Gergely Orosz writes the #1 technology newsletter at Substack, called The Pragmatic Engineer. He started his career as a software developer in the U.K., spent three years at Skype, and followed that role with four years as an engineering manager at Uber before deciding to leave big tech and work for himself. Gergely began pursuing his newsletter full-time in September 2021 and in just one year has amassed 200,000 subscribers. He now makes more money than he did at his salaried tech job, and with freedom and flexibility. In today’s podcast, Gergely shares why he left his well-paying job at Uber, how he got his first 1,000 subscribers, why this kind of work can be stressful and lonely (but ultimately rewarding), and why it takes hard work to build authority and become a great writer. Working solo can be challenging, and in this episode, both Lenny and Gergely offer tips for structuring your unstructured time and finding your focus.
Nov 27, 2022·edited Nov 27, 2022Liked by Lenny Rachitsky
Just finished listening to the whole episode. There were definitely a lot of useful tips for someone just starting out their newsletter.
A few thoughts on the comment about competition among newsletters vs sharing among engineers
It's wonderful to see you two supporting each other when you write about such similar topics.
In my opinion, especially at this stage, it's to all our advantage (as substack writers) to be supporting each other and recommending each other's publications as much as possible.
I see Substack as having great network effects. The more we promote other's work, the more people join the substack platform and discover us through the recommendations feature, which as Lenny pointed out in a previous substack, is such a great feature. Clearly, there are many more people using other social media platforms that Substack, and the more that join Substack, the more income we'll all make as writers.
I joined substack as a writer because Lenny has been so transparent about how he's built his publication, without seeming to withold any information. When I joined, I immediately recommended Lenny's newsletter and my recommendation has driven several subscriptions to Lenny's newsletter. Granted, we're in a very different industry. I write about homeschooling and he writes about product. But I've also recommended writers in K12 education and homeschooling, and that's certainly created good will between writers.
The other facet of this:
It seems to be that this industry is constrained on the writer side, not the reader side. While there are many newsletters out there, there are not as many that have truly high-quality, in-depth content.
When I am curious about a topic, I buy and read all the best books on the topic. And the supply of quality, in-depth content is usually limited. As a reader, I'm content constrained not constrained by reading time or money to buy books. I would imagine the same is true for newsletters. It seems that the key thing is writing something really high quality, rather than worrying someone will choose another publication over yours.
In summary, thanks so much Lenny for being so transparent and detailed about your process. It's really inspiring and I hope others will follow suit. I've definitely tried to pay it forward to other education writers and people in my family thinking about writing, by sharing your wisdom.
I really appreciate Gergely's newsletter and insights especially in light of all the Twitter stuff. I love that he's been getting scoops and insider information and sharing it from an engineer's POV which you'd never get from traditional media. Great episode.
Great episode. Thought exercise - who else would you put in "build great tech" bundle? We have Lenny for Product, Gergely for Engineering... is there an equivalent newsletter for Design? Data?
Just finished listening to the whole episode. There were definitely a lot of useful tips for someone just starting out their newsletter.
A few thoughts on the comment about competition among newsletters vs sharing among engineers
It's wonderful to see you two supporting each other when you write about such similar topics.
In my opinion, especially at this stage, it's to all our advantage (as substack writers) to be supporting each other and recommending each other's publications as much as possible.
I see Substack as having great network effects. The more we promote other's work, the more people join the substack platform and discover us through the recommendations feature, which as Lenny pointed out in a previous substack, is such a great feature. Clearly, there are many more people using other social media platforms that Substack, and the more that join Substack, the more income we'll all make as writers.
I joined substack as a writer because Lenny has been so transparent about how he's built his publication, without seeming to withold any information. When I joined, I immediately recommended Lenny's newsletter and my recommendation has driven several subscriptions to Lenny's newsletter. Granted, we're in a very different industry. I write about homeschooling and he writes about product. But I've also recommended writers in K12 education and homeschooling, and that's certainly created good will between writers.
The other facet of this:
It seems to be that this industry is constrained on the writer side, not the reader side. While there are many newsletters out there, there are not as many that have truly high-quality, in-depth content.
When I am curious about a topic, I buy and read all the best books on the topic. And the supply of quality, in-depth content is usually limited. As a reader, I'm content constrained not constrained by reading time or money to buy books. I would imagine the same is true for newsletters. It seems that the key thing is writing something really high quality, rather than worrying someone will choose another publication over yours.
In summary, thanks so much Lenny for being so transparent and detailed about your process. It's really inspiring and I hope others will follow suit. I've definitely tried to pay it forward to other education writers and people in my family thinking about writing, by sharing your wisdom.
I really appreciate Gergely's newsletter and insights especially in light of all the Twitter stuff. I love that he's been getting scoops and insider information and sharing it from an engineer's POV which you'd never get from traditional media. Great episode.
Great episode. Thought exercise - who else would you put in "build great tech" bundle? We have Lenny for Product, Gergely for Engineering... is there an equivalent newsletter for Design? Data?