A mopey memo & more!

Why I haven't written you + what I've enjoyed lately

Oh hey 👋

Long time no write. 

I took two months off from personal writing without warning you. I’m sorry. I didn’t plan on bailing like Taylor in a relationship. 

Here’s what happened: I took a writing course. 

Ironic, I know. 

I went through David Perell’s Write of Passage. And I learned some solid writing frameworks — like good writing is personal, observational, and playful. But I also finished the course discouraged for two reasons. (Man, this would have made for a good Twosday.)

1. I found myself putting in double the time (~10 hours per essay) only to receive the same return: crickets.
   
   That’s not your fault. I just had the unrealistic expectation that more time led to better quality, which led to more people flocking to my work. That formula flopped for me — because of the next reason I finished the course discouraged.
   

2. I learned the rules of the game for growing a newsletter. And once I learned the rules, I didn’t want to play the game.
   
   In the influencer age, if you want to grow a newsletter, you have to spend more time talking about your newsletter than actually writing it. One woman said she spends two hours a day engaging with other writers’ work in an effort to grow her newsletter. Engagement feels like the accepted term for using people to get what you want. The mutual back-scratching leads to a content ecosystem where quality doesn’t win — personal branding does. 

I’m not entirely dry from nearly drowning in my pity pool, but I’m getting there — thanks to you. When a few of you reached out saying you missed me in your inbox, I took that personally — in the best way possible. 

So, thanks for noticing my disappearance, if you did. If you didn’t notice or care, I get it. We’re all inundated with too much content to notice when the small guys go missing. And we’re moving too fast to take time to genuinely engage with peoples’ work — like we’re all going through the Louvre on Bird scooters. 

Writers can feel like their words go into the same place as socks in the dryer. So encourage a writer today by replying to any words that made you smile, think, or feel. Sometimes I respond to brands’ emails telling them what I like about the email. Because I know behind that email is a human who will tell all the other humans who made that email happen. Your one minute of encouragement will make many humans happy. 

Ok, my mope fest is over. 

Let’s end with something more uplifting:

A Baker’s Dozen of Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately

🧰 Tools

MyMind: I’ve been obsessed with this freemium tool that makes it easy for you to store your digital content (notes, articles, links, quotes, etc.) in one place. And it uses AI to organize it for you so you don’t have to.

📚 Books

Words of Radiance: My brother pushed me into the Sanderson cult. And boy does this sequel slap stronger than Will Smith.

Peace Like a River: I heard my pastor say this is one of his favorite fiction books. So I gave it a whirl and it didn’t disappoint. If you’re a fan of family struggle stories, you’ll dig it. The dad may be one of my favorite fictional characters.

Little Fires Everywhere: Late to the game, but I enjoyed the read. Sarah and I watched the Hulu show and it was blah. As usual, the book is better.

Gilead: Dadgum! Marilynne Robinson can write beautiful prose. This 2005 Pulitzer winner about a dying father contemplating his existence is in the running for my favorite book of the year.

📺 Shows

Taskmaster (Series 16): I’ll say it — Taskmaster is the best game show the average American hasn’t heard about. That’s because it’s British. Every season has five different comedians competing against each other in the most clever tasks you’ll find on the internet. Series 16 made me fall in love with the Aussie Sam Campbell.

Only Murders in the Building: The most fun Sarah and I have together trying to solve a murder. Season 4 is out now!

🎙️ Podcasts

René Girard’s Mimetic Theory by Johnathan Bi: Girard was a French philosopher most known for his theory that human desire is imitative, or "mimetic." We don’t desire things independently or spontaneously. Instead, we learn what to desire by imitating the desires of others. This 7-part series on the concept has been a great distraction during my runs.

Medellin by 99% Invisible: The drug cartel once made Medellin, Colombia one of the most dangerous cities in the world. But by the early 2000s, the city had reinvinted itself. Now, gentrification is bringing new problems.

Golden Harper by Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin: As a lifelong distance runner, I haven’t jumped on the zero drop shoe craze. But Golden Harper, the founder of Altra, does a dang good job of almost getting me there in this interview where he tells his story of starting the company.

Big Fish by Criminal: There’s surprisingly good money in fishing competitions. And wherever there’s good money, there are people trying to bend and break the rules. Sometimes that looks like putting weights down the throats of fish.  

A Goldilocks Universe by The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God: Some renowned atheists have said that the best argument for convincing them of God is how perfect the conditions are for our existence. This podcast episode explores that perfection.

👫 Life

Sarah and I went to Banff — so bluetiful!

I’ll be in your inbox again soon.

✌️

— Luke