memento mori: substack edition

most blogs and newsletters die after the first two articles. in fact, a lot of ideas and endeavors die before they even hit the production stack, so launching a blog or a substack is already taking action – and doing the thing 99% of people would rather not deal with because it's doomed to fail

so why all the small caps? this is the spirit of this newsletter – exploring the unconventional that's right in front of us, through an experimental lens. for instance, not capitalizing words while writing this first issue made flow state happen faster; no more unnecessary trips to the shift key every few words. it's working so well that i might keep using it forever

and the never ending sentences? is adding a period too expensive? that too is another experiment – in allowing the reader to flow with their thoughts and allowing them to escape the text, as opposed to controlling them in the space of a sentence. like i just did.

this newsletter is itself an experiment in expression.

a quick backstory

i left my very nice and cozy big tech job a year ago (technically, a year and a couple of days ago, but who's counting), i had it all planned out, or so i thought –

building and growing a startup, which was supposed to be the primary focus, ended up becoming less of a priority as i explored who i wanted to become over the next decade. for example, i noticed i was taking a radically different approach in company building, than what most people would consider "industry standard", or even "sane"; adopting the contrarian way wasn't just for the sake of doing so, but because i was looking at building a company as an experiment in building a company; driven by curiosity, and a bunch of "maybe there's a different / better way to do this" questions

this newsletter takes the show public, and builds on some of the experiments (and experiences) of these past 12 months – which i consider, so far, the most transformational time in my life. from running a self-funded company as a solo founder/operator, to optimizing meal-planning for my household, there's a wide range of things i'm excited to explore openly here

why you should care?

the main reader of this newsletter is myself, my close friends that have had enough of my whatsapp wall of texts, extended friends that have been wondering "what the hell that guy has been up to", and whoever wants to join the experimental party – welcome!

for everyone that's not myself and reading this: i hope what you come across here is entertaining, ridiculous, enlightening, or just gets you to see something obvious differently

why substack?

out of convenience. maintaining a wordpress blog means spending more time dancing around wordpress and less time writing and publishing – and substack easily ticks a bunch of boxes i had in mind (including, supporting podcasts! and video content!)

what topics will i cover?

i initially listed 26 topics here, so instead i'll share some ideas i have in mind (with listed topics):

• can artificial intelligence help design an islamic art tattoo? (culture x ai x religion x future x art)
• an algorithm to optimize meal-planning (family x math x health x nutrition)
• i accidentally walked a random path to 1million monthly users, and what's next (community x bragging x product x engineering x strategy x growth)
• product strategy explorations / asking for feedback on what i'm building (community x product x strategy)
• why most people don't play office politics, and why you shouldn't be one of them (culture x management x philosophy)
• the psychedelic renaissance, and why it's even more important to talk about drugs than ever (drugs x policy x culture x mental health)
• cannabinoids and terpenes, a new frontier for cannabis genomics (drugs x culture x health x ai x tech)
• what the heck is a metaverse anyways? (web3 x web2 x web1 x web0)

what do you get from subscribing?

you'll get to keep me accountable for keeping this newsletter / community alive; you get to reply and influence the conversation, and be part of a community that enjoys experimentation as a way of living; and who knows, you might even change how you see the world around us. thanks in advance for your support, and excited to see you soon.