Looking forward to following you on your reinvention agenda and continuing to be delighted by your photos and thoughtful writing :). All the best in all these new forms of expression :).
+1 to the other comments regarding the splitting of your conscious. You’re nothing if not a curious individual, so I trust that you’re following the path that sparks your curiosity and creativity the most. Onward!
Appreciate you, Xander! Made some replies to the other comments that you should be able to see, but sadly can't tag you directly in the thread! Thanks for adding your voice to this -- it's so useful in helping me triangulate the best way forward. As far as curiosity goes, it certainly pays its dividends when being friends with you. You are a primary source for me on many, many, many meaningful things. Thank you!!
Very curious about Ved’s question below - why compartmentalize what you call the human from the professional. It’s a classical ‘male’ move and something i’ve spent my career (and substack) trying to integrate : the personal and the professional.
It’s their separation that leads to a lack of trust and authenticity I’d posit.
Congrats on clarifying and organizing, but think you could just reorganize your substack into sections that would be synergistic.
I hold you and your work in extreme regard, so your comment bears much weight with me. The last thing I want is to rob the writing of its authenticity or fall into old, tired archetypes of masculinity. 🙄 Since this is something you (and the others) have flagged as potentially suboptimal, I will be rethinking my approach.
I did give a little answer on Ved’s comment, but unfortunately can’t tag others in my response. So, here is much of the same answer but from a different POV -- A lot of my initial reasoning, as you correctly said, revolves around organization and clarification. I feel like Prolix was suffering from a kind of digital "urban sprawl" which was confusing to people and limiting the audience. When having conversations in the real world, it was difficult to describe exactly what I write about and it made me realize that I was, perhaps, trying to use it for too many things, rather than as a focused newsletter. Committing to a single lane feels clearer to the readers and more sustainable for me. While I played with the sections feature in the background for the last couple weeks, I wasn’t confident that I could execute this well, plus I was happy to reclaim some of my content into a secondary space that I have more control over since Substack seems to be evolving (understandably) into a different project than what it was a few years ago.
Thanks again for speaking up, and for all your wisdom and support -- it helps me stay on course! Seriously, I will be rethinking this and try to find a way that avoids the pitfalls you mentioned...
The way I held my breath until “… Hello Something New” !!! Grateful for any form of your insight, and excited to see as you continue to refine and redefine.
You pose an excellent question and I am grateful you asked it. It seems to have a struck chord with many people I respect, so I will be reevaluating if this approach is ideal and if there isn’t a better way. Again, I am really grateful you spoke up and gave that feedback.
As not to dodge the question though, I will try to answer! My original thinking was that dislocating myself from the center of the substack would allow it to be more focused and streamlined. I have often done my best work when championing the stories of others and felt like I might be able to keep my POV intact enough through the style of the writing and selection of content so that it doesn’t come across as just more AI slop.
Secondly, there is a potential I may be writing more fiction/prose this year, and it felt like it might be confusing to put that into the same forum as a newsletter that has talked about everything from management theory to masculinity to cameras. I believe that clear is kind and had hoped that I could make things less muddy.
There is a big technological component of this as well. I can read the tea leaves about where Substack is headed (no judgment). It felt more aligned with my personal values to finally create a space where my content and context is fully owned by me. However, Substack has the audience which I find more important for the business stuff than my film photography or personal comments. I wanted to treat the platform as the medium the creators are telling me it is rather than what I want it to be.
Again, such a thoughtful question and I hear you clearly. I will really re-think the details of my approach. Appreciate it very, very much!
Looking forward to following you on your reinvention agenda and continuing to be delighted by your photos and thoughtful writing :). All the best in all these new forms of expression :).
Thank you, Prof!!
+1 to the other comments regarding the splitting of your conscious. You’re nothing if not a curious individual, so I trust that you’re following the path that sparks your curiosity and creativity the most. Onward!
Appreciate you, Xander! Made some replies to the other comments that you should be able to see, but sadly can't tag you directly in the thread! Thanks for adding your voice to this -- it's so useful in helping me triangulate the best way forward. As far as curiosity goes, it certainly pays its dividends when being friends with you. You are a primary source for me on many, many, many meaningful things. Thank you!!
Very curious about Ved’s question below - why compartmentalize what you call the human from the professional. It’s a classical ‘male’ move and something i’ve spent my career (and substack) trying to integrate : the personal and the professional.
It’s their separation that leads to a lack of trust and authenticity I’d posit.
Congrats on clarifying and organizing, but think you could just reorganize your substack into sections that would be synergistic.
Just saying…
Hi Avivah 👋
I hold you and your work in extreme regard, so your comment bears much weight with me. The last thing I want is to rob the writing of its authenticity or fall into old, tired archetypes of masculinity. 🙄 Since this is something you (and the others) have flagged as potentially suboptimal, I will be rethinking my approach.
I did give a little answer on Ved’s comment, but unfortunately can’t tag others in my response. So, here is much of the same answer but from a different POV -- A lot of my initial reasoning, as you correctly said, revolves around organization and clarification. I feel like Prolix was suffering from a kind of digital "urban sprawl" which was confusing to people and limiting the audience. When having conversations in the real world, it was difficult to describe exactly what I write about and it made me realize that I was, perhaps, trying to use it for too many things, rather than as a focused newsletter. Committing to a single lane feels clearer to the readers and more sustainable for me. While I played with the sections feature in the background for the last couple weeks, I wasn’t confident that I could execute this well, plus I was happy to reclaim some of my content into a secondary space that I have more control over since Substack seems to be evolving (understandably) into a different project than what it was a few years ago.
Thanks again for speaking up, and for all your wisdom and support -- it helps me stay on course! Seriously, I will be rethinking this and try to find a way that avoids the pitfalls you mentioned...
The way I held my breath until “… Hello Something New” !!! Grateful for any form of your insight, and excited to see as you continue to refine and redefine.
Thank you, friend! And thanks for letting me use a photo of Corey (Korey?)!!!
Ah damn, congrats with the move! Question as a writer: why do you want to separate the autobiographical/personal elements from your business writing?
I've felt from the AI writing debate a takeaway has been that we need stronger POVs, that can be backed by personal narratives.
Your decision seems counter intuitive from that lens so curious about your thinking
Hey Ved! 👋
You pose an excellent question and I am grateful you asked it. It seems to have a struck chord with many people I respect, so I will be reevaluating if this approach is ideal and if there isn’t a better way. Again, I am really grateful you spoke up and gave that feedback.
As not to dodge the question though, I will try to answer! My original thinking was that dislocating myself from the center of the substack would allow it to be more focused and streamlined. I have often done my best work when championing the stories of others and felt like I might be able to keep my POV intact enough through the style of the writing and selection of content so that it doesn’t come across as just more AI slop.
Secondly, there is a potential I may be writing more fiction/prose this year, and it felt like it might be confusing to put that into the same forum as a newsletter that has talked about everything from management theory to masculinity to cameras. I believe that clear is kind and had hoped that I could make things less muddy.
There is a big technological component of this as well. I can read the tea leaves about where Substack is headed (no judgment). It felt more aligned with my personal values to finally create a space where my content and context is fully owned by me. However, Substack has the audience which I find more important for the business stuff than my film photography or personal comments. I wanted to treat the platform as the medium the creators are telling me it is rather than what I want it to be.
Again, such a thoughtful question and I hear you clearly. I will really re-think the details of my approach. Appreciate it very, very much!