The State of the Newsletter 2024 edition
In which I lay out a modest agenda for the coming year.
I've never been one for "New Years Resolutions". After a couple of decades dealing with physical health and fitness, my own and others, I've realized one enduring truth.
Nobody changes and sticks to that change unless they see a change in themselves and what they want.
Any real commitment to doing things different, whether adding new behaviors and subtracting old habits, requires a transformation of inner vision.
Easy to say, harder to do. The proof is always in the practice. Did you do it or not?
Talk is worthless.
Hence I come before you not to make resolutions but to bury them.
Last time on MP, I left you with a cliffhanger promising a new format for this newsletter and a new way of handling my longer-from writing.
Put your hands in the air and step away from the online.
After an unfortunately not-too-relaxing holiday break, I'm ready to hit the ground with forward momentum.
I've set myself a few intentions for where I want my writing to be and what it's for in the coming year.
I've settled on a happy medium between a regular "newsletter", which is meant to be shorter, easy reading, and longer-form articles at a pace of 2-4 per month.
In addition I intend to explore the Notes feature here, as well as one other social media platform (hint: it's related to business and professional connections).
Why? I'm known for hating social media, and I'm 100% right to do so.
Like it or loathe it, social is also one of the only reliable ways to get your work found and devoured by the people who like and want what you're making.
This will be by far the biggest challenge as I'm not an extremely-online small-talker type and I find the medium itself tends to provoke emotional dysfunctions.
Such is the dilemma.
Speaking of which, here’s a shameless plug…
I'm calling it an experiment and like any experiment I have to see how it works out. The major flip will have to start from inside. I'm used to using social in Consumer mode, letting the waves of negative emotion wash over me and reacting with my own negative vibes.
Approaching with deliberate intent as a Producer requires a different set of attitudes and actions but I also suspect it's better for mind and spirit.
We'll see.
Here's what I've got on the agenda:
1- Posting on Notes based on the daily emails I write to my personal email list.
2- Sending 1-2 brief newsletters via the usual Substack machinery based on quotes or stories or anecdotes that I deem worthy of a few hundred words of exploration.
3- Longer articles published at least twice monthly exploring the philosophy, history of ideas, Big Deep Thinking stuff I've written about over the past year.
One last thing. In my other life, I have a modest side-hustle as a writer for businesses. I don't let that bleed through too much here, but if or when it becomes relevant, I will not hesitate to drop direct self-promotion.
It turns out that having a PhD in philosophy and being a clear, competent writer with some grasp of persuasive writing and psychology is hugely important, both inside and outside of a well-running operation.
I'll say no more on this for now. I bring it up only so that, if you find yourself allergic to the occasional and non-pushy mention of such details, you can unsubscribe now before it chafes you.
What do you think? How's your life looking at the start of 2024?
Leave a comment and let me know.
As always, thanks for reading.
-Matt