What's On My Mind After 4.5 Years of Writing a Newsletter
A bit of this and that.
Hey there. I’m Dave Anderson. I worked in tech for a good 20+ years, 12+ of which were at Amazon in leadership positions. You very well might know that if you’re a subscriber, but I do like to introduce myself.
Usually, I write about big tech careers. Because that’s what I know.
But today is Christmas. I’ve spent time with family in Illinois, flown across the country, and spent time with our local family in Washington. And now my daughter is 45 minutes into trying to get ready for bed, but she’s so busy listening to her Harry Potter audiobook that she can’t seem to make progress.
I felt it was a good time to take a deep breath and comfortably stay off-topic today. Next week I’ll be back on topic with a banger. Just finished outlining that one.
Happy Holidays!
Before I briefly write my state of the newsletter update, I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday season.
I struggled with what to write that is both authentic and meaningful to me. I’m going to keep it brief because I’ve deleted a good 500 words already, for being either too pithy or too cheesy. So there aren’t many words left inside my keyboard.
I like to view the holiday time as a good reset. You (hopefully) take some time out of your normal schedule of work, family, sports, etc. Because the holidays are nothing if not disruptive.
You may visit family or sit at home alone drinking spiked eggnog.
This means it’s an excellent time to think about what matters to you and if you’re doing what you need to be doing in your life. That is a good question to ask occasionally, regardless of your present circumstances. I think it’s genuinely surprising how often we blindly keep executing on our lives without asking ourselves if there are other choices we should be making.
Maybe you can think about that while your plane is delayed for the third time.
That reset could be a good time to think about a different company or position (look at me accidentally going back on topic). Or it might be time to cut back on your spending and save a little more. Or perhaps you need to start a new exercise routine (hrm, I don’t have an article on this one to link).
My greater point is that this time of reset is a good time to take at least one baby step towards self-improvement. Something where you can look back on this in a year and say, “Nice job, past me!”
One geeky thing I have is that I have a mission statement that I check regularly to make certain it’s still current and to make sure I’m spending my time correctly. Because, of course, I have a strategy for introspection.
“Be healthy, wealthy enough, and cheerful when you’re 90, and always be there for your kids.”
Those exact words were carefully chosen, because they each mean something to me (regarding my goals, behaviors, risks, etc). They certainly wouldn’t mean the same thing to you.
For a small example, I say cheerful, because in my mind, that helps me think through my personal needs, particularly as they differ from my other family members. Like my wife would be happy having 2-3 parties at our house a week, and I’d be significantly happier with my office door closed, doing some coding.
I think it’s fun to try to write one of these yourself. Maybe as part of your New Years reset. I’m sure yours would be different. It’s a good mechanism to make you think a bit.
Context Matters and a brief story
I was thinking through recently how much context around an event matters.
For an obvious example, if your finances are tight, being fired could feel like the end of the world. But if you’re stressed at work and have a large emergency fund, being fired might be a genuine relief.
A longer off-topic story.
I’m not a fan of eating fish. Most fish ranges from “meh, it’s ok” to “yuck” to my taste buds. Unless it’s deep fried cod. But that’s barely fish.
There was an older relative of mine I met with while traveling many years ago. He was a fascinating character. He knew Japanese, had written the book on spies in Sweden during WWII, and was awarded a long list of military honors.
During our home visit, he talked at times about the customs of our Norwegian and Swedish ancestors. At one point he asked if I liked pickled herring.
I don’t like the idea of pickled fish. Or herring. And cold pickled herring from a jar? That sounds frankly disgusting.
So I politely told him that I was fairly sure I had not had pickled herring before, but that situation was perfect just the way it was.
He said, “No! I will show you how to properly eat herring! You’ll see!”
So he brought me into his kitchen, and sat me down at his small table. He pulled out 5 jars of pickled herring. Mustard pickled herring. Dill pickled herring. Wine pickled herring. Onion pickled herring. And of course, plain pickled herring.
I had some deeply concerned thoughts I kept to myself, because I’m a polite boy.
He then pulled out two shot glasses, two small plates, two small forks, and a bottle of vodka. He carefully poured out two generous shots of vodka. And then he opened the first jar of mustard pickled herring, and put a piece on each of our plates.
He raised his shot glass, and I raised mine in response. He gave a lovely toast about fallen comrades and downed his shot. I did the same.
It burned, which I was familiar with, because I’d been to college.
Then he picked up his herring with his fork and ate it, motioning for me to do the same. I did. It wasn’t too bad, mixed with the burning vodka mouth.
Then he refilled our shot glasses. Gave another toast, perhaps to family members we haven’t seen in a while. Regardless of the words I don’t remember, it was touching and evoked a James Bond-style courtly skill I respect.
And we ate our herring.
I ate at least 5 pieces of herring, but my cloudy memory suggests I ate extras of the mustard and dill herring. I remember both of us laughing repeatedly.
I’m sure I felt poorly the next morning. But that evening was probably 20 years ago, if not more. And I still have a memory of what his kitchen looked like. I can’t see a jar of herring without thinking of our brief bonding in his kitchen and how it felt special to share that moment with him. I don’t believe I ever saw him again.
And that’s what popped into my head when I was thinking about how context matters. A jar of herring can be a gross pickled fish. Or it could be a special moment that lasts forever.
In many situations in our lives, it’s worth thinking about how we can influence our personal context. That flat tire on a family drive could be a disaster or a fun adventure for the kids. Being laid off could be insulting and ego bruising, or genuine relief from a bad situation. Imagine what an annoyingly positive person you’d be if you could change your context on command.
Newsletter Update
As I mentioned in the headline, I’m now approximately 4.5 years into writing a newsletter. Wow!
Writing is such an interesting thing. We regularly said at Amazon that writing isn’t just about communicating information. It’s also about clarity of thought.
The more you write, the more you realize how much writing isn’t just about communicating what you know. But it’s also about organizing what you intuit, or have learned over the years.
For example, someone said not too long ago that they wanted to move into management, but unfortunately their leadership team didn’t see them “as management material.”
Whatever that means.
But I spoke to them a bit and got clarification. Even when talking to me, they came across as timid. Their management feedback? They let others lead. They came across as a follower in every interaction. Unless asked, they let others take the lead. And then wondered why they weren’t given a management job.
I wanted to write about how to fix that, but the answer wasn’t immediately obvious.
“Just act like a leader, duh.” is the immediate thought in my head. But what does “acting” like a leader mean? So I had to think and break it down. Could I come up with a way that leaders behave? Not “be confident,” which is super wishy-washy. But instead I wanted concrete categories of behaviors a confident person uses to show others that they’re worth following.
And I figured out some answers, and wrote an article about confidence.
And that’s the fun and interesting part of writing, in my opinion. Yes, it’s entertaining to tell stories about work experiences. But it’s rewarding and fulfilling to take something I have likely learned through intuition and experience and break it down into potentially actionable recommendations.
So anyway, I’m now somewhere around 800k words into this newsletter, and I’m still enjoying breaking down these topics for you lovely readers.
The newsletter business (as a business) hasn’t really grown this past year, but I’m content with that. I purposefully put in enough effort to avoid shrinking revenue, and purposefully avoid the additional effort it would take to grow the newsletter further. Because weirdly enough, I have built enough of a newsletter business to call it good.
Substack Update
I’m a bit more than 2-years into writing on Substack. I’ve had a few people ask me how Substack is going, and I felt it was time to think about it, and write down my thoughts.
The Substack promise? It’s been.. acceptable? Decent? It’s a bit hard to decide.
Positives
Substack has a support team! That saves me a bit of time dealing with random customer things. When possible, I can just put people running into issues in touch with the support group, and I can move on with my life. This has been good.
Free subscribers just show up. With enough big newsletters referring their readers to my newsletter, my free newsletter slowly continues to grow. Theoretically, this pool of free subscribers can always choose to become paid subscribers.
The software is nice. Nice scheduling and editing tools. I could make a podcast if I wanted. I could have a subscriber chat if I wanted to. There are options.
Neutral
Substack has many neat paid features like gift subscriptions and group purchases. But last I looked, not many people used them. So while they’re cool features, they’re fairly neutral revenue-wise.
As I mentioned, the software has a ton of features. But as a paid newsletter author not interested (currently) in doing anything extra, it means there’s just a lot of stuff that doesn’t benefit me.
(Here, a couple of buttons to test my theory!)
Negatives
Substack is incredibly expensive. It’s hard to say if the tens of thousands I spend every year to use Substack are worth it. Considering they take 10% of my revenue, it means they need to provide at least 10% of my revenue to be neutral. Not sure where we stand. I’m guessing that it’s close.
I’m not seeing a ton of paid growth coming from Substack. Yes, they absolutely get me free newsletter subscribers, but if I’m not very active on social media, my newsletter shrinks.
Until next week!
My daughter finally went to sleep, and that seems like a good time to wrap up this totally off topic brief update. I’ll see you again next week!
What a beautiful memory, thanks for sharing. I’d love to be that annoyingly positive person. Also, I admire that you know what “enough” looks like for you.
Thank Dave for idea of a jar of herring. Wish you and your family a happy holiday.