🔋 Why I Write

What's the value of writing a blog like this?

One of my favorite newsletters is Ness Labs. It's a mindful approach to getting things done, written in a unique and relatable prose — not entirely dissimilar from my goal of writing here.

(for my fellow nerds — that newsletter is auto-emailed to Readwise, and then my highlights and notes are auto-sent to Obsidian)

Last week, Anne-Laure Le Cunff wrote a compelling entry as she celebrates her 250th post: 25 Reasons to Write Online and How to Start a Newsletter in 2025.

I've got a long way to go before 250 (I've got 36 weeks in a row right now, not counting the Tuesday a kid was in the hospital!), but I've learned a ton already and I intend to keep going.

As I read her list, I naturally applied the reasons to my own experience as a less seasoned writer. Below, I'm including each of her reasons in bold and then listing my personal application in italics. She wrote great context of her own for each reason, but I'm not including that here because I don't want to borrow too much for her page. If you find any of this interesting, go read her original post!

1. Writing is free. Low barriers to entry help any new practice, and it helps immensely that it costs nothing to write (and very little to build a basic platform like this blog).
2. Writing is portable creativity. This comes in handy all the time. I've got a long list of ideas and drafts, and the ability to add and modify on the go is essential.
3. Writing can be deeply interconnected. I do love how easy it is to hyperlink to other content, though I never know if I'm underlinking or overlinking, especially when it comes to my own stuff. And of course, interconnectedness is the top reason why Obsidian changed so much about my note-taking and writing.
4. It makes your ideas discoverable in niche communities. I've yet to experience this benefit, but I'll keep at it until it happens! It probably doesn't help that I write without concern for SEOing. Yeeeeah that just sent me down a deep rabbit hole — I should probably start SEOing.
5. It’s an ideal platform for introverts. And extroverts! Or whatever I am. I never know.
6. It’s still the easiest way to start creating online. The ease is very attractive. I've made it more complicated by building on my own in Wordpress instead of using Substack or something, but that's also because I enjoy learning how to build things like this.
7. It gives you infinite editorial freedom. This is great, but it's also a challenge since editors make writing better.
8. Your audience is yours. Ya hear that subscribers?! You're all miiiiine! Muhuhahaha
9. You won’t be at the whim of an ever-changing algorithm. Given how small the audience is, the net value of my content is pretty darn small. Still, I like that as I grow readership, it's on my terms.
10. It provides a low-risk platform to test ideas. 100%. In part because of the introspective lens I apply here, readers can see me working through things and how I see those things potentially contributing to future projects.
11. Switching costs are low. Yes, but they certainly increase the larger the audience and the more boxed in you based on your current distribution system.
12. Writing is a powerful thinking tool. All the yes. The struggle of thought that comes with good writing is what makes the writing good.
13. It builds your knowledge base. Gotta love that cumulative effect.
14. It’s an invisible skill multiplier. Very true. The more ya write, the better you get at thinking, processing, and sharing.
15. It creates leverage for your ideas. The weekly blog has been an easy platform to build video content on Instagram and, recently, YouTube (more to come there).
16. Writing creates focus in a distracted world. Because one cannot always rely on the concrete-enforced focus of a bunker.
17. It cultivates mindfulness. Unquestionably. And I could use all the help I could get on mindfulness.
18. It has positive downstream effects in many areas of life and work. The clarity that comes from writing (and the way in which publishing to an audience forces one to edit and refine) helps me grow in ways that help well outside this blog.
19. Learning in public builds credibility. I'll let others be the judge of that!
20. You will become part of a supportive community of creators. I don't really have this community yet. I'm new to this, so I think that's part of it. That's one of the downsides of building your own site instead of platform built to bring writers together.
21. It can be a springboard for other creative projects. Yes! And not just on the subject matter of the writing. Being creative here has genuinely unlocked creativity in other parts of my life. It's lovely.
22. It captures your intellectual journey. And you gotta love that part of the journey that you look back on and cringe about, especially since you made the decision to make the journey public.
23. Writing is an act of self-discovery. This happens with literally every post.
24. It encourages continuous learning. There's a positive type of pressure every week to write something roughly on the blog's topic and something I can take pride in. Most posts pull from what I'm reading or discussing, and I know that I need to keep learning to keep these posts interesting.
25. You don’t need permission to start. So, yeah, get writin'.

Anne-Laure also shares advice on how to get started with a newsletter, including defining a content thesis. I keep iterating on my thesis of three-dimensional productivity, but the core has remained the same: introspective writing at the crossroads of humanity & productivity.

I'm going to keep at it, consistently growing as a person, defining my voice as an author and creator, and increasing my ability to help others be productive as whole ass humans.

For a hot minute there, it seemed like blogs were dead. Now, a growing number of us see them as one of the most vital parts of the interwebs. If you're on fence about starting a blog of your own, just start (using Anne-Laure's advice to make it more likely to succeed). The value of doing so will become clear the more you do it.

And if you're worried about finding readers, send me the link to your new creation, and I can guarantee you'll have at least one subscriber. ☺️

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