This week, what's inspiring Lesley Sim, co-founder of Newsletter Glue.
A podcast worth listening to:
I like Pressing Matters (@pressingfm) because it feels real. When building stuff on the internet, I often feel like I'm all alone and doing it in a bubble. Listening to Pressing Matters makes me feel like Iain and Jack are in the trenches with me. It also helps that their podcast is really chill, the opposite of two tech bros shouting into their mics, interrupting one another with yet another pseudo-intellectual framework. As an example, at one point in a recent episode, Jack paused the recording to go make some sourdough.
A concept worth understanding:
Chesterton's fence. Basically, do not remove a fence unless you know why it was put up to begin with. Often, reformers shout loudly about change, but they fail to fully understand or appreciate the reasons the "fence" was there in the first place. Often time, the "fence" was put up after much consideration and for specific purposes. And, in taking it down, the reformer might face a series of unintended consequences. Taking a day (or a week) to fully consider history and reasons for the "fence" in the first place vastly improves the chances of actually getting the reform you want or, at least, being more at peace with the current state of affairs.
A Twitter account worth following:
Ellen Bauer (@ellenbauer). Ellen’s been tweeting lots of super cool full site editing stuff and even holding Twitter spaces. Well worth a follow!
An article worth reading:
I'm gonna be really cheeky and recommend mine: WordPress as a Commons. It asks a range of important questions around WordPress governance, conflicts of interest and the lack of formalized structure and processes. Importantly, I don't call for reform, but, following the Chesterton's fence heuristic, I instead call for discussion so that we may seek to understand and bring to light the relevant considerations.
A habit worth forming:
Trying lots of different productivity hacks, from Pomodoro timers, waking up early, Getting Things Done (GTD) framework, cold showers, no phone one hour before bed, and more! The idea is that we don't know what works for us and different things work for different times in our lives. So the more things you try, the more tools in your belt you can use to tackle whatever comes your way, whether that's procrastination, burnout, or anything else.
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