I need to say something, and I want to say it plainly: thank you.
Astra Trainer just landed at #10 Rising in Education on Substack — that’s Substack’s own ranking of the education newsletters growing fastest right now — with more than 59,000 of you now reading along. I’ve read that sentence back a few times and it still doesn’t feel entirely real. Not long ago this was a small idea and an empty page. Now it’s a room with tens of thousands of people in it — all here to learn, to grow, to get a little better at the things life actually tests us on.
Here’s the honest part. A ranking like this isn’t something you build for people. It’s something people build with you. Every lesson someone finished on a tired evening, every question left in a discussion, every letter someone forwarded to a friend, every comment that made the next person feel less alone in learning — that’s what moved us up the list. Not us. You.
A number went up. But what it really measures is how many of you showed up.
What this actually means to me
I didn’t set out to make a chart-topping app. I set out to make a place where knowledge opens people up instead of showing off — where you can wander into money, psychology, relationships, leadership, or the more spiritual corners of things, and come out understanding yourself a little better. That so many of you want that too, and keep coming back for it, is the whole thing. The ranking is just the world noticing what we already felt in here.
So I’m not going to pretend #10 is the finish line. It’s a nudge to keep going, and to keep it good — to protect the part of this that makes it worth your time in the first place.
One small thing back
If Astra Trainer has taught you something, changed a habit, or just kept you company on the hard days — I’d love to hear it. Tell me in the comments what you were learning when it clicked. I read them. And if you’ve got an Astra friend who’d like this room, send them in — the family’s better the bigger it gets.
Until next time — keep learning, and be kind to yourself on the days it’s hard.
— Alex
Founder, Astra Trainer 🌟
💛 P.S. — My wife hit “send” on a lot of these letters before the sun was even up, and when I told her about #10 she just grinned and said, “told you.” So this thank-you really is from both of us — and from the two dogs who have no idea what a ranking is but are very proud regardless.
