A Note on Sustainability and Access

Keeping the tent open, the light on, and the work honest

Photo by Becky Phan on Unsplash

I’ve been putting a lot more time and heart into my writing here at Notes From The Circus. Producing what I’m doing now—these long essays that blend philosophy, analytical rigor, and cultural commentary into something coherent and humane—takes work. A lot of it.

Even with modern tools—dictation, research software, and AI productivity aids—this project demands deep reading, long stretches of thought, and daily immersion in the cultural and political noise I’m trying to make sense of. It means absorbing vast amounts of information and distilling it into something that helps people think more clearly, feel more deeply, and hold onto their humanity amid the noise.

That’s easily 8–10 hours a day of sustained intellectual labor. But more than that, it’s a moral commitment—to resist the flattening forces of the algorithmic world and to build something that serves understanding, not engagement metrics.

I believe deeply that philosophy should be public—that thinking well together is a civic service. But I also believe serious work deserves to be sustainable. So as I refine this project, I’ll be putting more of my long-form work behind the paywall.

Not all of it. The vast majority of what I publish here will remain free—especially the shorter pieces that respond to real-time events and cultural shifts as they unfold.

But pieces like The Wire Still Holds and The Sociopaths Are Shocked That Most People Aren’t Sociopaths take days of research, reading, and reflection to produce. They represent the deeper current of what I’m trying to build here: a space for serious, accessible public philosophy that treats readers as partners in thought rather than consumers of content.

Paid subscriptions make this possible. They ensure that I can continue producing essays that aren’t driven by clicks or corporate incentives, but by the search for coherence and meaning in public life. They’re not a tip jar—they’re a shared investment in the kind of thoughtful public writing we desperately need more of.

If you’ve been finding value in what I’m doing here—if these essays have helped you think differently, or even just feel a bit less alone in a collapsing information world—I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. I want that support to feel worth it—to reward both the effort it takes to create this work and the trust you place in it.

That said, if you genuinely can’t afford a subscription, please reach out. These are difficult times, and I’d rather comp your access than see the work limited by economics. This project only matters if it remains a living conversation—open, honest, and human.

The Circus is still open to everyone. But the tent only stays up if enough of us believe it’s worth holding.