Going Paid Now, But You Can Still Read for Free

Knowledge is free. The expensive thing is…

I know what you’re thinking:

“Wait, what content do you even have? You only write once a week. Is that really worth paying for?”

Totally fair. I agree with you, honestly.

I've seen big-name tech newsletters—some with over 100,000 subscribers—never turn on subscriptions. And when they do mention going paid? The comments roll in:

"If you put up a paywall, I’m out. There’s so much free content these days—I don’t need to pay to get the same quality elsewhere."

And again, I agree.

In the age of AI, you can learn literally anything—for free. Knowledge, as a commodity, is rapidly approaching zero cost. AI has made sure of that. You want deep insights on a niche topic? AI’s got your back. You want tutorials? Code snippets? A full-stack course? Done.

But here's the thing:

The subtle craft of applying that knowledge? That’s not free.
Knowing when to use what.
How to navigate complexity.
How to cut through 20 AI-generated answers and just do the right thing.
How to make sense of it all and move forward.
That’s not easy.
That’s not commoditized.

That’s human.

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So… What Am I Even Offering?

I’ve decided to enable paid subscriptions.
But: I’m not putting a paywall on my past articles.

So what’s behind the paywall?

Let me tell you a story.

A friend of mine asked for advice while building an app. I instinctively thought, “Why not just ask AI? It’s more knowledgeable than I am.” I mean, I ask AI for help every day.

But her answer hit me like a ton of bricks:

“I don’t know what to ask.”
“AI gives me too many answers, I don’t know which ones to trust.”
“It worked at first… then it didn’t. I didn’t know what to do next.”

That made me realize something.

This is exactly why non-tech folks I talk to often get stuck after their first AI “wow” moment. And my tech friends? They often don’t use AI at all—because it doesn’t immediately multiply their productivity. They expect magic or nothing.

Even my boss reacts with surprise when I show what I’ve done with AI:

“How did you even think to do that?”
“Wait, you just... prompted it like that?”

He asks for demos. He wants to see it live. And that’s when I realized—

This is what I can offer.
This is what’s missing.

The real-time feedback.
The sensemaking.
The show-don’t-tell.
The “how” behind the “what.”

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For Paid Members

If you’ve followed me for a while, chances are you discovered me through one of two tools I built:

• Quick Viral Notes (QVN)

• Substack Explorer

With a paid subscription, here’s what you’ll get:

• 30 credits/month to use QVN (that’s up to 540 curated notes, your pick)

• Full access to Substack Explorer – including rankings, niche tracking, and analytics

• Monthly recorded walkthroughs on how to make the most of both tools

And if no one has burning questions that month?
I'll take you behind the scenes of some mind-blowing AI builds that had me going “wait, what?!” when I tried them.

These are not tutorials you’ll find in a generic blog post.
They’re real, personal, and practical.
And they might just change how you think about AI + building.

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Thanks for reading, as always.
Whether you go paid or not, I’m grateful you’re here.
Because the one thing more valuable than knowledge, is people who want to do something with it.

Stay curious,

Jenny