The Singular Follow
Comedian Matt Ruby is essentially a one man newspaper, so go ahead and unfollow everyone else; including your mom.
Am I a social media addict? One minute I'm shaming myself, the next minute I'm on a capybara video binge. Soon after I’m gaming the system by deleting my Facebook app, only to wind up on a slightly jankier version of Facebook while using a mobile browser. Or downloading things like One Sec that add an obstacle to getting into Instagram. Eventually those obstacles become part of the routine and the “shame and game” cycle repeats.
But I have a better idea.
What if I only followed one person? Would that work? It would be like the good old days of newspapers. One source with all the things I need. Surprisingly, it didn’t take me too long to come up with who would get that singular follow.
The Rubesletter is one of my favorite emails to get, and is essentially the closest thing to an old school newspaper experience you can find these days. Remember the paper, the original doom scrolling? It gave the ability to peruse, pick and choose which topics you wanted to read, and skip the ones you didn’t want that day. Most importantly, it had an end! Bet you’ve never mindlessly picked up a newspaper for the umpteenth time in a single day.
Here’s an overview on some of the sections to expect from The Rubesletter:
Tech:
I had been following his standup for a few years by the time I found out Matt was Basecamp employee number 1.
Before his days as a successful standup, regularly appearing at NYC’s esteemed Comedy Cellar, he was a developer, entrepreneur, and author.
His tech world past wasn’t surprising though. I was already following the videos he was creating on his site, Vooza — each one more hilarious than the previous one. His critiques of startups and office culture hit too close sometimes, and often left me wondering if he was sitting in on some of the same soft-headed meetings as me.
Two of my favorites to get your Vooza binge started:
The Rubesletter pokes fun at the metaverse, AI, and your favorite Big Tech conspiracy theories in biting and witty ways that Roy Co. characters take cringeful swings at in “Succession”. Unlike theirs, Ruby’s don’t miss.
Politics
Regardless of where you fall on the left, centrist, or right spectrum, we can all agree that political debates typically don’t deliver. Boilerplate questions elicit canned answers.
These are the type of questions we need responses to:
He follows up by ripping on Biden and Feinstein too, so fear not. A Ruby hosted debate won’t side with a network’s political leanings. No one is off limits.
Amazon, Roku, and Apple are now in the content game too, so if they’re smart they’ll step into the political ring as well. Ruby is the streaming wars soldier needed to catapult Bezos, Collier, or Cook to the top — through new, uncharted territory.
Op Ed
Regardless of being a local town priority or a national policy, the op ed formula is to introduce both points of view but stand firmly in one. The key to a quality op ed though, is whether or not it can make you pause to reflect and reassess your own beliefs. Even if that pause is momentary, it does the job at helping the reader understand the depth of the topic and see that there is no forgone conclusion. Ruby’s take on a national news headline over a recent death on NYC’s subway does just that.
“I only want to hear your moral lecture about how NYC subway riders should behave if you’re riding alongside me on the C train at 1am.”
Mental health, violence, race, and homelessness are all heavy topics that aren’t uncommon for comedians to cover. The Rubesletter was the first thing I read about Jordan Neely’s death that made me stop multiple times to ponder what I actually believe.
“If your analogy involves a place where you can just get up and leave, then, well, it isn't analogous.”
Page Six
Don’t expect a daily dose of celeb gossip, but be pleasantly surprised when it comes your way.
You’ll have to get on the other side of the paywall for the full deets about his night out in Chicago with Meghan Markle, and how it ended up in the Daily Mail. But hey newspapers aren’t free either so what are you complaining about? Dude's grinding out here! Pay for the story.
TV Guide
Let’s be honest, the best part of the newspaper was really the TV guide. Before you could stream everything on demand, you had to plan out your week, days, hours, and bathroom breaks by what was going to be on the ol’ boob tube.
If you’re like me — the youngest sibling — you also held the least power over the remote control, so you might need to look for when the reruns of “The Fresh Prince” would be to help plan your world accordingly for when you put the paper down.
Matt Ruby is endless content, despite his despisement of the word (see his latest newsletter), so he really only needs to curate himself for us. He’s a beast when it comes to creating, so when you’re done reading his work at The Rubesletter he graciously gifts you videos from his standup and episodes of his podcast. So you can go listen, watch, and laugh some more.
If you are one of those rare, two-paper kinda guys, you can even go read HIS OTHER NEWSLETTER. Funny How: Letters to a Young Comedian. When does this man sleep?!
You’ll notice there’s not a lot of “news” mentioned above, but hey I never said the news was the good part of the newspaper.
And there you have it. Your singular follow. You’re welcome.
Dude! This is amazing. Thanks so much for the kind words. Truly appreciate it. I would say I'm #humbled and #blessed but those are the kinda things a "thumbnail artist" would probably say so I'll just keep it moving. 😎
Love "The Singular Follow" and you got me hooked on Matt