Welcome to my newsletter!

Why start a newsletter when I have a blog? I love writing and I want to write more. But I want a more casual format, where I can share without the burden of permanence or meticulousness that a “blog post” demands.

While I continue to use social media, like others I remain skeptical of its future as a reliable destination for this sort of writing.

What to expect

Think of this truly, as letters from me to you. I intend to share quick tips and tricks; helpful software I’ve installed and am using; hardware that I’m trying out and recommend; books, blog posts or other newsletters that I’m reading; thoughts on what’s going on in my personal life; lessons and learnings.

I want to be brave with ideas and opinions that are still baking in my head… but could also turn out wrong.

What is the format

I don’t know if I want to keep these posts short but I promise to keep them as easy reads. The newsletters I love, share this quality.

I’m aiming for a monthly cadence and will nest these under /letter but it should also show up in the general feed. You’re under no obligation to read these btw if all you want are the regular posts. Since I use my own theme for this site¹ there’s ∞ flexibility. You can choose a customized feed based on your liking:

• /feed.xml — all the stuff I write
• /blog/feed.xml - “blog posts” only
• /letter/feed.xml - “newsletter” only

Slap /feed.xml (or /feed.json) at the end of most urls here, and you’ll get a feed for that topic (e.g. my posts on programming are at /tags/programming/feed.xml)

If you’re an email gal/guy on the other hand, open this page in a browser and all the way at the bottom is a way to add your email to a list. You’ll get these letters in your inbox, as soon as I post them.

Let’s kick this off!

Happy 2024 🥳! If you haven’t noticed, I’m big on new-year posts and resolutions. Here are my resolutions for 2024:

Brevity in writing

I want to get better and sharper with my writing.

Two books that are classics that I should dust off and read again: Elements of Style & On Writing Well. I follow the social media account tech emails. In addition to the 🍿 I’m impressed by the brevity with how the top executives correspond and write. No superfluous adverbs or flowery adjectives. I remember an online discussion² where people questioned, “Why do these leaders write like this? Feels bizarrely direct and grammatically lacking or incomplete”. An interesting response went something like this: “these people cannot afford to be misunderstood, so are as direct as possible. They dispense with flowery & verbose language, and even with grammar at times, if it gets the point across better”. Not saying I want to emulate this but I’d like to improve my own writing for clarity.

Tolerance in thinking

I want to have healthy discussions with people having differing opinions.

We live in a polarized time where if someone holds a differing ideology, everything that comes out of their mouth must be wrong or opposed. Over the 2023 Xmas holidays, I was watching The West Wing since it’s one of those shows that’s recommended highly. It reminded me of Sorkin’s The Newsroom which came out later and is one of my favorites. I love how this idea is pushed in both shows. Why can friends not hold opposing ideologies today? How can we be more graceful in debate?

Focus on self care

I will carve out time and be conscious about my self-care practice.

I was actually inspired by one of my colleagues on this one. Self care is about making sure you’re spending time to do things that inspire and invigorate you. Self care can be fitness, it can be watching that TV show that only you seem to like in your family, it can be eating healthier, it can be taking the time to talk to a therapist or a friend more equipped to listen. What it shouldn’t be… is an after thought.

New ventures in tech

I have two new ideas³ in this space that I’d like to make a reality.

Fragmented — the podcast I started with Donn is on a hiatus⁴ of sorts. But I’ve been cooking something else in the background, so stay tuned. I’m not ready to share more just yet but I’ve been thinking about these for sometime now and am excited to see them materialize in 2024.

Thank you genuinely for subscribing or reading my newsletter. I’d love to hear more from you too. What are your resolutions for 2024?