We have a prototype product ready for use. It's a Google Sheet that generates email digests. It's ideal for people who want to save the interesting things they find, share them in a simple format, and search for them later.
Using the 0.2 is straightforward. You set a digest production mode (e.g., send out 7 things every 7 days at 0900) and save the interesting things you find via a form. Then, when your threshold is met (e.g., you find 7 things), a digest is automatically generated and the items are posted to your web page (e.g., the repo for Matt's Mag7 newsletter). You save things; those things are auto-shared and posted to your webpage. It really is that simple. But let's take a closer look at what's really going on...
Save—Being Kind to Future You
In the 0.2, the focus is on capturing core information about the interesting things you find. It's a little more than a raw URL or opened tab and a whole lot less than an exhaustive classification. Think of it as a rapid scan or a light survey. Specifically, it means capturing:
A name
A link/URL
A few tags and categories
A short contextualising note about the thing's relevance
A status ("TODO" if you'll return to it; "READY" if you're happy to share it)
Noting this information takes a few seconds in the present, and it's a powerful practice for two reasons. First, it saves Future You from bouts of confusion when you attempt to access and understand something Past You saved (or think you saved somewhere for some reason). Second, it prevents the buildup of intangible anxiety that comes from the continual accumulation of things without the context required to interpret or leverage them quickly and effectively.
In Subset 0.2, you save items via a Google Form. In the near future, we'll be moving to a dedicated application.
Share—Set It and Forget It
Once things are saved and sufficient context has been added to them, they are ready for sharing.
In our 0.2, we have four distinct modes for producing email digests. This is currently managed by a Google Sheet, but like saving, we will transition to a dedicated application soon. However, three of the four modes can be treated as set it and forget it:
Manual: add things to the sheet, select them for digests, pick a datetime and schedule them
Time-based: you pick a cadence—every day, every week, every ten days—and everything you've marked as "ready" is packaged up and sent out
Volume-based: you pick a volume of things to send out—one thing, ten things—and when you've marked that many things as "ready" a digest is produced
Time and volume: you pick a cadence—every day, every week—and a volume—one thing, seven things—and a digest will be automatically produced according to that rhythm
Once you set a production mode, all you have to do is explore and engage with the things you find online as you normally would. Then, with a few extra seconds of interaction, you can reliably produce an email digest.
Search—Instant Recall
The final piece of the puzzle is search.
Saving and sharing are powerful behaviours, but their value is limited if the saved and shared items cannot be recalled later. Saving and sharing shape your attention and increase the chances that saved and shared items will be referenced later and connected to other new and old things.
To leverage this behaviour, Subset 0.2 posts sent items to an interactive web page, making your saved and shared items easily accessible. Have a fuzzy recollection of an item from a digest two weeks ago? Open your Subset repo and search, sort, and filter to find it in seconds.
Subset 0.2—Less Effort, Easy Upside, Early Access to a Secret Weapon
At Subset, we're working on a new way to save, share and search. Our long-term mission is to make saving simple, sharing effortless, and search joyous, and do it in a way that scales. For now, we have a 0.2 prototype that simplifies email digests, a powerful save-share-search pattern.
If you're already producing an email digest—or something analogous, like regularly sharing links on a social media platform—say hi; we can save you a lot of time, effort and expense. If you're an interested person looking to leverage your engagement with things across the web then let us know—we can unlock a lot of easy upside for you. And if you're either of those, then you should probably speak to us: Subset is poised to be the secret weapon for prolific savers, sharers and searchers.
