Two Years In
Numbers, highlights, and reflections of year two at Delphi Zero.
👋 Howdy to 2,618 climate buddies 🌳
Climate is not a technology problem but a story problem.
Delphi Zero is a consultancy and newsletter about the narrative potential of climate.
Dear friend, sorry for the radio silence.
For the past month and a half, I wrote, edited, and published my first book. And I’m super proud of it. I’ll say a few more words about it later in this essay.
Now, let’s get back to the agenda: Reviewing year two of Delphi Zero 👇
Two Years In
By Art Lapinsch
First of all, if you’re reading this: Thank you from the bottom of my heart 🫶
I spend my mornings, afternoons, evenings, and weekends thinking about how to produce the most inspiring content about climate. I’d be doing this even if no one would read it, but frankly, sharing this journey with someone feels much nicer.
Thanks for that.
Year Two By the Data
In year two, the output increased pretty much on every metric.
A couple of thoughts:
It’s wild that the catalogue of this publication now has more than 100,000 words - exclusively about climate
I’m surprised how many more interviews were published this year. People are very generous with their time and pretty open to share their best insights. This was super cool.
I’m kind of bummed out that I wrote fewer cli-fi stories than last year. Definitely want to improve on this one.
It’s crazy that the number of readers could fill the new rail seating section at Celtic Park (see image below)
Subscriber growth also shows a “steeper angle” - meaning the publication is growing at a faster rate than in year one. My guess as to why this is happening:
More Output → more content means more possible touch points for new readers to subscribe
Additional Touch Points → I got interviewed for two podcasts (more info below) and had a couple more backlinks from other publications. This probably drives new audiences to Delphi Zero.
Substack Rewards Regularity → It still seems that a regular posting schedule is rewarded by Substack’s network. More/regular posts means more organic uplift.
Looking into my subscriber stats, I realized that three countries represent ~50% of my readers: US 🇺🇸, UK 🇬🇧, and India 🇮🇳. Hi, everyone 👋
I write about broad topics that don’t really focus on those areas. A question to subscribers from those regions: Would you rather read more location-specific stuff or do you read me for different reasons?
If you have a strong opinion (one way or the other), ping me on LinkedIn or reply in the comments.
One thing some climate writing friends and I discussed was the following: Is there a natural cap on how large a climate tech newsletter can get?
Seeing how much overlap there is from other publications like MCJ or Saturday Climate Insider, I’m curious if this is (a) due to recommendation flows [e.g. MCJ subscriber looks at recos and finds Delphi Zero] or (b) due to the overall audience of people interested in climate tech being rather small.
Can a climate tech publication reach 10,000, 100,000, or even 1,000,000 people?
Or is there a natural limit, since it’s a rather technical topic and would a publication have to expand into the broader climate discourse? (e.g. climate activists; climate policy wonks; etc.)
If you have thoughts about this, I invite you to talk to me.
General Reflections
Is it worth it spending all this time on a publication that doesn’t earn me a single cent?
Absolutely!
I would be writing one way or another - even if no one would read it. It helps to explore ideas and improve my thinking. On top, it creates shareable assets that can be read by others all across the internet. This in itself is already amazing.
Most of the positive feedback comes from other climate writers. I guess it’s because one of two possible reasons:
I’m the climate writer’s favorite writer.
Climate writers do it as a form of self-help amongst peers. Give props to another writer and you shall receive feedback from them.
I honestly believe it’s the second reason.
Predictions from Last Year
In last year’s review, I stated what could be next:
Generally speaking, I’ll continue writing about topics that I’m excited about:
Volt, Watt, WTF?! → Solving my own illiteracy when it comes to basic units of the climate/energy world.
More interviews → I have a couple of interesting practitioners (climate tech founders/enablers) lined up for in-depth interviews.
More experimentation → I really enjoyed the excursions into fiction. I’ll see how else (co-writing; new medium; etc.) I can push myself to try new ways of getting people excited about the climate space.
So how did I do?
❌ Volt, Watt, WTF?! - I didn’t write about this topic but I started taking micro bachelor classes in “University Chemistry” - a mix between fundamental physics and (electro-)chemistry. Still a long way to go 🐌
✅ More Interviews - I was super excited to talk to 10 climate experts ranging from ex-Hollywood Producer gone all-in on Climate to one of the world’s most-advanced experts on Carbon Pricing.
✅ More Experimentation - Last week, I recorded the first audio interview. It’s a wide-ranging conversation with climate artist Nicole Kelner. I’m curious how you’ll like this format.
Opportunities from Writing
Podcasts
Writing Delphi Zero gave me the opportunity to sit on the other side of the microphone.
My first climate-specific interview was on Ryan Grant Little’s Another Climate Tech Podcast. We discussed the overlap between the challenges in energy, climate, and national security. And why Renewable Energy Storage is the smallest common denominator to fix these problems.
Then, my buddy Yoann Berno from Climate Insiders talked to me about the story problem in our industry. This conversation is a good peek into my thinking around climate communication 👇
fyi: You can find both podcasts on your favorite podcasting platforms.
These were lots of fun. I have another one in the pipeline and will keep you posted.
If you have a climate pod yourself and need to fill an empty slot, let me know. Happy to talk about all things climate.
Guest Posting
Last year, I interviewed my buddy Nick van Osdol (nvo) about Climate Writing as a Form of Capital Allocation. Very fun interview.
Later, he gave me the opportunity to write a guest post for his Keep Cool newsletter that reaches ~20,000 people. What the hell. It was a piece about the 80/20 of Energy Policy 👇
I love the collaboration mentality in the climate space. Definitely a positive sum game 🫶
PSA: Right now, I have a massive backlog of posts that I have to publish on DZ first. But in general, always open to collaborate.
Freelance Gigs
Writing opened up the door to a grant consulting gig.
tl;dr: Our team helped a climate tech company with a FOAK (first of a kind) technology to apply to the EU Innovation Fund grant call. Interesting project.
The grant space deserves a separate write up, which I’ll do at some point in the future.
Conference Opportunity
In September, Ben James (go and read his stuff! seriously) and I will host a session at The Drop conference.
If you attend The Drop conference, sign up for the session or say hi and let’s meet at the show.
Shoutouts from Other Publications
One of the cooler things was that one of the biggest publications in this space - Intercalation Station - linked back to my Introduction to Electricity Markets.
I feel very honored because the peeps over there are some of the most technical writers in the game.
How Did My Writing Evolve?
Overall, I’m quite happy with the output. Some of these pieces were real bangers 👇
I feel that year two had significantly less essays about energy policy and energy/national security and way more stuff about climate communication.
Readers loved these three pieces the most:
Gen Zero because it shows in very simple terms why it’s the responsibility of people their 20s-40s to fix the climate mess. It’s about cohort productivity (see illustration below).
Climate Tech’s Story Problem because it shows what climate tech can learn from professional sports and the entertainment industry. Many examples included.
Branding for Tech Companies “Lilac Case Study” because it’s a very actionable walk through of how to audit and fix branding and comms for tech companies.
It Helped me to Publish a Book
As of last week, I’m a self-published author.
Why: I wanted to experiment with a new medium. Maybe, I’ll write a climate-specific book in the future. So I figured, I could already start to get the reps in.
How: I wrote a 8,000-word piece describing all workflows, tools, etc. that were necessary to go from idea to published book in less than 40 days.
What: This book is an actionable how-to guide about Documentation. If - at work - you get the same questions over and over again or find yourself in endless video calls, then this book is the antidote. It teaches the best-in-class techniques to set up and maintain a documentation system that enables your team to get sh!t done on their own.
If you like my climate writing then you will enjoy my book. If there are two things I know more about than climate it’s (1) documentation and (2) branding/comms strategy. This book is the collection of all my insights about #1.
Request: If Delphi Zero brought you some value, then I’d invite you to get my book and learn a thing or two about documentation.
If you like what you read, I would appreciate it if you could leave me an Amazon review. That would help me to get discovered. Eternal gratitude is yours ✌️
Highlights
Last year, I wrote a section called “the good, the bad, and the ugly” but honestly, I couldn’t think of any lowlights this year.
My favorite thing about this writing journey is that it connects me with other kick-ass individuals. Sometimes through a collaboration or sometimes as a deepening of an existing friendship.
My buddies Jan and Bastian made moves in the climate space. Jan did a degree to expand his knowledge and Bastian started his own climate publication to learn more about the space and showcase his effort.
Ben James initially reached out as a reader of this newsletter. We met for a walk and discussed music, writing, and climate. Fast forward, we’re friends, sparring partners for writing, and are co-hosting a session at a Climate conference. What the hell! That’s cool.
I’m looking forward to more of this kind of serendipity.
Goals for the Third Year?
For the next year, I would like to:
Lean into Climate Communication: More writing about narrative, story telling, and corporate branding/marketing in this space.
Experiment with New Formats: Learn about screenplay writing and see what climate can learn from Hollywood.
Write More Cli-Fi: Get Back into the cli-fi shorts and use the screenplay writing techniques to make these stories more awesome.
Keep an Open Mind: See where this journey takes us.
A question that I’m pondering about right now is if this focus should go hand-in-hand with updating my tagline & description?
tagline: The Climate Narrative for the Non-Scientific Crowd. "Waitbutwhy for Climate"
description: This newsletter explores topics in climate, energy, and everything in between.
What do you think?
Always happy to hear from y’all.
🙏 Thanks for showing up to Delphi Zero’s Two Year BDay 🎂
Let’s have some cake and look forward to another wild year on this pale blue dot 🌍
As always, stay healthy, stay happy ✌️
Art
Awesome work, Art! Keep publishing those great pieces of yours and I’m sure you’ll continue to inspire people from all around the globe and get them excited about climate as well :)
hell ya, go Art