Things That Didn't Suck

Too much stuff happened this year. The cultural Brita filter was pushed to critical mass and personal curation was more important than ever. There was a decided shift in the typical “culture” media platforms becoming social accounts that regurgitate press releases and try to make something out of nothing in the search for incremental engagement. Is it really news that Kai Cenat received a seeded pair of Pumas? Where does the line between editorial and sponcon really exist at this point?

This was a hard year, personally. Being a one-person operation during economic swings is not for the faint of heart. I had the opportunity to work on a lot of incredible projects and meet some incredible people, but this felt like a year defined by what didn’t come to fruition, rather than what did. It turns out some people making a name for themselves off of aspirational hustle content don’t love to honor contracts. I’ll name names after the subscriber wall.

All of that time between the circle-backs and the invoice-chasing and proposal building was spent in the infinite content scroll. I’m a natural cynic, and I’ve considered that a super power rather than an achilles heel. It takes a lot to move my needle, and when the needle moves, it usually leads to good things. So that scroll was often met with more derision and frustration than dopamine - it kind of felt like being a passenger in a skidding car. It lead to writing something on LinkedIn, of all places, that a lot of people I admire saw. Then a few more of those. And then some that no one saw. And now I have this newsletter you’re reading right now. I don’t think it sucks. And the process of starting it and writing it has been anything but suck. And if you’ve continued to open these, I think you might agree.

There are actually things that I really liked this year. Time has frankly blended to the point I can barely remember what happened in what year, but I’ve put together this list of a few that stood out to me in a big way: