On change

Dear readers,

Thanks for your patience these last 4 months as I took a break from publishing new issues of this newsletter. It wasn’t a planned break but sometimes life throws a curve ball and priorities have to adjust. So, a break was needed but now things are getting back on track and I can take time for this newsletter again. And, oh boy, I’m excited to be back!

The best thing about breaks is that they give you time to reflect, and so my brain back-burner has been hard at work this last little while figuring out which bits of this newsletter I missed and which could do with a shakeup. In the 10 issues I’ve written, the tone has varied but recently I’ve noticed it skewing towards the prescriptive… which isn’t great. See, my goal has never been to be another email in your inbox telling you to do something. I aim to provide a bit of food for thought with each issue instead, and so I’m recommitting to that. And in the spirit of change, this will actually be the last newsletter from curiOS because…

this newsletter is becoming studio notes.

I wish I could put less stock into names, but the semiotics nerd in me knows that names have power. In the case of my newsletter, it’s name impacts my frame of mind when I’m writing it. So instead of grappling with curiOS every time I sit to write—a name that feels too systems-focused and techy—I’m making this change. This new name is also a signal of me loosening the reigns on the topics I talk about and how I talk about them with you. Inspired by some other creatives on the internet like Mina Le, Anna Howard, and The Blindboy Podcast. I’ll be sending you fun little essays bi-weekly instead of the sporadic self-growth guides you’ve been getting so far. Because I have a hunch that what we might need right now in terms of growth is less about individual self-actualization and more about growing through conversation with each other.

Ideas are like seeds, and seeds need good soil to grow into grass, and flowers, and trees. I hope my mini-essays can be some good soil to help your own seeds of ideas grow.

xx Alex