Christin's Behind-the-Scenes Sunday 🎥: New Year Edition

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Dear Ones,

Happy 2022! This year I told myself to not make so many goals tied to the calendar year. Rarely have I ever said “ah yes, that went well because of a New Year’s resolution I’ve made!” Instead I’ve been delighted by spontaneous projects with quick turnarounds. So my new year’s resolution, if I have to put words to it, is to make more space for spontaneous micro-projects to happen. What’s yours?

That said, I am aiming to write 365 tweets this year, and compile the contents into a small book. Like this…

Christin Chong, PhD 🪅 @ChristintweetsDid you know that online writing is a secret form of spiritual practice? Here’s how it works: writing provides a conduit to subconscious thoughts, a shortcut to meaningful friendships, and both lead to freedom from stale identities that no longer serve us. 12:38 AM ∙ Jan 2, 2022

Tools used:Canva for quick graphics, Tweet Hunter (affiliate link) for scheduling tweets and writing tweet threads easily with auto-delays, etc. There’s also AI-generated tweets, which I only use for laughs because…

This also give me the confidence that I won’t be replaced by an AI anytime soon. Whew! (Ok, there’s the Custom AI model but that’s the $200/month enterprise level plan…)

So why tweet so much for 2022?

Although Twitter has a weird reputation outside of its own bubble, I see tweets as the minimum unit of creative output. There’s a character limit, and I’m also pushing myself to illustrate ideas with original graphics to go along with them.

What I’ve learned is that the moment I raise the bar for creative output, it drops precipitously for me because perfectionism creeps in. So Twitter’s format allows me to make many little pots and iterate instead.

The character limit also forces me to distill ideas, which is a skill more valued in today’s world of information overload. Expression is compression.

Warm Wishes, Christin

P.S. I’m loosening up the newsletter format, though I’m not quite sure what to call this. Something that’s more spontaneous and #buildinpublic-focused. What do you think?