There is so much mystique around the creative life. It’s fetishized and coveted and seen as mysterious even by the people who inhabit it. We have a cultural script that says: There’s too much consumption, not enough creation! If you want to be a [tasteful/interesting/admirable/happy] person, you should make more things. But then also: Social media... See more

I get it. You pour your soul onto the page, and it’s crushing when no one seems to care. That’s human. But if you’re not careful, the need for validation starts steering the work.

You bend your tone. You chase trends. You lose the very thing that made you worth reading in the first place.

And the things is the more you write to grow , the less your... See more

An easy way to lose oneself is to consume so much we lose sight of who we are and what we value. Creating is the opposite. The more we create, the more likely we are to figure out what’s really inside us.

And I don’t mean getting more people to start a Substack, or build an audience. There’s a peculiar kind of sadness that comes from adding more... See more