Geeks 🗞️ Slow News Day #79

Hey,

A few weeks ago, I wrote to you about returning to my geeky hobbies. More hours have gone into Football Manager and I’m about to buy my first box of Age of Sigmar miniatures to paint. An expensive hobby to take up as I prepare to buy a house… poor timing, Joe.

That was possibly my most popular newsletter ever in terms of the replies it generated. (I don’t know for sure because, as the footer of each email explains, I don’t track a single interaction you have with this newsletter. Worth shouting the privacy-first approach out again, for any newbies here.)

The results are conclusive, though.

You’re all a bunch of shameful geeks.

Just like me.

I had LEGO, Warhammer, amateur radio, The Sims, and beatnik book nerds crawling out of the digital woodwork and you all are so, so wonderful.

It was a joy to suddenly have a rush of supportive people in my inbox. Now, what I really want is for us to change the shame and double-down on geekery.

I’ve seen the proof: there are like minds out there. Scores of them. And we feel these interests are parts of ourselves that should be hidden. What I’ve also seen, though, is that we feel able to bring them out into the light with a little prompting.

So perhaps this is the way forward? That, when we feel able and okay, we should entice these things out of one another. That the first step is to bravely admit to your supposedly shameful passions and open up the space for others to jump onto your snowball of courageous enthusiasm.

Let me know how you get on with it…

Slow down guide

Need a little help moving slower?

Ease your way out of Friday afternoon with this newsletter, a nice cup of something, and a little background music. Steal my setup if you aren't sure where to start.

After I press send, I’m going to look ahead to a cracking drink tonight. Coffee be damned, I want a can of HAWG. Excellent name, lush pale ale, and another 0.5% banger from Mash Gang. This is piney and punchy and pithy and phwoaaaaar ain’t that nice. Crack it open, chug it back. You’ve earned it, champ.

Mapache’s juicy Swinging Stars should go nicely with your tipple of choice. It’s yearning, drawling, harmonic, and has some rather lovely piano backing it all up. And — as if there’s more, another and! — would you just look at that album artwork? That’d take pride of place on my wall, if I had it as a print. And if I had a wall. House purchase still pending, you see.

Take it easy,