I revealed on Twitter around a month ago now that I got a job. The whole reason I started this newsletter was because I lost my job. It was a bit of a Hail Mary in terms of trying to support myself (it did help), and also a proof-of-concept to people who were possibly interested in hiring me to run a newsletter. I was not hired to run a newsletter, although working for those people is not off the table by any means. I simply got a job before that occurred. Which is a good thing!
Now, I’m writing a ton of different things. I’m writing out sketches to be filmed and aired on social media. I’m helping to produce talk show segments to stream on the Internet. I’m editing social media posts. I’m seeing how the sausage gets made and making it myself. Me! The sausage! Putting it into those little skin tubes!
And what’s more, I’m still getting opportunities to write in podcasting land, still running my own podcast, guesting on other people’s podcasts, and still writing articles elsewhere out in the world! The newsletter started six months ago in a moment of desperation. It seems like, right now, I’m coming out on the other side of all that.
Which means that this newsletter now serves a different purpose. Where it was an emergency raft tossed out into the Internet’s water, it’s now something closer to a pleasure cruise. It’s a passion project as opposed to a means of living. I said, when I told the Internet that I got a new job, that I didn’t know how it would affect the newsletter, but that I would try to keep on rolling it with as normal and see how it felt. Well, a month later, I’m here to tell you it feels extremely difficult! Turns out, when you’re also pouring a lot of time and brain energy to into writing content for other outlets, it’s difficult to turn around and do the same for your own newsletter, while keeping all of that fresh and original and unique to my page and not double-dipping with projects and jokes and all of that. And more than that, the newsletter is something of a chore. I don’t mean that in a negative sense. Lots of necessary and even enjoyable things are chores. They are work we must do on a regular basis, sure, but that doesn’t mean they’re inherently bad or anti-fun. At their best, chores are rituals, the mundane things we do every day to remind ourselves that certain things matter to us and other things do not. That seems incredibly important! The newsletter was a chore from the start. Some days it flew from my fingertips. Other days it felt like I was trying to draw water from a stone. But all the time, I knew it was working towards something. I knew something mattered to me, and that was not ever working as a waiter or a line cook again. Not that there’s anything wrong with those professions, only that I knew they weren’t what I wanted to do. Now, in “Adam Has a Job” land, the chore is less useful and at worse, can distract me from the work that is actually keeping me afloat and is quite fulfilling to me on a daily basis.
So here’s the deal: I’m dropping the Daily thing and moving the newsletter to a weekly publication. I want to continue it but I also want to stay sane, and this is my clearest and most sensible conclusion.
If you’re paying for this newsletter to support me: first of all, thank you a whole bunch. That’s a main reason I’m around writing this today. If you feel like this isn’t what you signed up for, money-wise, feel free to cancel your subscription. I get it. While I’m still going to be writing at a clip that is normal for many other newsletters out there, it’s not what I set out when you subscribed to the newsletter. And I don’t want to scam anyone. Seriously, if you just subscribed to a yearly plan a week or two ago and are reading this now, shoot me message and I’ll Venmo you your 50 bucks back. It’s hard times for most people out there, and I’m not trying to take advantage of anyone’s generosity.
Hopefully, some of you stick around in this new newsletter realm and are still interested in the things I have to say. Everything I write will still be free to read and to share. None of that is changing. I’m just in a spot where I can afford to focus on my quality of life and the quality of the newsletter a little bit more, and I’m going to take that opportunity.
And if you’ve made it this far, thanks again. You’re a big reason that I’m still doing this. Besos.
-Adam