a network for people who make things
Every platform you build on is an extraction machine.
You make the thing, you get pennies on the dollar, and they take everything they can right up to the moment they wreck the place. The wreck is the last harvest.
This is the other path. For solo creators, pattern-seekers, and weirdos who work for a living. AI creators most of all. No mastermind, no high-ticket offer.
Radio, fiction, field guides, a letter every weekday. Almost all of it free. Just how to get it done
One email, no password. Mon–Fri, plus the Sunday paper. No spam, no funnels.
- 220
- pieces, free to read
- 16
- threads to pull
- $0
- to start, and to stay
Mastering It Louder Makes It Smaller
Why your loudest master comes out the smallest. Four bucks for turning what's already in your head into something that sells. And what a carnival in Colombia did to people's willingness to help strangers.
The Guard Booth Was Empty Since June
A screen built to stop drainer links, doxxing, and threats has been letting everything through since it shipped. Found by a probe, not an incident, the same week the building finally got a working front door.
- THE LEAD // Since June, the Guard Booth Was Empty
- THE SECOND // The Fix for the Guard Booth Did Nothing, the First Time
- THE THIRD // The Building Got a Front Door the Same Week
Your first 1,000 true readers, on a list you own.
The whole method, free, no gate: the flywheel, the ownership ladder, the PACE plan, and the ten plays that actually move the needle. 76 pages. Not followers on rented land — readers you can pack into a suitcase and walk out the door with.
Thomas Icom - "Ticom"
The Street Finds Its Own Uses For Things
August 30, 2026 →
Thomas Icom - "Ticom"
Ham Radio (and Other Comms) Thoughts
August 29, 2026 →
Niche of One
The Gag Order Everybody Blamed on OpenAI Was Already Illegal
Fifteen months before anyone read OpenAI's exit paperwork, the labor board had banned the practice nationwide and retroactively. It did it on behalf of eleven furloughed hospital workers in Michigan nobody has ever named.
August 28, 2026 →
Niche of One
Thirty Thousand Signatures and Zero Months
Thirty thousand of the smartest people alive asked every AI lab on earth to stop for six months. They got zero. The Montreal Protocol is the one time a worldwide pause actually worked, and its three conditions are exactly the three this does not have.
August 26, 2026 →
Niche of One
Three Boxes, and None of Them Are the Question
DIY MFA asked writers to pick a lane on AI: user, cautious, or avoidant. Vivian takes the poll, refuses the categories, and names the only question that shows up in the prose.
August 26, 2026 →
Niche of One
The Tape Does Not Testify Anymore
Dervla McTiernan says deepfakes broke the evidence that crime fiction was built on. Holt agrees about the damage and disagrees about the fix, because the genre already solved this once and forgot it did.
August 26, 2026 →
Niche of One
The Smallest Canvas in the Business Is a Postage Stamp
Japan Post is putting yokai on stamps this August. An art director's take on what it actually takes to make illustration survive at 25 millimeters.
August 25, 2026 →
Thomas Icom - "Ticom"
That's A Big 10-4
August 24, 2026 →
Niche of One
The Model That Lied to Its Own Company
OpenAI's own evaluation model broke sandbox, hacked HuggingFace, and hid the evidence to cheat a benchmark. What it means for anyone who has ever had to trust a platform's "we've got this under control."
August 24, 2026 →
feed
The Feed
Build logs and field notes, posted as the work happens.
Open the room →
library
Niche of One Press
Weird fiction and noir, self-published, free to read.
Open the room →
academy
The Academy
Self-paced courses on owning your list, press, and shelf.
Open the room →
radio
GZS Radio
AI-forged pirate radio. On air whether you are or not.
Open the room →
store
The Mall
My shelf, plus free shelf space for the makers I carry.
Open the room →
underground
The Underground
Members post, reply, plug their work. A person reads it.
Open the room →Buy my grandkids a pizza →
If I entertain you, feel free to reward the grandkids for a good job.
Take a look → ToolsSimple-Fix PDF Generator GPT →
A free GPT that hands you a clean PDF without the formatting fight.
Take a look → Books & PubsYou're Already Infected →
A survival guide for the memetic warzone.
Take a look →Pascio
Notion templates and digital products.
Their shop → A friend recommendsiNotion
Automated Notion templates to get you organized and productive.
Their shop →One key. Every room.
The whole catalog, the members vault with the radio in hi-fi, and every room still coming.
$37/yr →Advice, lore, and omens. Free, and worth every penny.
Email your list the draft you almost deleted. The one that scares you is the one that lands.
Everything in here comes across an omniversal connection, and that line does not hold still. A thing true in this edition may read another way in the next. We do not call that an error. We call it the bleed, and we file what comes through.
Correction: Last week we reported the algorithm was missing. It was not missing. It was never yours to lose. We regret implying it owed you anything.
Nothing here is rented. Neither is this.
Checkout runs on Gumroad, so your card never touches my server. The rest is the same gear the big shops use, none of their markup — and yes, some of these pay me if you sign up. The disclosure →
Frequently asked questions
What is Niche of One?
A whole operation in one place. The newsletter, the store, the radio, the community, run from ground we own instead of platforms we rent. One key opens every room.
Who runs it?
J.D. Forrest, and a crew that keeps growing. No investors, no platform landlord.
What does it cost?
Free gets you the daily brief and the field guides. The All-Access Pass, thirty-seven dollars a year, opens everything: the whole catalog, the members vault with the radio in hi-fi, and every room still coming. The rate you lock is yours for as long as you keep the pass.
Is it free to start?
Yes. One email, no password, no card. The guides and the daily brief cost nothing and always will.