A Brief Biannual Update on the Publication You Are Reading

How Things Work.

Chomp chomp.

How Things Work began publishing on May 1, 2023. Today is our two-and-a-half year anniversary. A quarter of a decade! Today I will write one of our twice-a-year updates, looking back at where we’ve been, and ahead to where we’re going. If you’re interested, read on.

A Note to You

As I have mentioned before, the experience of publishing my own site—as opposed to working in a newsroom—has inculcated in me a new appreciation for you, the people who read it. At a traditional publication, I was more concerned with walling myself off from what subscribers were saying, so that I could focus on what I was doing. Here, I see very directly how the attention and financial support of all of you is the only thing that enables me to do this work at all. I get an email alerting me to every new paid subscriber, and I read every message. It’s pretty damn heartwarming.(Sometimes the messages tell me I’m an idiot, but that’s okay. Wouldn’t feel right otherwise.)

From me to you, sincerely: Thank you for reading, for subscribing, for sharing this work, and for chipping in to make this place a sustainable publication. I appreciate you.

Our Five Most Popular Posts of the Past Half Year

1. You’re a Bunch of Cowards!
   We’re all laughing at you.

2. The Subway Is Not Scary
   Fear of the subway is a mark of low moral character.

3. Getting Yelled at By Dumbasses
   The defining experience of fascism.

4. All the Things You Need a Billion Dollars to Buy Are Bad
   One way to think about inequality.

5. When Do You Need to Quit Your Job?
   How is “changing things from within” going for you?

The Future

Well next I’m planning to be arrested for sedition. Ha ha ha. But seriously, folks. I’m proud to say that How Things Work has achieved the first benchmark that I set when I started this site, which is “bringing in enough that I can do it like a job and not feel like that is stupid.” That is, for lack of a better word, sustainability. With your help, we are there, and with your help we will get bigger and better.

Any publication like this is a balance between “writing about what is happening right this minute” and “going out in the world and writing about new things.” This year, I’m happy that I’ve been able to add more reporting into the mix here, going to Texas to write about Americana and going to Indiana to write about Bernie Sanders and Eugene Debs and going to DC a number of times to write about the grotesque things that our dear leaders and their patsy enablers there are doing. I’ve also been able to do some reporting in the streets of NYC and cover Zohran’s campaign and to interview some interesting people about interesting things.

I’m also still writing about the labor movement, and how they are (or are not) managing to rally themselves for the political moment we’re in. And racism, climate change, media, economics, and, unfortunately, fascism. Lotta fascism these days.

My aspiration is to continue to increase the amount of reporting in the mix here—to be able to go out into more places in America and write about more things firsthand. One consequence of our ongoing political insanity is that it tends to overshadow all of the other important stories, which were happening before Trump and are still happening under Trump but which receive less attention because of our (understandable) collective fascination with the chaos of Trump. Trying to strike the right balance on all of this is a constant negotiation inside of my own mind. I do know, however, that there are important things happening all over this country, and I want to go write about them as much as I can.

Supporting How Things Work

Unlike most of my peer publications, How Things Work has never had a paywall. For better or worse, we have operated from day one on the theory that if we make the publication good, readers will pay to support it. To be completely honest, this is not “rational” or “profit maximizing” from a business point of view. But it has worked so far, and it can continue to work, with your help.

Like you, I read a lot of things on the internet that I do not pay for—not because I don’t want to pay for it, but just because it is easy not to fool with paying for it in the moment. So I get it. If you want to read this site for free, I don’t judge. Most of my readers do not pay. In fact, not having a paywall is a deliberate decision by me that I value wider readership over making the most amount of money possible. On top of that, I think it is a positive good to keep as many publications as we can paywall-free, so that information does not become a luxury good unavailable to lower income people.

Keeping this place sustainable in that context requires that I constantly ask you all to support us financially. I try to keep these appeals as unobtrusive as possible. Since this is one of my semi-annual updates, let me explicitly say how you can help How Things Work survive and thrive. I find that there are a lot of people who fall into the category of, “I like to read the site, and I even like the idea of paying to support you in the abstract, but I just haven’t gotten around to it because I’m busy, man! I have kids! I have a demanding dog and a fantasy football team!” Understandable. Updates like today’s are useful opportunities to finally chip in, if you’ve ever thought about doing so.

The most helpful thing you can do is to become a paid subscriber. It’s six bucks a month or $60 for the full year, with an option to pay more if you are feeling especially generous.

You can also donate to our reporting fund, to support the expenses of the reporting that I have done and plan to do going forward.

Perhaps you have a friend that you urgently feel is in need of further radicalization, into some sort union-loving socialists who says “fuck” a lot. You can give them a gift subscription.

You can buy my book about the labor movement, “The Hammer,” from an independent book store.

You can buy a How Things Work t-shirt, which looks pretty fucking cool. (I plan to roll out some more merch when I get a chance.)

Finally, you can share this site with your family and friends and anyone else you think might be interested. Publications like mine do not advertise. We grow primarily through sharing on social media and word of mouth. More readers are welcome, always.

In Conclusion

If you ever think to yourself, “it’s kind of absurd that ten or 20 years ago we could just read newspapers and magazines and Gawker.com and it was nice and easy, and now that has all been smashed up by tech billionaires and all the writers have to constantly prod you to support their work,” let me tell you something—the writers agree with you, my friends. Nevertheless, we do what we must to keep on writing and living and paying the bills. The alternative is worse. I hope that you all do not grow too weary of our fractured media and miserable politics and daunting class war. I hope you all stick with me here. Big things are built by getting up and doing a little work every day. Or, most days.

Thank you for reading How Things Work. Here’s to the next quarter decade.

- Hamilton

WE EAT FASCISTS.