“In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger...”
Hey friends,
Back in 2013, I had a newsletter that people really liked called "The Strategic Review" --
It got popular and people were raving about it, but I didn't have the bandwidth to support writing it. Each issue took too much research and too many hours to put out there.
(Back then, I'd start projects without estimating how long they'd take -- a crippling leak in the productivity bucket -- you gotta know how much time things take to get done.)
But I really loved writing TSR, and people loved reading it, and I've been mulling over that since...
... and we're coming back.
Format's a bit different than 2013 but you're going to recognize the same general overarching point: highly actionable writing drawn cross-domain.
I'll be looking to bring you better stuff, uncensored/unfiltered, stuff that transcends the current state of affairs. For instance, in the third issue I've got written and scheduled, "Chemica," I review using nicotine gum to develop habits. (I did a lot of research on nicotine before I started using it. And never tobacco or anything smoked.)
This along with the great battles in history, drawing from all sorts of books that were known as the best in history but are largely forgotten (you read Xenophon's Anabasis yet? masterpiece).
And then, just, plain good ol' fashioned operations type stuff. Lights Spreadsheets for developing habits, time tracking, planning, estimating. Putting numbers and statistics on stuff that doesn't normally have them. Developing intuitive judgment. Impulse Control. The stuff you loved in Gateless and Roguelike, the really analytical stuff.
But more than that, I don't want to just bring insights -- I want to capture that "once more unto the breach, dear friends!" I want to capture that music, that poetry, that feels lost to this generation.
Yes, I want to push the boundaries with you on operations and make it really useful and actionable, but I also want you to be feeling like you could kill a tiger with your bare hands at the end of reading each issue.
That's what I'm going for.
We're publishing every Thursday. If you're not sure if you're subscribed, go to
and enter your email.
First issue of the new series, Upstream Effects, comes out next Thursday -- 24 December 2015.
See you then,
Sebastian