Regular Communication 021

From Jason Rodriguez

I have zero plans to build my own company any time soon. That being said, I feel like it's inevitable. I'm confident that I have built the skills, developed the taste, and gained the experience needed to do so successfully, and the thought of having ownership over my own product and future is a temptation I know I won't be able to resist forever.

Right now, I don't have a specific idea I want to pursue enough to make the leap and appreciate the current stability I have in my career. Still, the thought frequently crosses my mind. To that end, I've had a long-running note in my notes app of choice (currently Obsidian) simply called, "The Company", which I dump thoughts into whenever they occur. I thought it'd be useful for future me to expand on some of those thoughts on my blog. Maybe it'll interest to you, too?

Here's one of the main things I want to prioritize in a future company of my own design.

Interesting Things

Last newsletter, I mentioned A Book Apart's closing and some authors re-releasing their works. Alan Dalton did the good work of building a page linking out to all of those books in one place. 🙌

Louie Mantia says what I've been thinking about social media better than I ever could.

This article from Adam Mastroianni discusses something I've been thinking about a lot over the last few years: how do we make a positive impact in the world without being ultra rich or sacrificing everything to go nurse penguins in Antarctica? He offers seven ideas for doing good where you are, with what you have. It's got me thinking of ways I can try to do impactful work that I hadn't thought about before.

Tim Bray has a well-reasoned post on why he's continuing to invest in the Fediverse (i.e. Mastodon) over Bluesky. As I said in a recent email, I'm not really interested in posting on social media much these days, but I do agree with his points. I think it's only a matter of time (and will probably be sooner rather than later) before Bluesky enshittifies, but the Fediverse will still be chugging along just fine.

This is fun: Kirby vs. a blog post.

Jamie Thingelstad recently sent the 300th edition of his weekly newsletter. Congrats. I appreciate the notes he also shared on what he's learned in the process.

Cal Paterson makes a very good point about LLMs as a business model. It's essentially a race to the bottom with zero brand loyalty for most people, which doesn't make for a good, sustainable business.

Finally, I really appreciate and agree with pretty much all of Kevin Wammer's philosophy of life, which he calls pragmatic humanism. The whole thing is worth reading, but can be summed up as:

We are flawed, opportunistic creatures, but that’s what makes us interesting. The goal isn’t to be perfect — it’s to be curious, engaged, and willing to grow. Life is messy, cyclical, and unpredictable, but within that mess lies endless potential. And to me, that’s what makes it beautiful.

Some Music

Anyone else getting excited for the Bob Dylan movie coming out soon? I certainly am. While I've been a big fan of Dylan's music since I was a teenager, as I've gotten older, his middle to late years have intrigued more than his earlier work. Guess it resonates more as I approach my middle to late years... One of my favorite records of his is Love and Theft. In particular, the song Cry Awhile is Dylan at his best. I remember watching him performing it at the 2002 Grammy Awards and absolutely loving his growling menace, killer band, and dark, brooding set design. Fortunately, there are copies of that performance floating around the internet...

Listen to all my newsletter music recommendations on Apple Music or Spotify.

Have a great holiday, regardless of which one it is you're celebrating ✌️

Cheers,
Jason

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