There’s a tremendous friction that arises when you don’t allow yourself to do what you really want to do with your life. You make a lot of halfway decisions to negotiate your competing priorities: what you want, and what you want to want.

Given the above, you might be surprised to learn that until about a year ago I didn’t primarily think of myself as a writer. I thought of myself as a founder who liked to write. About a year ago, I decided to flip that: I started to think of myself as a writer who also builds things.

Instead, I stopped trying to fit myself and Every into an old model of what a founder, software startup, or media company needs to look like. Those are all old ideas, from an older context. They can be useful when needed. But they’re dry and dead.

I’ve just tried to be honest about who I am, what I want, and what I believe to be true about the littl... See more

A large percentage of people’s problems in work, love and life are due to some combination of vagueness and passivity. You don’t know what you want to spend your time on; you don’t know what kind of person you really get along with; you don’t know what kind of clothing looks good to you; you don’t know what you value in a city; you don’t know how t... See more

Personally, writing is not how I analyze how I feel; writing is how I resolve how I feel. I find it deeply cathartic.

Everyone who’s reading this has some kind of writing practice and most of us could benefit from putting more time into it. Starting this Substack has obviously changed my life and career, but the act of writing everyday for years has also changed me.