Hi, it’s Martina. You may know me, whether IRL on from somewhere digital, possibly Twitter (while/if you’re still there). If you don’t know me, I’m a scientist turned data scientist and I create little data visualisations, drawn by hand: they have stories to tell, and this project will be their nest.

So, I have decided to open a Substack. Up until now, I’ve been doodling my ”data cards” and writing their stories on my site/blog but I started to feel like this little project deserved more of a proper space, where some interaction could happen and where I could also get feedback. I’ve been then faffing about this idea for a while, with my friend who kept saying “you keep postponing and soon you’ll regret not having started this“ - so here it is. I will still keep my Github pages site, which will keep being the go-to location for all my stuff and will likely still contain these cards.

I’ve been investigating this platform and what it stands for and I kinda started buying into the idea of having a space not regulated by the AI overlords for the stream of content, and where there’s hopefully no gratuitous negativity void of message. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for progress and using algorithms to improve our lives, I work in data after all. But I started to feel a sense of fatigue with traditional social media, where I’m not in charge of what I get to see and am bombarded with low-quality stuff I don’t care about and that wastes my time. I follow a few Substacks and so far I get a lot out of them.

In any case, you can still find me around Twitter (we’ll see how this ages, with the current changes) and Instagram, but this will be a new space, hope you’re in for the ride.

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