Archive • Letters to J • Buttondown

026 — Pain as a scalar

This is the twenty-sixth issue of Letters to J. We hope this one reminds you to stretch.

(Justin ⇒ , 11/16/20)

#26

November 17, 2020

025 — Punch-carded days

This is the twenty-fifth issue of Letters to J. We hope this one reminds you to get your punch card stamped (and to celebrate the Biden/Harris win).

(Jasdev ⇒ , 11/9/20)

#25

November 10, 2020

024 — Zeek’s

This is the twenty-fourth issue of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to curl up on the couch with your favorite pizza.

(Justin ⇒ , 11/2/20)

#24

November 3, 2020

023 — Face mask by face mask

This is the twenty-third issue of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to carve out time to face mask.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 10/26/20)

#23

October 27, 2020

022 — Nicomachean Ethics

This is the twenty-second issue of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to either read some Aristotle or plan out a 2021 Vegas trip.

(Justin ⇒ , 10/19/20)

#22

October 20, 2020

021 — Three-person group chats

This is the twenty-first issue of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to start — or revive — a group chat with your pals.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 10/12/20)

#21

October 13, 2020

020 — Cruciverbalism

This is the twentieth issue of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to grab a clipboard, a pencil (or pen if you’re brave), and the closest newspaper.

(Justin ⇒ , 10/5/2020)

#20

October 6, 2020

019 — Misty

This is the nineteenth issue of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to scroll through photos of your favorite pet — family’s, friend’s, or otherwise.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 9/28/20)

#19

September 29, 2020

018 — Telemachus

This is the eighteenth issue of Letters to J. We hope this one inspires you to pet the nearest corgi.

(Justin ⇒ , 9/21/20)

#18

September 22, 2020

017 — Setting boundaries and the Yoneda Lemma

This is the seventeenth issue of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to set boundaries around what makes you uniquely you.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 9/14/20)

#17

September 15, 2020

016 — Volume shooting

This is the sixteenth issue of Letters to J. We hope that you got to take yesterday to recover and unplug a bit (we certainly did, thus the delay).

(Justin ⇒ , 9/8/20)

#16

September 9, 2020

015 — A Cascade Tetris friendship

This is the fifteenth sending of Letters to J. We hope this one reminds you of a friendship with a weird and cherished origin story.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 8/31/20)

#15

September 1, 2020

014 — Stormwind and Prontera

This is letter fourteen of Letters to J. We hope this one gives you license to geek out a little.

(Justin ⇒ , 8/24/20)

#14

August 25, 2020

013 — A surefire capture the flag strategy

This is letter thirteen of Letters to J. We hope this one reminds you of your favorite childhood game.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 8/17/20)

#13

August 18, 2020

012 — M, A, & C

This is the twelfth sending of Letters to J. We hope this one reminds you of a good friend.

(Justin ⇒ , 8/10/20)

#12

August 11, 2020

011 — Phrontisteries

This is the eleventh sending of Letters to J. We hope this one encourages you to find a quiet study spot.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 8/3/20)

#11

August 4, 2020

010 — Antilibraries

This is the tenth letter of Letters to J.

(Justin ⇒ , 7/27/20)

#10

July 28, 2020

009 — Listen to the gardeners

This is the ninth sending of Letters to J.

(Jasdev ⇒ , 7/20/20)

#9

July 21, 2020

008 — How not to drown

This is the eighth letter of our penpal series, Letters to J.

(Justin ⇒ , 7/13/20)

#8

July 14, 2020

007 — Revisiting earned fatigue

This is the seventh letter of our penpal series, Letters to J.

(Jasdev ⇒ Justin, 7/6/20)

#7

July 7, 2020

006 — Lacunae

This is the sixth sending of our penpal newsletter, Letters to J.

There’s no other way to put it, the past month — and the ongoing reality for Black folks — was deeply saddening.

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee and countless others should still be alive. Their murders reveal, many times over, that prejudice and racism towards Black people is ever-pervasive in America. And we have a long way to go in reversing that. Justin and I put these letters on pause to instead read, listen, donate, and hold space. The topic also doesn’t fade once it does from Twitter’s Trending section — we’re still educating ourselves and here’s a few entries and resources that particularly impacted us:

#6

June 30, 2020

005 — Bookmarks

This is the fifth sending of our penpal newsletter, Letters to J.

There’s no other way to put it, the past month — and the ongoing reality for Black folks — was deeply saddening.

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee and countless others should still be alive. Their murders reveal, many times over, that prejudice and racism towards Black people is ever-pervasive in America. And we have a long way to go in reversing that.¹ Justin and I put these letters on pause to instead read, listen, donate, and hold space. The topic also doesn’t fade once it does from Twitter’s Trending section — we’re still educating ourselves and here’s a few entries and resources that particularly impacted us:

#5

June 23, 2020

004 — Abstractions

This is the fourth sending of a penpal newsletter we’re calling Letters to J.

You can read the first few issues here!

#4

May 26, 2020

003 — September 26th

This is the third sending of a penpal newsletter we’re calling Letters to J.

You can read the first or second here and and we hope this brings some needed puttering to Monday’s evening.

#3

May 19, 2020

002 — Stasis

This is the second dispatch of Justin and Jasdev’s penpal newsletter, Letters to J.

You can read the first .

#2

May 12, 2020

001 — Upon further reflection

This is the first letter between two friends across coasts.

Jasdev is trying to figure things out after ending a three and a half year ~~run~~ ride as an engineer at Peloton. He gets a bit more into that, below.

Justin is currently an engineer at Stripe and the maintainer of Buttondown (a newsletter tool) and Spoonbill (a social media metadata tool). He’s trying to get back into writing (and, if we’re being honest, reading.)

#1

May 5, 2020