Justin Duke

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Presenting: a conversation with the creator and resident plate-spinning human behind Buttondown, Justin Duke.

In which: we discuss the past, present and future of Buttondown and, along the way, tackle tools v. ecosystems, longevity in the digital age, the art of spinning plates, breathing space, Super Mario Bros., and the reasons that I started my own newsletter.

Justin’s Bio:

Justin Duke is the creator and maintainer of Buttondown, a tool for building and growing newsletters. He spends his waking hours working at the payments company Stripe as an engineering manager; he spends his precious free time spoiling his corgi rotten, watching basketball, mixing cocktails for his fiancee, and playing video games.

Chapters

  • 00:00 - Introduction

  • 01:36 - "It's a relationship between a reader and an author..."

  • 04:15 - "I had the worst thought a engineer or developer could have: 'I'll bet I could build a better version of that myself in a weekend...''

  • 07:17 - "Building software can be the equivalent of having a hobby shop in your backyard..."

  • 09:42 - "When you build a Substack, you are building a Substack... it's a bit of a faustian bargain..."

  • 13:20 - "The philosophy I like... is actually from (Super Mario Bros)..."

  • 19:09 - "What made YOU start a newsletter?"

  • 26:27 - "Longevity is so chronically under-discussed when it comes to software..." / a 15-year mystery solved

  • 32:20 - "The web that I fell in love with... was this thing that felt Wild Western in a wildly constructive way..."

  • 37:32 - "I started building Buttondown in a completely different phase of my life – I didn't have all the accoutrements and beautiful burdens that I have today..."

  • 43:15 - "I always end up defaulting to playing my Switch..."

  • 48:30 - Connect / "I love getting emails from strangers..."

  • 49:13 - Outro / Why I started my own newsletter, take two / making porkchops

Linkage

  • You can connect with Justin via his website, arcana.computer, on Twitter, and via email: me(AT)jmduke(DOT)com; here is his cool dog.

  • If you are considering starting your own newsletter, Justin's creation, Buttondown has – for what it's worth – my full endorsement.

  • He also works with aspiring technologists who have been marginalized by conviction via Unloop.

Theme music, "Intersections," by Uziel Colón. All rights reserved.

Keep up with my latest conversations (with others) via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast delivery system; earlier episodes live here.