New Addition (Online Expeditions: Digital Postcards, Curiosity Compasses)
Hi Friends!
It almost April! Who’s got any fun summer plans? I’ve got trips planned for the East Coast, Hawaii, and (maybe even) Europe later this year.
The theme for this week’s newsletter is aptly, travel. Specifically traveling the world wide web. I’ll also be talking about:
- The latest cohort of Write of Passage
- Digital postcards
- My latest article about making friends on the internet
- An update on my site rebuild (hint: it’s done!)
Updates
Write of Passage, Cohort 8
The latest cohort of Write of Passage (WOP) is almost wrapped up. The fragile-ego’d perfectionist in me has only published one article so far, but I’m going to make a valiant push this last week or so to get a couple more things published (including this newsletter).
Regardless of my output, it’s been great to catch up with “old” friends, and meet new ones (not confined to geographic location 😉). As you can see in the screenshot below (from our shared social platform, Circle), the writing course is truly an international experience.
Digital Postcards
A recent assignment for WOP was to write a newsletter (a “digital postcard”) and send it to you friends, family, or email list. This metaphor has some great crossover with the travel theme of this newsletter and suggestion of finding “tour guides” in my most recent article.
I really like the idea of using framing these newsletters as digital postcards because then they feel more conversational, more like sending your friends and family intimate stories of your internet travels. And over time you can become that person who everyone asks for travel tips as they make their own journey across the world wide web.
My Latest Article: You’re an Introvert, How Did You Make More Friends During a Pandemic?
One of the writing prompts/assignments for this cohort of WOP was, what is the answer to your most frequently asked question? So I decided to write about my experience during COVID using the internet to find my tribe.
Here’s a blurb:
Even If you’re an introvert (like me), I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that it’s quite easy to connect, interact, and nurture relationships with people who share the same passions and curiosities as you. You just need to know where to look.
In the essay I provide a general framework for finding internet friends, but I’m also planning on creating a supplementary forum for people who need more help navigating the waters of internet abundance.
What do you think I should call the forum? I’m wavering between curiosity compass and digital third places.
itsjustmath.net v2
Just in time for Write of Passage kicking off, I finished the rebuild of my site in React/Next.js (some JavaScript frameworks relevant to my day job as a frontend developer). In the name of learning and building in public, I have made the code open source. If you come across any bugs/issues, please feel free to create an issue in Github or shoot me back a reply to this email.
On the surface it will look very similar to my old website, but just think of it like putting a new engine in an old car. On the surface it looks the same, but under the hood it’s been completely rebuilt with a way more modern, reliable, and powerful engine. An engine that is going to enable me to explore writing in interactive essay formats.
Parting Thoughts
As somebody with ambitious goals and struggles with execution, I’ve been thinking a lot of about The Goldilocks Rule recently. Also called the zone of proximal development, it’s a concept that posits that the key to sustained effort on something is about finding that sweet spot of working at a level just outside of your confidence zone.
Part of the reason I haven’t been as consistent with my writing output is that I set my ambitions and standards too high for what and how often I want to create.
Luckily, I’ve gotten some valuable advice in my writing groups about taking route of guide not guru with what I write, making my writing more conversational, and overall just taking things a little less seriously.
Lastly, I have a few ideas for upcoming articles (that I’m hoping to get done before WOP wraps up), and I would love some feedback on the subject matter. Namely: Does it resonate with you? Are there any things you think I should touch on related to these subjects?
- Coin a phrase: Curiosity Compass
- Unique Perspective: Neurodivergent people need different productivity advice
- Curation: Los Angeles, The Land of Opportunity
Until next time!