On a personal note
I was tempted to headline this "A Personal Appeal From Bad Newsletter Founder, Josh Drummond" but managed to resist
Gidday. So this is more of a personal note than anything, and those that read David Farrier’s Webworm (which is probably a lot of you, and if you don’t, start! It’s great!) are probably already aware of it. But for those that aren’t, here’s the gist: I’m starting a new project called The Cynic’s Guide To Self-Improvement and I’d love to have you as a subscriber.
But wait! you think, in an agony of indecision and betrayal, you’ve already got this newsletter! The one I’m reading right now! And you already hardly ever update it! How will another project improve the situation?
Well, disembodied voice, you make a number of good points. But here’s the thing. The idea of my self-improvement project is — as well as shining a light on the weird, grift-ridden and occasionally life-ruining world of self-help — to improve my self. Much of what I’d like to improve is my consistency; I’d like to make more art, and do more writing, and publish more regularly. Some of that writing I’d like to go here.
News media ethics is something that, for my sins, I still care very much about. It’s also a difficult and depressing subject to deal with. Writing about the media — especially when it’s stocked with journalists, some of whom are good friends, and nearly all who are doing their best and who individually cannot do much about the systemic failures facing the hallowed Fourth Estate — is hard to do well. And reading Newstalk ZB columns does not spark joy.
All that said, I think it’s an important subject to return to, and I’d like to do so. For the Bad Newsletter, I’m pretty sure I can manage one post a month at minimum. The Cynic’s Guide will update more frequently, at least once a week. It will be a tricky cadence to manage, but if I can do so, I’ll have proved something important to myself, and possibly also to you.
So I’d like to say a very sincere thanks for sticking with me so far. To those who took out paid subscriptions, I appreciate the vote of confidence more than I can really put into words.
So yeah. Hang around, if that works for you. There’ll be more media and media-adjacent Bad News coming soon. In the next one, we will look at the origin stories of someone that everyone’s definitely not sick of hearing about endlessly: Elon Musk.
Subscribe to the Cynic’s Guide To Self Improvement here.
