At the risk of making things sound Official™ (Narrator Voice: “they’re not”), this is the second entry of the newsletter behind Distillations. You can find the first entry, “Belated Introductions,” here.
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I trudged through “Slowing Down the Web“ for most of June. Not so much because of the essay’s content, but rather the personal happenings that overcast my writing. The emotional range of the events was incredibly—and unfortunately—wide. My grandmother passed away, I’m no longer seeing the woman I was dating for the past three months, our iOS team shipped a major update, and I’m trialing a lateral career move.
I mentioned in “Belated Introductions“ that “decoupling myself from my work has always been important.” After this month, I’m not sure ‘decoupling’ is the right word. There will always be an interplay between my identity and work. A healthier relationship might be that of a foreground and background.
Relatedly, Shiva and I made a slight modification—that ended up being not so slight—to our weekly checkins. We removed the “Honorable Mentions” section. It was a corner where we placed those I’ll-be-okay moments (unrelated to his short films and my writing). I honestly miss it. On one hand, its absence allowed our checkins to be focused and linear. “Goals for the week: X and Y. What got done? X and most of Y.” On the other hand, that focused linearity removed, well, everything else. Was Y unfinished because I was lazy…or was my energy directed towards fostering a potential relationship? Taking out Honorable Mentions stripped the very context that backdrops our work.
So, I’m welcoming them back—here’s a glimpse into my 26th week of 2018:
I hope you jot down some honorable mentions from this past week.
See you next month. Be well.
Jas