Year one for Digital Seams

Written By Bobbie Chen

…and what’s next. This one is a bit of a meta-post on the blog itself.

I haven’t been posting on my regular two-week cadence for many reasons: the startup I work for got acquired, I was traveling for work and then to see friends, and my wife and I moved apartments for her new job - all good things that sparked interesting thoughts, but I just didn’t make the time to write.

At first, it stressed me out to hear the whooshing of my self-imposed deadlines flying by. If a particular headline caught my eye, I’d think about spinning it into a blog post (like this week’s “OpenAI preparing for ads on ChatGPT leak” story, which confirmed my June post on how the AI lifestyle subsidy is going to end). But then I read this relevant note from Cedric Chin:

One of the things that I’ve learnt about writing online is that you do not want to be in the position of “I have to publish a piece this week; I don’t have any good ideas; let me write a take.”

Transitioning to ‘takes’ leads you down this inevitable path of obsolescence. On the internet, everyone and their dog has a take. Takes are cheap. So in order to attract continued attention, you lean into hotter takes, on popular topics, on shorter and shorter timescales. Over time you’d find yourself descending to the level of a pundit: having an opinion on everything, justified or no.

Cedric Chin, Completing Commoncog’s Repositioning (and Going On Paternity Leave)

And I am really not trying to become a pundit here.

So I can step back, relax a little, and think: this has been a great year for the blog. I’m still a little surprised by the number of people who choose to read, and subscribe, and even reach out. Thank you.

I’ve got plenty of half-baked ideas but I need to give them the proper amount of time and effort. I’m going to take off the rest of the year and be back in 2026, publishing at a slower cadence.

And if you’re looking for inspiration - I think December and the holidays are a great time to try new things. It’s a slower season with the arbitrary-yet-clear deadlines of Christmas and the new year. Looking back on the last several years, I was:

With fixed time and variable scope, you’re actually capable of quite a lot - what might you do if you give yourself the chance?

Bobbie Chen
Next

Any decent error message is a kind of oracle