A Change of Plans

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I've had a realisation, actually this has been floating in my mind for a while.

When I started out writing these letters, I had so much to say, so many things I wanted to tell you. The words would flow almost effortlessly onto the page.

Yesterday, I started writing a letter with the intention of sending it to you all, but partway through decided to scrap it. It wasn't goo.d enough.

I was basically going to write a piece about this TED talk, where Seth Godin highlights how so many little things in our world are broken, and tries to explain why with his homebrew list of reasons why.

"I am sure that this is not the right list. I am sure that I am leaving things out, but I'm winging it."

Seth Godin

It became apparent that the letter offered very little in the way of original content. You should honestly just watch the talk.

But if you insist, here, have the incomplete document: Broken all over

I scanned my mind, what was I thinking about lately? What could I say that was beneficial? I started writing about life maintenance of all things, about cooking and cleaning. I had a fun little piece penned up about problem-solving in day-to-day life. I was going to write about why it was that we found chores boring and what we can do to make them more productive and enjoyable. The basic premise is that we shouldn't be repeating the same rituals over and over by trying to figure out how we can need less work in the future. To clean the house for good - such that it stays clean (or at least is easier to clean next time). That it is possible and desirable to take steps to reduce your workload in the future, and that doing so leaves you more free to enjoy your lives.

This started to feel a little contrived. I felt stuck. Writing about cooking and cleaning felt a little off-brand, but it was fun. I only moved out of my parents' place at the beginning of this year, so learning to live - to cook food for well in advance, and to keep a house clean - are all still very novel to me. I had planned to write about all these tips and tricks I've discovered to minimise the workload in maintaining a human existence, and how you could make progress in cleaning (i.e., leave the house easier to clean from then on).

It was fun to write, but didn't cut the mustard. You can read what I had unfinished here: Cooking and Cleaning.

What I am trying to get at, is that writing a letter every week on a Sunday (or at least aiming to) is becoming more contrived to me. More arbitrary. At the beginning, I had so much to say, but now I feel like I'm arbitrarily mining my mind for content.

Rather than sending out a specific time every week, I am switching this up to writing whenever.

This way, I can live more in line with the fun criterion.

"Hash out what you want NOW—much rarer & harder than it sounds—and think about the long term as one of many ways of criticising that."

David Deutsch, this tweet

Rather than focussing on these letters I will focus on my bigger piece "How we know what we know" which I intend on releasing by the year's end.

So this is it. The end of these weekly letters... for now.

(Note: Writing whenever I feel may mean I write more often at times, I will write and send whenever I have something I want to say. And I will be exploring, looking for and consuming interesting content day-to-day)

In other news, my interview with Maria Issaris on her radio show New Voices aired today, and in case you missed it, it will also be airing this upcoming Sunday. It will be available as a podcast later. I will let you know when it is available.

Here is some marketing copy they wrote about me that you might find fun to read in the meantime.

Thank you again everyone for following me, for being interested in what I have to say. I hope I can continue to bring benefit and enjoyment into your lives.

If you have any advice for me, any suggestions as to where to go next or what to write about, please don't hesitate to reply to this email and get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.

Stay well everyone and watch this space,

Sashin