Note: This is the second installment of a recurring “behind the scenes” series in which we take a moment to reflect on our progress and challenges.
“Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.” - Elbert Hubbard
For those of us who live in camp reality, one of the most frustrating aspects of mainstream coverage of energy is the lack of nuance. Complex topics are oversimplified with broad generalizations without real, thoughtful dialogue.
Mainstream news stories dismiss tradeoffs, ignore second-order effects, and appeal to “the experts” instead of to a reader’s ability to think critically for themself.
Mainstream politicians say things without actually saying anything and spew vapid regurgitations of nothing-burger party lines to accumulate campaign donations.
Such lack of nuance and thoughtful dialogue was a major reason why we entered the Substack fray. However, one thing we’ve wrestled with most through our first 29 pieces is how to strike the right tone.
Given how important and broad the topic of “energy” is, there are plenty of opportunities for conflict. Conflict isn’t inherently bad, but unfortunately we see a tendency for conflict avoidance typically cloaked in “all of the above” language. It’s an understandable impulse not to ruffle feathers, but such talk often avoids tough conversations that need to be had.
Tough conversations are usually the most important ones.
This is why we try to express a clear opinion in our writing. We shouldn’t pretend that major disagreements don’t exist. There are real tradeoffs to be made and real consequences to be experienced. We hope that we encourage a mature debate and a conflict of ideas that furthers understanding of important energy issues.
But our goal isn’t to always have a combative opinion. We don’t want everything we write to be perceived as always pushing an agenda or debunking a widely accepted claim. From time to time, we might just say hey, this is wild, you should learn about it. If some opinions form along the way, then great, but energy is sooo fascinating to learn about in and of itself. There’s something to be said about writing to teach rather than convince.
When we do state a clear opinion, we fear that we can, at times, come across as the thing we hate the most. We fear that our writing could come across as overly broad and generalized. It’s challenging to maintain a clear message without going down unnecessary tangent rabbit holes or without missing context. Because energy is literally everything, it’s very easy for a 1,000-word piece to cascade into a 20,000-word stream-of-conscious novel. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
We thought about this dynamic before we started writing, and honestly, it’s probably the thing that held us back from starting sooner. Energy is complex.
When you dive into the details, you realize how much you don’t know or you become even more aware of how much there is to say on a topic. A natural reaction to this is to restrict yourself from being forthright about your beliefs, for fear that you might change your mind as you go one level deeper into learning. The details matter and there’s always another layer of detail.
So what’s one to do?
Our solution is to have fun in the learning and writing process. To not take ourselves too seriously. To approach the challenge of writing with humility and levity because we know it’s impossible to be perfect.
We believe it’s the best way to approach energy issues. Don’t get us wrong, the issues are important (this Substack is called “Energy Matters” after all), but everything doesn’t need to be so doom and gloom all of the time.
We find solace in the fact that our Substack isn’t a snapshot in time. We’re not cavemen carving images on a wall for our ancestors to read thousands of years from now. Our Substack is dynamic and improving. If we got something wrong, or realize that our tone was off, we will take the opportunity to take pen to paper to correct the record and admit our mistakes. We hope you stay with us when (not if) we stray off path. Just know that we welcome your feedback.
The best part about the challenge of striking the right tone — balancing nuance, clarity, opinion, and truth — is the fact that we’re having fun trying to figure it out. Nothing in life worth doing is easy so we might as well smile while doing hard things.
We enjoy writing and hope you enjoy reading.
As part of this series, we plan to continually share our progress. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we sure wish we had detailed pictures of what Rome looked like as it was being built.
Stats:
Posts: 29
Subscribers 253
After kickstarting our journey in 2023, we set a goal this year to reach 1k subscribers. We’re happy to report that we’re well on our way and humble enough to know that we have a lot more to do.
We hope you consider sharing Energy Matters with your most thoughtful friend. Onward! 😀
I got interested in Energy last Christmas, when I discovered @Doomberg, then quickly found a few other interesting Substacks, including Energy Matters.
I quickly got obsessed and got into the dark corners of the Internet, packed with climate change deniers and people who demonstrate how temperature data was altered to look like the Earth is warming up.
That's when I said to myself that I need to pull out and come back to reality. I still try to keep an open mind, but also be aware there are a lot of weird folks out there.
I may not be the best person to give advice, but I like a balanced approach, backed by data and credited sources. This is how you leave the door open for discussion and avoid the pitfalls of traditional media.
Thanks for your posts and yes, writing about energy is complex, and exiting. And you are absolutely right about the level of understanding of “experts” and politicians. I bet most of them don’t even know what “energy” is, it just “happens”. I’m amazed in everyday conversations how most people, educated ones at that, don’t understand the difference between “power” and “energy” and because of that, assume and say things that just don’t make sense. You have a lot of work ahead …