246 - keep on keepin' on ✍️
Hey there, !
First things first, we're nearly at the 5 year mark for Potentially Interesting - so please click here! and give me some feedback on the newsletter. Genuinely crazy I'm up to 5 years, and this is the 246th post?!
Flabbergasted.
And also hilarious that I've managed to stay under 100 people on this newsletter which means it's still free for me to send this out LOL. Don't know if that's a good or bad thing shrugs sorry Buttondown!
Anyway, today's a short one - I'm skint on idea juice. The break will fill my cup a bit more, I think.
On the topic of making things happen and being more agentic, as I've written about a bit in the last few newsletters, I was reflecting on how I was able to write for so long. This wasn't an easy change, and it has often been difficult to keep up, but why do I continue to do this? What makes me keep going?
I genuinely haven't broken this streak - okay, maybe 2 or 3 weeks off for holidays or whatever, but other than that it's been one of the most consistent things that I've done in the last 5 years.
Other than...breathing or blinking or those sorts of things. Ya nitpicker.
When I first started, I was just...writing. I felt like I was bursting with ideas and I had it ready to go. And luckily for me, it just kept coming, even if the content has been variable.
But what I did realise is that I just...did it. It's one of the only things that I've just gone 'yep, I'm going to do this' and it worked. I never do that - I am so much more ruled by my head than heart / guts; so thinking that this would become a nearly 250-post documentation of my life is just...crazy.
Since I'm looking to work out how change occurs in my own life, I thought it would be useful to analyse what kept this habit going:
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I set aside a night to just write. It was something I kept relatively sacred - and even when work has got very hard, or when other things have got in the way, I haven't missed. I've always planned ahead, and that has really helped.
- I wonder if here, the mindset of 'not missing' or 'it's just what i do' made it easier to continue. It wasn't a 'thing I have to achieve' it was a 'you just write every Tuesday'. It made it an easier rule to adhere to - it's Tuesday, I'm writing. Easy peasy.
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I reduced the barriers for entry in my own head - it didn't need to be big, it didn't need to be public...it just needed to be my own private place on the internet / in your inbox that I would be writing for.
- I think here it was good to reduce the pressure of writing something great and just writing something that's good. I think some of my early pieces were deliberately rough, and less edited - just so I could feel okay with writing something. The trade-off over time is that I still don't really edit my work that heavily, which is probably not great for improving over time. I toyed with sending these posts to be commented on by others before they got posted, but I thought that might break my flow. Hmm...something to think about.
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My metrics were not reads / opens, but consistency in posting - aligned to my systems, not goals view of things, it was really just about consistently getting something out every week. It helped so much in finding my own voice, and my own style. Just like my fav author Terry Pratchett talked about - "For more than three years I wrote more than 400 words every day. I mean, every calendar day..." - consistency brings results.
- The reflection here was that it was something that was just for me - it would have been successful whether you were here reading this or not. Something a bit more selfish, perhaps? Or like...something I just wanted for myself. Yeah...I think that helped.
Nothing really deep or meaningful here. Just thinking out loud. Maybe you'll get something out of it?
Chat soon :)
Let me know if you have any feedback for the newsletter!
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Table Manners with Jessie & Lennie Ware - I can't remember who recommended this to me but it's super cozy and nice to listen to; Jessie Ware (a singer) and her mum cook dinner for some fun guests - including people like Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Daniel Kaluuya, Sandi Toskvig - a bit of a random bunch, but really nice vibes. A relaxed dinner party kind of atmosphere and flowing conversation - super fun to listen to. Highly recommended!
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Kosta's Takeaway - yeah, it's Sydney, but it was DELISH - had a schnitty bun which was super crispy and delicious. Sydney ain't all bad - very recommended for some good lunch food :D
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Managing Oneself - I feel like I read this article AGES ago...perhaps in one of the HBR books that you see in a bookshop. What I found interesting was how it resonated differently the second time round - different experiences I've had since the last time I read this, and what I've observed about the world around, and of, me, which helps to bring more colour to what this guy is trying to talk about. Young people (me in uni) sometimes just need to wait and live life for a bit before really understanding the world.
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Reverse Engineering TicketMaster's Rotating Barcodes (SafeTix) - niche breakdowns of interesting things - this time, how TicketMaster creates unique, 'live' codes
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Insect migration: The 30-meter pass in the Pyrenees through which millions of insects migrate - Vince and niche science articles - name a better duo :)