Introduction to Data Science Learning Center
How I've set up my Substack Architecture
JULY 4th, 2022. 18:00 PM - MONTREAL, CANADA.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This 6-month review both is inspired by Michael here and here and modeled on his re-introduction post.
Hey Everyone,
The number of subscribers to Datascience Learning Center has risen fairly steadily in my first 6 months of writing on Substack.
I haven’t achieved this through gimmicks or viral tactics, in fact I’ve had preciously little to none of those. I am a self-identified “futurist in residence” here at Substack.
My tendency is skewed to breaking news with a high frequency cadence of writing.
As a recipient of this newsletter, you might wonder:
Who is Michael?
And why is he showing up in my email inbox? (at potentially annoying frequencies)
If this is the case, simply follow my Newsletter on the iOS app, or Android app that is coming soon.
So allow me to re-introduce myself and my stack of newsletters and current architecture, which currently has me adding new sections to target/segment my content.
I have introduced “columns” into many of my Newsletters, sometimes called “sections” at the top. I will try to create an index of this growing architecture as it unfolds (see below - I list them all).
Who are you?
My name is Michael Spencer, and I'm a full-time Substack writer. I’m 43 years old and have spent much of my career as a freelance writer and marketing consultant.
As a futurist, with a prolific portfolio I also simply have a broad focus of interest including a LinkedIn account of 208,000 followers. This took me many years of insights and writing to grow, including being a LinkedIn Top Voice on more than one occasion.
My expectations for future growth for free subscribers are relatively high. This is also because the more I grow, the faster Substack’s Network will allow me to grow. However financially, I am nowhere near yet breaking even in this covering even my most basic of living expenses.
This newsletter Datascience Learning Center and my broad range of other related Newsletters is made for C-executives, founders, professionals in tech, startup employees and busy professionals.
I cover datascience trends, programming, related topics, and A.I. at the intersection of technology, society and business.
In my other Newsletters, I also cover a broad range of other things including Quantum computing, macro economic trends, A.I. startup discovery, various Crypto Op-Eds, and so many more topics.
I want to create a suite of Newsletters that feels like a genuine attempt of an indie media startup run by just one person, so in that sense I am a solo entrepreneur of some variety.
I am unique to Substack because instead of writing a post a week or two, I write several each day.
Each Newsletter is priced at a different range, as I continue to explore and experiment in a way that allows me to cover the topics I want to cover, while providing some value to different audiences. I would actively target more niches if I could, more on this later.
My goal is to keep you well-informed but also hone your own inner futurist and disruptive tech evangelism. I currate, summarize, review and criticize (in Op-Eds) as often as I can, and I’m not on Substack to be a storyteller or entertainer.
What I think I bring to Substack is an indie journalism’s perspective that’s fascinated with all things future, like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, but multiple other topics at the intersection of technology, business and breaking news.
What do you do?
Since late December 2021, I’ve worked as a full-time futurist journalist. Writing this newsletter AiSupremacy, among the others, is my one and only job. Even promotion of my content and marketing takes a back seat.
I don’t have a logo, an editor or any guide. I am just a blogging solo-entrepreneur with a focus on tech news at the intersection of future studies.
So what about you? Most of you are busy professionals tired of outdated social media feeds, noise, and enthusiastic about the possibilities of the future of technology, business and society.
Whether I brought you to Substack from LinkedIn or you found me via Substack’s Network, or you were among a handful of fellow investors who followed me from the Last Futurist, I really appreciate your support and readership.
Who do you do it for?
Most of my 120 paid subscribers across my different Newsletters on Substack are founders or C-suite executives. I’m very proud that over six months I’ve found some people that find value in my work. I’ve also noticed who these tend to be:
However, among my free subscribers I also have a lot of :
C-Suite Executives, often CEOs
Founders
Software engineers
A.I. enthusiasts
Quantum computing industry professionals
Investors, angel investors and Venture Capital employees
Web3 and Metaverse enthusiasts
Employees at Startups
Fellow writers and indie journalists
Bloggers and marketing folk
People who work in tech at all levels (globally)
How can you do it for me?
If you want to become a subscriber, click the button below, and I'll make sure to serve you the best I can:
Typically this unlocks more content, and a deeper variety of coverage.
My Substack Architecture
I am petitioning Substack for the opportunity to have more publications.
I believe after six months I’ve more than proven my current business model of writing at a high frequency pace that is best suited to my particular brain is something I take fairly seriously.
Technology writing is my one true passion, and my late entry into the internet means I’m a news obsessed curator with a singular focus on the future. I believe the incomplete number of publications (since I could write more) and columns thus far on my Substack Stack reflects this:
But I’ll let you be the judge of that. What follows is a list of my Columns (sections at the top) under each Newsletter.
Benefactor: A.I. in healthcare and A.I for good articles. Artificial intelligence may empower and augment us. This is that story. < Columns of AiSupremacy
Pollology: Twitter or LinkedIn Polls on A.I., datascience, future of technology and related topics. Discussions, debates and reflections on trends.
Siphon: Paper summaries, Engineering blog case studies, breaking news from A.I. labs, more technical articles.
Flash: Flash covers new products and related features. Flash enjoys controversial topics as well.
Prospectus: Prospectus covers new startups, IPOs, Venture capital investments in A.I. companies.
Immortalis: Genomics, biotech, life-sciences. Longevity startups. This is an off-shoot of Quantum Foundry but a distinct Newsletter focused on a niche. <Columns of Quantum Foundry
The Daily Qubit: Breaking news in the QC world, startup PR and so forth. Quantum computing at the intersection of business news.
Entanglement: Entanglement is a journal or column focused on periodic round-ups of Quantum computing PR and news in one article and a rundown.
Schrödinger's Papers: (Maria) This column is dedicated to the analysis of scientific papers in the Quantum information science sphere. Every two weeks we will look at fundamental or revolutionizing papers that affect quantum technologies. Through the different issues we will try to explain the proposals in scientific papers to a non-technical audience, thus making quantum science more accessible for all. Feel free to join us on this journey!
Quantum Magnetometry. (Hanah) How it affects our world and beyond! Magnetic fields are all around us.. permeating our lives. As Quantum Scientists our job is to harness those fields to both analyze these fields to protect lives but also to help improve current technologies.
Coherence Fireside. The fireside chats are a series of recorded (Zoom) video talks with our community and columnists. It's a video series around topics including the zeitgeist of Quantum computing at this moment in time in 2022 and students in the field sharing their perspectives.
Data Science. General Data Science topics. Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a broad range of application domains. <Columns of Data Science Learning Center
Machine Learning. Machine learning is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Software Programming. Programming is the process of creating a set of instructions that tell a computer how to perform a task. Programming can be done using a variety of computer programming languages.
Data Visualization. Data and information visualization is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the graphic representation of data and information. It is a particularly efficient way of communicating when the data or information is numerous as for example a time series.
Hacker News. Hacker News is a column about trends software engineers may be interested in. It also discusses trending topics on the THN website. It is not about cybersecurity per se, but general trends I notice related to tech, startups and data science.
Business Science Center: BSC covers business topics. These include DataOps, Data Privacy and related Business Analytics topics. The BSC rubric covers deep, specialized knowledge of data science but also general applications to the business world.
Game Over. Gaming news, NFT of Gaming, gaming ecosystems, new releases, MMOs, and so forth. , <Columns of Web3 Digest
The Stripe Gen. Payments, Stripe, Creator Monetization, NFTs, how Creators get paid on Web 3.0.
Crypto Winter. Welcome to Crypto Winter, where I take on some of the less than stellar parts of Web3 and crypto when Bitcoin's hype turns to history and volatility. #Rekt — Borrowed from online gaming slang, to mean utterly destroyed or ruined. Don't say that I didn't warn you!
DeFi. Decentralized finance offers financial instruments without relying on intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain. Here is my attempt to cover the domain.
Bitcoin Altar. It's time to pray and HODL. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.
Temp Coins. Sometimes called Altcoins. "Altcoin" is a combination of the two words "alternative" and "coin." It is generally used to include all cryptocurrencies and tokens that are not Bitcoin. Altcoins belong to the blockchains they were explicitly designed for. These tokens sometimes called shitcoins tend to disappear as thousands more form.
ETH. Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, Ether has a significant community that enables other new projects. Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location.
NFTs. NFTs gained popularity in the market bubble of 2020-2021. A non-fungible token is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain, and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. This column will try to cover the NFT ecosystem.
Venture Capital Central. Venture Capital, seed rounds, IPOs, business related news, M&A. This place covers that. >Columns of Sublink
Deep Gadget. New tech gadgets, products and startups bringing the world something new. New game launches, and miscellaneous reviews.
Fight Club. Fight Club is a stand-alone Newsletter about my enthusiasm for MMA, UFC, and the sport and promotions related to martial arts (PFL, Bellator, Invicta, One Championship etc..).
GameVerse. In this journal I talk about the advent of the Gaming Metaverse, Steam games and companies related to the Metaverse like Roblox, Unity, Valve, Tencent, Microsoft and others.
LevelUp. Level Up is a placeholder for future content around Product Management, and product musings on the whole. This is a budding interest of mine but one which I will have to do considerable research to contribute towards.
(Geo)Politics. Politics is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. I will on occasion make some political or geopolitics commentary.
Future Studies. Wonder what's next? I'm a futurist that covers things about the future of work, technology, business, retail and trends and writes about some of them. Futurism studies involves macro analysis as well as sector specific breakdowns. The case studies for the future are all around us.
Artificial Intelligence Papers. Lists of AI papers, summaries and data from Synced and Market Tech Post. Surveys of A.I. papers. >Columns of A.I. Survey
Skywards. This will focus on A.I. Personalities and summarize their current thoughts.
A.I. Funding Rounds. This will cover venture capital funding rounds in Artificial Intelligence.
Robotics. This column will talk about Robotics and industry robotics including E-commerce robots, deepfakes, drones and facial recognition based ambient computing. Robots, IoT, consumer robotics, etc...
Penny Honey. Specifically about penny stocks and micro cap trends, coverage, stock alerts and so forth. A Penny stock is typically a stock $5.00 or less. I also cover stocks under $0.10 sometimes. >Columns of Stock Quest
C-Suite Crypto. This is info about crypto investing, blockchain startups, investing in Web3, altcoins, NFTs and so forth.
Market Macro. Fiscal policy, economics, macro market conditions at a glance. Major events. World news at the intersection of the stock market environment.
Earnings Spell. Earnings summaries. Analysis, insights related to BigTech and other related business updates.
Buy the Dip. Buy the Dip explores stocks and companies that may be closer to their intrinsic value or underappreciated by the market.
China Superpowers. No additional columns yet. China op-eds, ChinaTech, Chinese companies, CCP, global policy.
Eco Touch. Climate change news, artic spotlight, global warming, science news relating to the Environment directly. >Columns in Space Y.
Debt Watch. This column takes stock of Capitalism's health looking at various incidents of consumer debt, housing unaffordability and other indicators including wealth inequality, income inequality, labor participate rate imbalances and other measures of the decline of Capitalism.
GenZ. All about GenZ habits and trends. Generation Z, colloquially known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid to late 1990s as starting birth years and the 2010s as ending birth years.
Space Talk. Whether SpaceX or other articles on space, science, Mars and so forth, here is where it will land. May cover Space-Tech startups here as well.
Submark. Actionable tips for Substack writers. >Columns in Creator Economy Tips
Future Media. Future of media, print, digital, and op-ed platforms. Macro stuff about user-generated content media.
Universal Basic Income. The ownership economy is to me a content basic income. However, I want to cover traditional basic income projects as well. Universal basic income is a sociopolitical financial transfer policy proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a legally stipulated and equally set financial grant paid by the government. A basic income can be implemented nationally, regionally, or locally and several pilots are underway.
Creator Encounter. Creator Encounter is where I interview Creators on Substack and outside of Substack at various stages in their journey. Although my main interest is Substack Newsletters that are brand new and doing follow-ups later with them.
Substack is all about rich Niche-content and the value it provides to the right audience.
Thus far in my first 6 months of writing on Substack, these 50 columns are some of the categories and topics I’m interested in. Do note that some of them are placeholders for future content and don’t have any content yet in them.
If Substack gave me more space, I’d definately create more content around Sports (MMA), Climate Change, Genomics and many other topics as well. Since the majority of Newsletters on Substack are weekly, I could easily manage that.
Self-Identified Futurist in Residence
While I want to be a futurist in my writing by preference, in the end my potential audience will also help me decide what to specialize in given my monetization constraints which are pretty pressing.
I’m hoping my Stack of Newsletters bring consistent value to busy professionals.
How I Hope I’m Impacting my Audience
Sometimes it’s important to reflect on the impact we want to have for others. I want to be an audience driven writer. I want my work to be impactful.
I'm hoping my newsletter will become a voice of curiosity, objectivity, reason, the occasional contrarian rant, in this increasingly tiresome era of too much content, clickbait feeds, tech news overload and endless hype! I’m hoping my Stack of Newsletters bring consistent value to busy professionals.
I want to foster your:
Curiosity
Learning
Objectivity
Passion for innovation
Reason
Introspection
Inner evangelist
Inner futurist
Investing aptitude
World understanding of intersecting systems
My obsession with the future is just getting started!
Want a Back Stage Pass Trial?
Redeem this coupon.
Like my futurism and want to be a supporter? If you think this is a worthy goal, you can help me do it even better.
Happy 4th of July to everyone.