Thread by @meekaale

hey @m_ashcroft how are you doing these days?

I feel parasocially invested in your well-being as a new free agent, maybe because your presence on the timeline was a joyful inspiration for me, and then I think your abrupt lifestyle change caused challenges to which I relate

and I know you're very interested in well-being and I'm kind of daytime soap operatically curious in your "progress" 😃

I'm also a free agent and I'm dealing with the whole motivation & self-coercion & bossing myself around thing

I'm doing writing coaching with @sashachapin which is really great, also just to have a curious clever chap with whom to talk about the thing I'm trying to write about

taking writing "seriously" like this, I'm also a bit stressed about performing and not wasting my time

my free agency also involves taking care of a child so I don't have the vast expanses of time I had as a teenager, there's a pressure to make it count

and writing is really demanding cognitively and emotionally; I'm trying to remember I ought to be able to make it fun

so it's interesting like ok I chose myself to do this actually interesting and rewarding thing, but I still stress myself about it, and I do it in a way that feels somehow imbalanced; how come?

I'm thinking I should maybe do the writing in a way that's more bottom-up, and more open garage door, more conversational and interactive

that could mean tweeting instead of writing, but that's what I was already doing & then trying to expand into something more "serious"

hmm, one thing is that I was planning to post my text as my first ever post on LessWrong, but actually I realize I'm a little bit unfamiliar with & intimidated by that forum, I don't know the norms so well, I haven't lurked, I'm a stranger showing up like hey read my discourse