Personal

I'm publishing something every day in Q2

I’m going to publishing something every day in Q2.

I made this decision about 48 hours ago and I’m writing this half-way through Day 1. I don’t know whether I’m including weekends or not. There are lots of unanswered questions.

I’ve been writing a lot more this year, particularly on LinkedIn, and across two newsletters. The momemtum has been building.

Several things happened recently:

• I read a book on grief and thought on “the parts of myself that have not known acceptance.” This made me realise how many of my interests I still keep quiet about.
• I watched a few Tyler Cowen interviews and was moved by his uninhibited geekiness (and his own daily publishing on Marginal Revolution).
• I spent too much time on LinkedIn, which is many ways the antithesis of everything I hold dear.

Tyler mentioned in one interview that Substack often becomes too personal and full of emotion. It encourages longer-format, original reflections and discourages people from being editors of other peoples ideas. I bristled at first, but it brought me back to the original model of blogging: writing whatever you want on your own quirky website. I did this for years as a teenager and I loved it. Here I am again.

What I'm doing this year—modern mystic

In 2023, I’m trying something different.

Instead of covering the usual cornucopia of productivity, tech, social commentary & mental health, I will be doubling down on what I care most about: meditation, wisdom and awakening.

I will be doing this on my personal website, but under a new banner: modern mystic. This takeover will last a year. I have other themes that will follow in the coming years. This is a long game.

Winter holidaying in Cwmystwyth

I needed some time off. As part of an effort to spend less and explore more of what’s around me, I booked a week away near a village called Cwmystwyth in Ceredigion, Wales.

It’s easily drivable from Bristol and I also have friends a little further North, near Machynlleth. I picked it as I wanted to be somewhere remote, near mountains and running water. Check.

Cwmystwyth is a small village nestled alongside the river Ystwyth, which flows all the way west to Aberystwyth. Cwmystwyth literally means “valley of the river Ystwyth.” It sits in the middle of the Cambrian mountains. It is the exact centre point of Wales, according to Wikipedia. This is also West Wales, so it’s pretty wet.