Week 25 - The turtle's last swim
This is the last issue in this Year of the Turtle. Thank you for swimming along with me this year.
Back in 2019, I decided to write and share more in the form of a newsletter. I spent a lot of time thinking about the name of the 2020 workspace and newsletter. The only one which fit was "The year of the turtle"
A lasting impression of 2019 was snorkeling with sea turtles in a warm pacific ocean. A stressed, cantankerous person, snorkeling for the first time gets to watch a sea turtle trying to munch on some sea weed. A strong tide pushes and pulls this turtle as it tries to get some sea weed. If I was the turtle, I would have paddled and swum with all my might - to get my bite. Hustle. Hustle. This turtle however coasts forward with the forward tide, one flap of its flapper slightly changes direction to take a bite off the closest sea weed, and swims along with the forward tide. Then turns around and take a bite as the tide runs backwards. It was an epiphany on how I wanted to change my mindset.
Through the year, this newsletter's name was a constant reminder - to feel the currents, to be aware of what what I want to do, and to learn to go with the flow, along with the tide to get what I want. Well, it turns out 2020 was a year humanity had to learn to accept the currents and learn to just go with the flow, and chomp a bite of sea-weed when possible.
So, what's next?
There will be a new workspace for 2021 - and it will be prettier (maybe)!
There will be a new newsletter as well - a cheesier, nerdier and idiosyncratic newsletter, but fewer installments. I am committing to only 12 installments - about once a month or so.
In addition, I am committing to writing a monthly article/blog-post/essay/meandering on what I'm thinking about - stuff like this Jim Collins synopsis or like this piece about journals. This past year, I've wanted to write about Zettelkasten / slip boxes, how to understand what I'm thinking, how to think better, different kinds of productivity... However, I got lazy and never did write. In 2021, I plan to put something out every month, and post it on the blog, post it on Medium and to link it to the newsletter.
I also plan to write one more children's book like The Super Kids of Silly Cone Valley. I would love to join the hordes of self-publishing authors generating formula fiction - of course my fiction will only be "inspired" by formulae - not formulaic.
As a part of ending 2020, I'm closing out/archiving/abandoning a few of my projects. I'll be handing over Exifile the Scribd highlight scraping bookmarklet over to folks who can better maintain it. That leaves me open to working on my more recent interests - one possibility is a project I'm calling "The Art of the Dot" - slated for possibly Summer 2021 or maybe Fall 2021.
Now, that's what's planned for our next ride around the sun in 2021. If you want to follow along, you need to do nothing! You, current subscriber will be moved over automatically.
On the other hand, if you think these newsletters are not for you, well, you will have to Click here to unsubscribe!.
Enjoy the last bits of 2020. See you in the new year!
Written on December 30, 2020.
This was Issue #25 of the Year of the Turtle. You can see all the past newsletters on this website.
The fonts used here are from David Jonathan Ross' Font of the Month Club
- Gimlet XRay - January 2020
- Dattilo DJR - March 2020
- Roslindale Deck - April 2020
- Roslindale Text - November 2017