Having done a throat clearing piece the first week and the one writing idea I actually had when starting the newsletter, the second week, this week I was finally forced to think about the direction I want to take with this letter.
I enjoyed heading down the rabbit hole of how to learn better last week. I already knew that there was much I needed to learn about teaching after struggling to homeschool the boys for a year recently. Last week it also became clear that I also had to learn a lot about learning.
As it happens, this is also a space where a lot is changing (yes, AI, duh!) and one that is even otherwise relevant to me given the presence of two (reluctant) learners that I am (even more reluctantly) trying to support.
So it seemed like a natural beat to walk.
I subscribe to a few Substacks and as I trawled through them I realised that the only reason I subscribed to each of them was because they were written by experts who also happen to have an amazing way with the words. Here’s a sample:
Money Stuff by Matt Levine - GOAT of newsletters. It’s not even close. And daily? Get outta here…
Don't Worry About the Vase by Zvi Mowshowitz - I can’t believe it’s free.
Bits about Money by Patrick McKenzie (Patio11) - How is a software engineer teaching me about my job?
In other words, I have a very high bar for who I let into my inbox. I could write about how to learn better but clearly I am not the preeminent expert on the topic, I am barely getting started. It would be hard for me to clear my own bar for quite some time, if ever. And if I am going sustain this, I need to enjoy what I am doing. I need to be able to experiment, make messes and generally figure things out.
It occurred to me that a better medium for that kind of a goal might be a website rather than spamming people in their inboxes. It will give me the freedom to play around with the format, topics, content & timing and make the aforementioned messes without worrying too much.
Now my wife thinks I am trying to wiggle out of my New Year’s resolution with this talk, but frankly, she barely knows me, so we can safely ignore that possibility.
So here’s the plan: I will continue writing here on a weekly basis till the website is setup and then move everything over there.