The "Sublime Text of X"

A product framework for explaining why Superhuman is the Sublime Text of Email.

Note: The author has never paid for, is not affiliated with, and is not endorsing Superhuman as a product.

Superhuman

Superhuman is an invite-only $30/month email client.1 People like it for its sleek design, responsive speed, and suite of keyboard shortcuts to improve a user’s email efficiency. People justify this purchase over free alternatives by the fact that they spend hours on email everyday. Part of Superhuman’s feature offering includes read statuses, which is useful for executives and sales people who like to keep a pulse on their conversations.

Superhuman Product Screenshot

Users love Superhuman. Take a quick peak on Twitter2 at the effusive praise the company gets. Andreessen Horowitz led the latest investment round in the company with a valuation of roughly $260 million.

Following in the tailwind of this prosumer email client that has taken Silicon Valley and Twitter by storm are a suite of companies claiming to be “Superhuman for x”.3

As identified by Todd Goldberg, the “Superhuman of X” has the following traits:

  • Designed for speed.
  • Built as an opinionated product experience for a specific use case and/or target audience.
  • Driven primarily by keyboard shortcuts.
  • Beautiful and thoughtfully designed.
  • Optional: Built as a modern alternative to a product that has legacy distribution effects
  • Optional: Positioned as a premium product vs. free alternatives.

Superhuman Commands Screenshot
Superhuman Command bar: short-cut triggered command search bar


Note: The author has never paid for, is not affiliated with, but likes using Sublime Text as a product.

Sublime Text

I present Sublime Text: a piece of software more than a decade older than Superhuman, that shares the above attributes. Sublime can be driven primarily by keyboard shortcuts. It’s as thoughtfully designed as I have been shamefully unwilling to purchase the non-trial version for 80 USD. The similarities lie much deeper than that. Sublime has two close-to-instant-speed search-bars: one for opening a file in your project [goto] and one for executing commands.

Sublime Commands Screenshot
Sublime Text Command Palette: short-cut triggered command search bar

Sublime Text is also simultaneously opinionated but also configurable. It is simple enough for a programmer to install, open, and “hit the ground running” on a big project with a combination of GOTO (⌘+P) and project search (⌘+Shift+F).


The “Sublime Text of X”

Without futhur ado, I present a case study sampling of “Sublime Texts of X”.

Sublime Text Screenshot
The (Eponymous) Sublime Text of Text Editors: https://www.sublimetext.com/

Fman Product Screenshot
The Sublime Text of Finder/File Explorer: https://fman.io/

Linear Product Screenshot
The Sublime Text of Task/Bug Tracking: https://linear.app/

Cron Product Screenshot
The Sublime Text of Calendars: https://cron.app/

Sublime Merge Product Screenshot
The Sublime Text of Git GUI Clients: https://www.sublimemerge.com/

The “Sublime Text of X” is software having the following traits:

  • Designed for speed.
  • Built as an opinionated product experience for a specific use case and/or target audience.
  • Driven primarily by keyboard shortcuts.
  • Beautiful and thoughtfully designed.
  • Not Optional:  Dark mode 

I look forward to a bright dark future where everything can be done fast and efficiently through keyboard shortcuts. If there are other startups or products that give you Sublime Text vibes I would love to know!

Terminal Product Screenshot


  1. I’ve seen a lot of discussion as to whether an email client is worth $30 a month. It is not for me personally, but here is a link to Paul Graham in 2012 claiming that he is willing to pay $50-$1000 a month for a good email experience. 

  2. https://twitter.com/search?q=%40superhuman 

  3. The “Superhuman of X”