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TL Postcard #2: Birth of an Aesthetic, LoopTrack, Kiwi's Kingdom
Welcome!
Last week's appetizers gathered a bigger appetite! Our group has expanded from 9 to 21. We'd feel a bit cramped in my apartment, so our metaphorical gathering space is now gonna be the mezzanine lounge of my building. This setting should host us all comfortably through at least one more doubling.
In this postcard I share updates, anecdotes and links to things I enjoyed recently. The menu of appetizers will vary each week, so if there's a particular aspect you enjoy and want to see return, please let me know.
I’m committed to weekly publishing, but not yet tied to a particular day of the week. The arrival will have the same element of surprise you get with a traditional postcard.
Birth of an Aesthetic
My latest article shares the origin story behind my startup Visual Handprint. If you haven't had a chance to read one of my articles yet, I think this is the best overture/introduction to the writing on my site.
The piece explores the video aesthetic I've developed + introduces the mental models I use for ideation. I exported scenes from my projects as GIFs and wove them through the story. It makes for a reading/watching hybrid experience that I'll continue to play with in future posts.
| Read: "Birth of an Aesthetic" |
LoopTrack
Every few weeks, I discover a song I work to on repeat. This time that gift was the track 'Respite' by Ólafur Arnalds. The gentle piano melody embodies the title beautifully. Great music for calm clarity on a rainy day:
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Patrick Mackenzie (Internet Famous)
A podcast recommendation for my Write of Passage friends
This episode of the North Start Podcast is full of wisdom about writing online. As I listen to podcasts I pause when I hear something insightful to write it down as a quote. I noticed many of my favourites from this episode centred around two themes: self-promotion and the value of investing time into writing before you have a big audience. Here are a few of the highlights:
The Value of Writing (even before you have an audience)
- "Even if you have literally zero people who are reading it’s still worth writing because it becomes an asset that you can share in the future when you do have people to read it..."
- "...Even if the only thing you did with your post was use it in the cold email to a job application to signal to the recruiter you’ve been deeply thinking about this topic — that’d be a huge return on investment..."
Self-Promotion
- "...Internet famous is just the past tense of ‘wrote a blog for 10 years’..."
- "...The amount of luck you have in life is how much value you create, multiplied how many ppl you tell about it. (Luck surface area)..."
- "...Self promotion is kinda like self cooking: if you don’t do it, and you don’t pay somebody to do it, and you’re not family with someone who’s gonna do it for you… then you’re gonna go hungry"
| Listen: Patrick McKenzie (Internet Famous) |
Kiwi's Kingdom
There’s a stretch of lawn tucked between two buildings on the University of Toronto campus. Our labradoodle loves frolicking there, so we've christened it ‘Kiwi’s Kingdom’. If we walk even vaguely in the direction of Kiwi's Kingdom, she becomes a compass needle towards it.
Here's a clip of Kiwi and I playing fetch:
That's all till next week!
It's really a treat to have you with me as I figure out this format. There's so many experiments I'm eager to try. ConvertKit (the platform I use to send these) has a lot of options. I continue to remind my maximalist self to take it one email at a time...
It was fun to bring in clickable buttons, images, Spotify and YouTube embeds this week. I'll keep playing around with those kind of integrations.
Thanks for reading,
Tommy
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PS. Replies Encouraged :)
- If you have 27 seconds to jot an impression of this postcard, please do!
- I know each of your lives bustle with activity. If it helps, think of the reply as a text (rather than an email).
- A quick jotted: “Pod looks cool! Song was good 🎵👍” is valuable signal of where to re-invest :)
Tommy Lee
Subscribe for podcasts + music I'm listening to, anecdotes from my week, and links to my new articles.
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