Hey
Reader —
I just published a piece called "35 Years of Posting Things Online," and the act of writing it made me confront something I've been avoiding for way too long. I started posting on the internet in 1991. And then I went quiet on my own site for four years.
The quietness wasn't intentional. It's what happens when you spend most of your energy helping clients tell their stories and building systems for other people's content. Your own stuff gets pushed to tomorrow, which becomes next month, which becomes a different season entirely. This newsletter keeps me visible, but there's a difference between showing up in someone's inbox and owning a corner of the internet where you actually write. I forgot that. I'm working on remembering.
3 Things I'm Thinking About
One Thing I Learned This Week
Showing up matters more than hitting it out of the park. Writing that piece forced me to confront my own pattern — I go quiet on my personal channels, and then only emerge when there's something to promote. But the relationship you build with your community (or your audience, or your craft) is made in the regular moments, not the big announcements. Consistent presence beats intermittent brilliance every single time. That's true for websites, newsletters, personal projects, and careers alike.
Links That Made Me Stop Scrolling
New on My Blog
Joe reflects on a career that started with loading events into Gopher in 1991, evolved through building homebrew CMS platforms and writing thousands of words before 8am every day, and now includes a commitment to showing up on his personal site again. Also: thoughts on AI, training data, and why Substack isn't the answer.
Read more →Let's Think Something Through Together
I keep a few spots open for 1:1 strategy conversations — whether you're navigating a career shift, untangling a tricky org problem, or just need a second brain on something that matters. No pitch deck required.
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