✍️Come study with me? | #160

The magic of body doubling (another person’s presence)

Featured art: @sophillustrates

Desk Notes

Please Excuse the Mess. Still Building Dreams. ✨

Awww, I’m gutted Studyverse is no more! The founders have taken it down—with no announcement!? I’ve been getting error messages all week, so presumed they were doing site maintenance, but then I found this thread on Reddit saying it’s been permanently shut down. Oh no! 

I can’t believe they would take a site down without telling users—that’s no way to treat folks who’ve invested time here and built communities. We’ve had no time to screenshot our ‘streaks’ or give study buddies notice.

I checked on social media, but there’s nothing about it on the company page or founders' feed—it’s bizarre, especially as they had “a load of rockstar angels and operators supporting their mission” and raised $1,800,000 from 8 investors in 2022. (see co-founder Eric Drymer’s post). I’ve messaged Eric and no reply yet.

They’d also introduced a new AI Study Buddy tool, which I was testing out - had some interesting chats with Prof Severus Snape. Why invest in building new features if things are rocky?

It was an incredible tool and I was surprised it was free, given the quality and all the features. Usually, you pay to upgrade for extra functions, and I would've happily done so as it was part of my working day.

Here’s my cosy little virtual library RIP 💔: “99 problems but a book ain’t one.”

RIP Studyverse 💔

Chill cappuccino vibes made me happy, and working on my laptop was more fun. It helped me focus and stay accountable, and it was also a paid perk for members—a co-working/reading room.

Lots of heartbroken folks on socials - can we #SaveStudyverse and bring it back to life in a new version? They do need to make a statement.

This is so sad, I've gotten so used to it I can't study without it anymore, does anyone know any website that is similar at least? 

But they were doing so good building that AI bot. I feel like I just lost a friend.

There's a Discord group called Studyverse Reunion where people are helping each other find people they've lost contact with, if you want I can send you the invite!!

Another lesson in not building your home on rented land. If you’re not paying for it, you are the product.

Onward! I've set up a new study room with similar features: task, calendar, timer, music, streaks, camera—and community. CSW Live is the closest free alternative, but I don’t like it, so I'm testing the LifeAt app paid version.

I'm now working in my cosy Amsterdam café and would love you to join me - will share the link on my chat.

Nika ✨

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Cool Things

I’ve enjoyed this week…

▶️ Just bought Andrew Wilkinson’s new book: Never Enough: From Barista to Billionaire.

The fundamental question is: what’s your ideal flow state and how do you design your life around that because I do think that is pure happiness. For me a good day is when I lose myself in thought, reading, writing… something where I’m focused.

▶️ The Sparkle Summit - Substack x Publishing

A free meetup on Friday 16 August to explore the themes of publishing, power play and utilising Substack to grow a loyal readership and sell books!

I’ve backed their Kickstarter book launch of “How to Build a World Class Substack”. The word ‘world-class’ brings me out in hives—far too much pressure to put on yourself, but I appreciate the work

Claire Venus

and

Russell Nohelty

are doing to help folks grow on this platform.

It’s a collaboration that plays to their strengths—Russell’s deep dives into digital publishing at The Author Stack and Claire’s community-building superpowers at

Sparkle on Substack

. I recently joined SOS and it’s ace—a supportive space. 

▶️ 💯 with Mario / Elon on this one. Freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy.

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My Internetland

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Audio voiceover below via Wondercraft.ai. I’m being bumped up to the new version of the app tomorrow - a huge upgrade. “Great things coming!” It’s brilliant quality, but my voice cloning needs more emotion - I sound a bit flat in places. They said to upload another reading, 3-4 mins that’s super expressive, so I’ll ham it up even more next time. 🤗