Reader's Digest
Many directions to explore
After completing my 3 part series on work, I got some interesting feedback. People wanted more. And it wasn’t just my mother (hi mom!). Multiple readers gave feedback that part 3 felt short and possibly incomplete. This was balanced out by my partner, who has suffered from me talking about my philosophies of ‘work’ for so long that we rejoiced that I had laid that topic to rest and could move on with my life.
One side-effect of taking work so seriously these past 3 months has been a strong uptick in my writing. I published several articles on medium.com over the past 4 weeks, and I thought maybe I should make a digest in order to share that work here on Substack. Also, I’m considering ramping up my writing production in January for a local community art project in West Philly called Fun-A-Day. If I did publish one article a day for the entire month, a Substack digest could be an excellent way to help filter that content to you, and avoid blowing up your inbox.
One consequence of being a person with many interests is that I write about a wide variety of topics. I sometimes worry that by writing about such a variety of subjects I risk alienating my audience, but I have to remember that the reverse is also true - I may be able to attract a diverse audience by sticking to my principles, and exploring all the places I am drawn to.
On November 12 I turned a conversation that I had with my tenant into an existential thought experiment about “How Do We Know What’s Important?” I write about what it means for two people from different backgrounds to exist in the same place at the same time. I don’t go into much detail about our specific differences (missed opportunity perhaps?), instead focusing on one interaction we had, and why it was important to me.
Also on November 12, I decided to comment on the literature that Silicone Valley elites invest their time in reading in “The Power Of Story Telling - From Snow Crash to Bitcoin.” As I’ve evolved into a writer and invested more time and energy into my self image, the importance of narrative, and the impact that narratives can have on the real world has started to take on new meaning. I think there are learnings to be had by studying the narratives that powerful people are obsessed with, and in this essay I start to have that conversation.
Tensions were high in the lead-up to Thanksgiving, and I reflected on an argument I had with my partner in “Empathy, And Do We Actually Want Other People To Walk In Our Shoes?” Apart from some older technical writing, this piece is now my most popular on medium. I recently re-read it trying to understand why it has been connecting with readers, and I think it’s because I really do open myself up and display some vulnerability (something I perhaps fall short of in some of the other essays). Being vulnerable as a writer is difficult. It takes a comittment to the craft and a shamelessness that really isn’t how I usually show up in the world. I’ll have to reflect on these ideas some more and see what I can learn.
During the Thanksgiving break I was reexposed to a Disney classic and excitedly authored “Why the World Needs Fantasia 2025.” Fantasia is and was a strange film, but it’s captured hearts and minds for many years. It’s a genuine American cultural touchstone, and it’s interesting to revisit it in a modern context. Whether you can list off every scene in the film, or you only vaguely remember maybe seeing it in theaters when a modified version was released in the year 2000, I wonder if you’ll agree that this work of art is timeless.
Until next time,
-Rhoen
