Update 18 June 2025
This should be reaching your inbox after the long promised issue on the economy is out.
A lesson I learned is that I shouldn’t use this newsletter to talk about developing situations. Ongoing topics where I can take a look at past moments and chew them over, sure, but not topics where so much volatility comes from individual decisions. I hit walls where I ended up not writing much because I didn’t want say anything too prematurely. I’m sure some of my conjecture will still seem out there to some, but that’s at least looking at long-term trends, not trying to keep up with where on the dartboard tariff rates have landed.
On the fiction side, I have one longer submission to finish up still, then Meta-morphoses can regain my full attention on that front.
The good news is that I have selected some shorter, simpler non-fiction topics for the newsletters for the near future. Additionally, the original draft of the new issue grew so out of hand at one point I had to start over, but that means I have already written material I can cannibalize for individual articles in the future. Might be good for 3-4 issues, to give you an idea of how needlessly sprawling it became. I’m trying to hit four issues this month, including the fiction. I wanted to try and commit to weekly releases, but I think a monthly quota will give me a feeling of flexibility that will keep me motivated without causing worry about specific release dates. It also helps me feel I’m not unnecessarily truncating my thoughts on longer topics if I can give them some extra time.
On the mental health front, it’s quite bad, but I’m managing to keep the most extreme paranoia at bay with frequent reality checks. I’ll be able to keep working steadily for a short while at least.
A note for the issue: I stated my point of profit margins poorly. It’s not that a 30% profit loss would fold those large conglomerates, it’s that they only have a 30% profit margin, meaning an any overall increase in costs of 30% without increasing revenue would render them unprofitable. It’s already updated in the archive, but I thought I would send that correction here also.