Intro
I know missing three weeks in a row is not a good look but things happen and sometimes the best you can do is just let it go and pick it where you left off. On the plus side, the weather is getting much better and I’ve completed the upgrades needed in my office to be able to work without making my spine hate me.
Greetings from Sangarius. Hope you’re all doing well.
Mission Control
Inbox: 212
RSS Reader: 3413
Upcoming Events/Travel in Next 30 Days: 2
- Need to prepare for the travel next week to Brussels. Will be there for four days so let me know if you’re around and meet up or have any recommendations for me in the city.
- Also have another travel couple days after I return from that one which means I need to make sure I leave as little unfinished things for the future me as possible.
- Which means lots of admin and communication stuff.
- Aside from the regular stuff, I’m also working on an article for a Turkish outlet — which I want to finish and sent to them before the end of this week.
Check my Now page if you want to see what I’m up to in a more detailed way.
Bring Your Own System
Last three weeks (or months depending on how much backstory you want) once again showed me that I need certain routines and systems in place to function properly. Which is not an easy thing for freelancers, people who work from home, and people with normal lives. Luckily, I’m all three of those.
Some people think that being independent or running your own show means that you can do whatever you want or live a life like one of those fantasy stories written about artists or people who works independent. Which can be the case if you have a safety net coming from your family or start with your own. But that’s like maybe the one percent, the rest isn’t that lucky — like me.
Which means your only option is to make sure you’re always working and you have a system in place to make sure that work never stops. Like Warren Ellis said in his most recent newsletter, “Sitting around waiting for a bunch of different projects in train to eventuate or not – because any project can die at any time, even after it’s been MADE – is a slow and arduous way to go insane and end up with nothing. The thing to do is always to do something else.”
This is why I need a system and routines in place to make sure that I’m always doing something else. Because that’s the only way to keep my career safe. And this is why I’ve been so anxious and stressed lately because all the health problems and other stuff messed up with my system and routines in a big way. Now I’m in the middle of developing a new one because I literally need that.
It might be hard for some of you to understand if you’re not working independently or never had this experience but having a career like this AND an ADHD brain like mine means that without the routines and a system to keep everything in check, I turn into a walking anxiety and everything feels like it’s about to explode. They’re not only there to make work easier but also to keep me sane and healthy.
That’s why, if you’re in a similar position like me and deal with anxiety all the time, look at your system and routines. Believe me, it really helps.
Song of the Week
Well, I was not expecting a new A Perfect Circle song in 2026 but I’ll take it.
Reading Log
“The murder wall, which some call a crazy wall or murder map, is inductive thinking made physical. Proximity signals relationship. Contradiction gets preserved rather than resolved, because resolving it too early closes off what might still be the most important thread. The gaps are as legible as the connections, sometimes more so. Nobody builds a murder wall to present conclusions — they build it to find them, and the finding isn’t just a matter of collecting signals and naming the clusters.”
Murder Walls and Case Files
“If you work in media today, you need to understand this: if a meme or rumor goes wildly viral, the rumor itself is the truth about the underlying fear, even if the facts are totally wrong. You cannot fight an emotional rumour with a spreadsheet of facts. You have to address the anxiety behind it. Which is the exact opposite of the institutional fact checking industry like BBC verify are trying to do. Because “Feelings don’t care about facts”.”
Telephone | Weeknotes #440 – thejaymo.net
“In politics, we build bonds of mutual regard and understanding that we use to navigate our differences. But when you vote with your wallet, all that’s left is the endless policing of your allies’ consumption choices, endless scolding for their failure to leave Twitter, or give up meat, or eschew chatbots. Shopping for change ends up replacing politics with petty snooping and endless sniping and attempts to bully or shame people into consuming different things.”
Pluralistic: Shopping isn’t politics (21 May 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Outro
That’s all for this week. Like I said, I’m working on my routines and the Weekstarter is a main part of it. Hopefully, I’ll get better at putting it out on Mondays too.
Take care and I’ll see you around.
If you’d like to collaborate with me or use my services, Tuhaf Studio is open for new clients and collaborators.
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