More from Left To Write
Why you’re getting this: I’m Jason Nguyen. I run Bloomstory.co.uk and The Mailroom. This is my newsletter. I used to write this every week, but now I send this out when I can — life got in the way. Updates on what’s been going on in my life are at the bottom of this newsletter.
A brief update of the last months
This will be the last issue of Writemas ‘23. It’s been tough juggling this, Bloomstory and other projects, but it’s been a lot of fun producing these short emails. As we enter the last week of the year, I’m trying to let the dust of 2023 settle so that I can regain
There’s a quote by Jorge Luis Borges I came across that I think about a lot. It goes like this: “I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.”
More in life
I celebrate the pianist's milestone birthday by sharing my favorite music from his first decade as a recording artist
a recap + recording of BATWRITE #001
When we make something new, people often ask "why don't you just add that to Basecamp?" There are a number of reasons, depending on what it is. But, broadly, making something brand new gives you latitude (and attitude) to explore new tech and design approaches. It's the opposite of grafting something on to a heavier, larger system that already exists. The gravity of existing decisions in current systems requires so much energy to reach escape velocity that you tend to conform rather than explore. Essentially you're bent back to where you started, rather than arcing out towards a new horizon. New can be wrong, but it's always interesting. And that in itself is worth it. Because in the end, even if the whole new thing doesn't work out, individual elements, explorations, and executions discovered along the way can make their way back into other things you're already doing. Or something else new down the road. These bits would have been undiscovered had you never set out for new territory in the first place. Ultimately, a big part of making something new is simply thinking something new. -Jason