24 POSTCARDS with annotated recommendations, and four posts called REGISTERED MAIL for paying subscribers only. Additionally, a guest post appeared in The Republic of Letters.
After I was appointed Full Professor at the Berlin University of the Arts in April and have been leading the Institute for the Theory and Practice of Communication there since October, it hasn’t been easy to maintain my usual publishing pace despite the new commitments. Regrettably, I had to neglect the conversations on the platform that take place in the comments and in Notes.
With everything hopefully settling down in the new year, I intend to take a more active part in the debates again and, at least in the medium term, experiment with more idiosyncratic formats. As a scholar prone to systematic thinking, I all too often forget what a wonderful playground the web is—a place to renew form.
Broadly speaking, I think the rise of AI chatbots substituting for search engines and the spread of slop are amplifying the longing for real human encounters and distinct individual voices. It’s exciting to not just observe from the outside but explore as a participant the emergence of a new culture economy, which is to a considerable extent playing out on Substack – and to do so in three roles at once: as an author trying to gain a foothold in the digital creator’s market, as a contributor to refreshingly open international conversations, and as a reader uncovering exiting new voices on the platform. This moment might only last a short while before the next enshittification kicks in — all the more reason to make the most of it.
I appreciate your support. Considered feedback is welcome anytime. Just hit reply or dm me in the app.
All the best for 2026!
—Dirk
Thanks, Dirk. May our 2026 be shaped by radical and realistic optimism that sees clearly, leads boldly, and lifts everyone it touches. We have the power to make our future, and may joy rise from that optimism to bring us to moments where we can smile and say, “Yes, this is what better looks like.”