Every since its fiery origins in an ancient cave, technology promised to make things easier. It would erase tedious steps from life’s processes. It would free you from the burden of collaboration, by enabling the one to do what used to require the many. It would save you, by making it harder (or impossible) to make mistakes. All it takes is removing a pesky human trait known as agency.
Seek not the seamless experience. Forget about finding the theory of everything. Acknowledge that there is no system to rule them all. Meaningful life processes are clunky. So is the process of life itself. Embrace the clunk.
You think you want seamlessness, but you need a little friction. Yes, you could write the entire newsletter in one place, but it helps to scribble it out in a notebook, revise it in a text editor, and shift that blob online to revise it a third time. It’s not efficient, but that’s OK. To embrace the clunk is to enjoy the process, because the clunk is also called craft.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Microprinciples to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.