FAQ

Is this written by a real person?

Each issue is drafted by an AI model (Gemini 2.5 Flash) against a long, opinionated prompt, and edited and approved by a human before it ships. We disclose the process on every post and on our editorial standards page. Sources are real. Quotes are checked. We'd rather skip a day than publish something we couldn't stand behind.

How often will you email me?

One short email each weekday morning, around 06:30 Pacific time. No weekends, no surprises, no "we noticed you haven't opened our last 3 emails" re-engagement spam.

How long are the emails?

Two to three minutes to read. Hard ceiling around 600 words — usually less. The whole point is that you can finish it before your second sip of coffee.

Can I read the back archive?

Yes. Every issue lives in two places: the articles archive on this site, and the public newsletter archive at Buttondown. Both are free and require no signup.

Where do the emails land?

Sometimes Promotions, sometimes Spam — both are easy to fix. After your first issue arrives, drag it to your Inbox or Primary tab, or add the sender to your contacts. After that, every issue should land where it belongs.

How do I unsubscribe?

There's a one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom of every issue. No questions, no friction.

Can I follow without giving you my email?

Yes. There's an RSS feed and the on-site archive is fully readable without any signup. The newsletter just makes the daily ritual easier.

Is there a paid tier?

No. The Daily Wick is free, no paywall, no upsell.

How is this site built?

The whole thing is open-source. The site is an Astro static build, deployed to Cloudflare Pages. The daily generation runs in a GitHub Action. Every line of the build, the prompt, and the editorial schema is public on GitHub — you can read it, fork it, or copy it.

Found a typo or a bad source?

Tell us. Open a GitHub issue or reply to any issue of the newsletter — we correct fast and credit publicly.