Hello!
I (like everyone else) have finally succumbed to making a Substack. I am going to try really really really hard to actually keep up with writing and not just post 2 things and forget about it. If that happens oh well. But I’m going to try.
Why?
There is too much in my brain. I want to learn more things but I’ve gotten to the point where the only media I can consume is old re-runs of Glee (which is awesome, but also there’s probably more to life). For me, writing will be the brain-equivalent of clearing out my camera roll — I really really really want to take new pictures (read, listen to podcasts, learn), but I am operating on a measly 0.3 MB of metaphorical available storage. I hope to my gut reaction to “you should listen to this podcast” and being sent articles stops feeling like this:
It really shouldn’t.
Beyond that, I plan to write because this excerpt from this essay haunts me.
In particular,
“She wrote three separate essays about the question of female founders. But she could never bring herself to publish any of them”.
I have notes apps, Notion pages, and pages on pages of diagrams of opinions I’m shaping in real-time and visions I have for the world around me. While I don’t really proclaim to be an expert on anything, I don’t want these thoughts to stay private forever. It scares me, but I want to share what’s going on inside my head. I hope that it can help unlock something for someone, and I know that even if no one reads anything I write at all, the act of writing in public will do wonders for me.
From the limited thoughts I’ve shared, I’ve seen some really cool stuff happen:
Writing Why I Do What I Do has been a very small sample of what writing can do — with so much of who I am and what I care about captured before I even have a conversation with someone, there is room to discuss everything else. I’ve learned that the more I write, the easier it is to attract people who are suuuuper values-aligned and get the most out of the time we have together. Big wins.
Because I want to write, I have set up some accountability. Shoutout to Anson, but she’s been singlehandedly carrying the cheerleading squad for far too long:
MORE COMING SOON (hopefully).
I will truly give my best effort to be intrinsically motivated but I am a simple human and peer pressure is magic. I have a lot to share and most of it is at 80% complete sitting in a Notion doc somewhere. Please bother me if I haven’t written in a while.
On that note — please send me your writing! Reading essays from friends is the modern-day *reading a post card*. This is without a doubt one of my favourite activities and a very quick way to my heart. And if you need an extra cheerleader to get started, let me know. 😎🎉
Stay tuned!!!!!!!
- Joss
