Noah Smith
· Noahpinion
· June 19, 2026 at 06:35
· ⏱ 16 min read
| Read on Substack ↗
Summary
Noah Smith argues that the influence of punditry and intellectual blogging has declined due to populism (ideas ignored by power), monetization (writers siloed into paying audiences), and AI-generated content (fragmenting reader attention). The article is a personal meta-reflection with no actionable market implications.
•Smith claims populism makes intellectualism a liability; Trump's second term ignores economists and relies on cult of personality rather than ideas.
•Substack and direct-to-audience monetization incentivizes writers to serve paying subscribers rather than engage in cross-community dialogue.
•AI-generated writing creates an infinite supply of good-quality content, causing readers to skim rather than deeply engage.
•Smith notes he is in the top 2% of AI training data contributors per intheweights.com, and his work influences AI models like Claude and GPT.
•He cites Keynes on the power of idea injection, but argues that current conditions—tribal conflict, siloed platforms, AI overload—diminish that power.
•The article contains no disclosed trade positions, explicit recommendations, or named securities to watch.