Slow Reads - A Primer
Hi.
It's never been louder on the internet, and attention has never been for sale at lower prices.
Which is weird, because it seems as though the discourse is about about is how much of our attention is spent elsewhere. But even in the habits of the people we laud, deem luminaries, and reference as legends, they too had a relationship with slowness.
Slow is not the opposite of speed; it is the antithesis of prolonged distraction. It is a first cousin of depth, and can be connected to anything that matters to you or for you. It is not simply about eliminating things; it is about expanding the scope of the things you want to spend your time on. Move fast and break things is cool, until you can't move because everything is broken.
The paradox between movement and stillness isn't so much what you decide not to do; it is an exploration of what you can glean from what you are doing. The slow and the deep, help with the fast and agile. That digging, and unearthing, can mean the difference between drowning in a sea of hot takes, and getting ashore to a stable sense of awareness.
There is a natural shift in of communication that happens as life continues to develop, and can sometimes abruptly send us in the direction of things we didn't expect. To that end, the things we may be thinking about, we find less time to sit with, and even less time to say. I have struggled with this in ways I am still coming to grips with.
Slow Reads is an extension of how I am trying to have conversations with those around me, myself, and the world at large.
What should I expect as a subscriber ?
You'll get it it bi-weekly (for now), on Sundays. Each newsletter will contain:
A Feature story:(probably 1-3K words).
Contextual Round Up - Best of the best reads across the internets. High shelf life so it doesn't go bad easily.
Joyful, hilarious, and BIG fun from the internet. We need levity. Real bad.
The name gives away the idea, that, it should take you some time to get through what shows up in your inbox, because it is curated to be deep and wide.
I'm interested in exploring a few themes, Not limited too, but including:
The Performance and Psychology of Quitting in the modern era of work (and how weird it feels)
How we all collectively gave our privacy away, want it back, but are exhausted by the steps it takes to reclaim it
Rest-as-a-service and other things we used to not film ourselves doing
Entrepreneurship by Acquisition and the opportunity of a generation aka The Boomer Goodbye
The financialization of everything, everywhere, all the time and the impact on our impulse control
How many of us were socialized to be exceptional individual contributors but not (necessarily) effective managers
The rise, fall, chaos, and sustainability (maybe?) of 'independent' media companies
We'll also go deep into history as well, because for all the great work that is out there, the kind of takes we are subjected too can be so devoid of context, it's hard to be sure what you are hearing and seeing, and what it is informed by. I also grew up on Reading Rainbow and Schoolhouse Rock so, sorry I'm not sorry. Blame my mother.
Why are you doing this today?
I tried this a few years ago, but I was naïve about how much fatigue i still had from work (and failure hangovers), and not the right operating system to express ideas and let people digest them. I never had the ability to stick to one field of interest; they always converged somewhere in my life. Writing felt like the one opportunity to flesh them out and see them clearly. Right now, moments of clarity are far and few between, and my goal is to use this quiet corner of the interwebs to be a place for roaming, thinking, and playing around. A younger me wanted to be a librarian, a professor, and a chef. This is sort of all three professions working in tandem.
I believe clear writing is a sign of clearer thinking, so in a way, I do this as a practice in craft and consistency.
Who is this for?
I write for two core audiences.
Operators who paint. This is a framework I've thought of to describe people who have a multiplicity of things they think about, but are mainly known for the output most associated with what people know they do. A multiplicity of interests, and a full calendar.
Artists who operate. These are the makers who and are learning both the system and strategies they can use to engage those things effectively.Full calendars of making, who are making systems and space for themselves to go deeper.
See you soon.
Until then, WE BALL.
