Why a Newsletter?

When I made the decision to start writing this newsletter, I asked some friends how they did it. The challenge to me was to find the time and motivation to keep writing and figure out who I was writing for.

For inspiration, I met with Cary Millsap, who has probably deleted more than I’ve written in my life, and he told me he’s writing for his family. That resonated with me. Another friend told me it’s hard to do and keep doing. Which frankly motivated me, because you know, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it and I’ve always liked a challenge.

Finding time & discipline to sit down and write is hard. Being a calendar nerd, scheduling time on the weekends and on evenings to force myself to sit down and write in my office seems to work. I keep a note on my phone with writing prompts and ideas. Just like I keep a note for sarcastic/funny social media posts. Those of you who are connected with me know what I mean.

I wasn’t, and I’m still not convinced, that this newsletter will be of interest to anyone, I do hope it spawns some good conversations.

As for why, I’m not sure. Maybe as we get older, we get the bug to start documenting life lessons for the younger generation that we ourselves never listened to when we were young?

I plan to share anecdotes such as how a ride on a camel Israel got me my first US job, how I didn’t become eBay employee number 11, and other lessons learned and stories from 20+ years in the software industry that could be something my family, and hopefully some others, might enjoy. I’m pleasantly surprised about how many people have already subscribed. Hope to not disappoint.

Thank you for subscribing and reading this, as always, feel free to reach out with comments.

Magnus

PS. Thank you dad, for buying me that ZX81 Spectrum, that got me interested in computers.

Cool: A box. For bats. To fight mosquitos here in Texas in the spring.