Hey all, it’s Stuart, probably showing up in your inbox. I’m back, writing my little thoughts, and would love if you’d lend an ear. What is it, a blog? A substack? Not exactly - I’m not building an audience, I’m not promoting anything - but I am hoping to inspire conversation and build meaning / crystalize ideas that are meaningful to me. Practically, I’ll just be sending out emails whenever I write something or put together a photo album of some life experience, and want to use a direct channel to share it not mediated by capitalism.
But why write? Well, it’s obvious that being online isn’t cool anymore. But really - there is a lot of meaning to make. You need to build narratives to understand, to make bets, and build community. I think a lot of the poverty of meaning we’re experiencing in the last 5 years is from the systematic transfer of attention away to naively capitalist content platforms, away from flawed institutions (like journalists, movie makers, etc) that at least believed in their role in making meaning. This is a personal attempt to wrest that time and attention back, and if nothing else internalize responsibility for narrative building of my life and its relationship with others. And I hope you’ll take part in this with me, please respond with your thoughts so we can build a narrative together. And be warned, it won’t be polished - all that’s real and natural isn’t - but it will be true.
In case you want to read the first real piece: