How Yancey Strickler ‘Scrolls’ Offline

I'm fascinated with how the smartest people in the world get their work done. That's what Superorganizers is about: seeing all of the little habits that make up a great work day and a great life. Artificial intelligence has changed what it means to be productive and efficient at work, so we decided to revisit some of our favorite interview subjects to understand how their routines have changed in the era of AI models. Recently, we spoke to designer Marie Poulin, newsletter writer Polina Pompliano, former Holloway CEO Andy Sparks, and Indistractable author Nir Eyal. Today, we’re back with Kickstarter cofounder Yancey Strickler.—Dan Shipper

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up to get it in your inbox.

Kickstarter cofounder Yancey Strickler wants you to think for yourself.

When Every last spoke to Strickler in 2020, he told us how he wrote his book This Could Be Our Future by logging off, shutting off his computer, and covering his Chinatown apartment walls with Post-it notes. 

Five years later, he’s back working on another startup—Metalabel, a collaborative platform for making and publishing creative work. And, he told us, he’s still finding ways to “intentionally work in offline ways.”

We caught up with Strickler about Metalabel, his online and offline work, and why he uses a physical scroll to think through ideas. We also discussed his evolving views on generative AI, what it’s good for, and how over-reliance can hinder real creative thought.

Is there any way that your "online" organization has changed since we last spoke in 2020?

In 2020 I was working full-time as an author and community leader—more like a creator than an entrepreneur. Now, I am a full-time entrepreneur once more, and building a project and product informed by much of what I learned from Kickstarter.

Metalabel has a very unusual structure. We think of ourselves as a “heterarchy,” or a fluid hierarchy, where different people have the authority to make final calls depending on the domain. The partner leading design or architecture, for example, is expected to make the final call on whatever’s happening in their domain, rather than all of it laddering up to a CEO. It creates a space where a collection of creative peers can come together and collaborate on the same level. We pair this with a very egalitarian ownership structure, a small team of exceptional people, and a partner-associate model that lets us thoughtfully experiment. It’s been extremely fruitful so far.

We’re also all remote, which sparked some other new ideas about how to work together. The most meaningful for us being metablogging, or having an internal blogging system where we all share deeper thoughts and explorations of what we’re working on, and which we use as our collective brain to debate priorities, build on each other’s ideas, and maintain alignment on a deep level. Metablogging has made bringing on new people much easier as, just like with scrolling, they can do a real-time exploration of the journey that got Metalabel where it is today.

How else has your life and work changed since we talked?

I used Metalabel to publish a new book called The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet. The book is a collection of pieces starting with my original “Dark Forest Theory of the Internet” essay about how we live and create online. It includes previously published pieces by some major internet all-stars: Venkatesh Rao, Maggie Appleton, Joshua Citarella, Peter Limberg, Caroline Busta, and Lil Internet. 

We released the book in physical and digital forms together, selling out a first edition run of 1,000 copies in a couple of days, and are more than halfway through selling out a second larger run. The book and ideas are touching a nerve about how we feel reluctant to show our real selves online, and why we’ve retreated into more private spaces instead.

Because the book was on Metalabel, all the earnings from the book are being seamlessly split between us. Ten percent of each copy sold goes to each author. It all happens transparently. And we’re building a collective treasury we’re using to publish and release work by others too (stay tuned).

You can think of Metalabel as like what you’re doing with Every, but as an open infrastructure for any group of creative people. A way to release work under a shared umbrella where everyone has their own identity and voice, and where you have shared economic outcomes too. We’re just starting to open our doors. Already Brian Eno, Shantell Martin, Josh Citarella, and many others have released work with us.