The Pioneer Newsletter #16

Thursday, Feb 1st

Introduction Paragraph

I signed up for the marathon last summer. I’m not really sure why though. I do run quite often but I never found running to be a goal oriented activity. Some may just call that a hobby. But I don’t have any “hobbies” and running was the closest practice I found to a zen-like pursuit of process. The goal was to just keep doing it with absolutely no end in sight. That finish line, however far away on some odd Tuesday night, was irrelevant. It was instead how at peace I could become with the isolated practice of placing one Hoka in front of the other. A marathon is quite the opposite of this. There’s a strict training schedule. One that encourages you to try and run even faster than you might otherwise. It’s time consuming. It’s physically draining. It takes the peace you’ve found with the presence of running and places a $300 finish line months away. So why did I want to run this damn thing? Free t-shirt? I don’t know. But here I am - signed up for the goddamn marathon. What a waste of time. I skipped my newsletter last week because I was out running. I came back this Monday to another week of the same. You see, I usually put e-pen to e-paper at my desk, however that’s gotten too busy as well. So last night, after another Tuesday morning missed, I came back from a 4 mile run and was just about ready to quit. But then I saw a book on my nightstand. The same 300 page novel I’d been picking at for just about 6 months. Jurassic Park. Yes, the novel not the movie. That ripped-up 30 year old paperback of Jurassic Park has traveled with me, half-read, to New York, Morocco, and Washington D.C. I’ve had to re-tape its bindings - damaged not from use but instead repacking. On loan from my roommate, down the hall, he probably thinks I’ve just given up by this point. But in my hyperactive mind, I haven’t. I just keep starting something new.

For better and for worse, I’m in love with beginnings. I’m absolutely addicted to them. If I ran away from just about everything in my life, you’d probably find me just off the 405 under a cardboard box, starting a podcast. My impulsiveness has led me to exciting endeavors such as this newsletter. But it’s also led me to sign up for a marathon smack in the middle of a job search and apparently before I could complete…Jurassic Park. That half-read prehistoric paperback now stares right at me and feels like a statue dedicated to all that I cannot finish. I haven’t completed a novel since probably middle school. Why would I choose Jurassic Park to be the first? Like…I’ve already seen the movie it’s based on. Regardless, I keep asking myself if I can finish just about anything without delay? I really don’t have much proof. But instead of hanging up the Hokas and burning my copy of Jurassic Park in effigy, I’ve decided they’ll become part of a personal case study. I’m putting everything else I’ve started on hold (except for this newsletter of course). And if by March 17 - the day of the Los Angeles Marathon - I’ve run 26.2 miles and finished my first novel since middle school, I’ll pat myself on the back, promptly do neither ever again, and have the confidence that with less on my plate, I can accomplish tasks far more fulfilling.

Because I miss how I used to jog - in a perpetual state of presentness. I want to feel that way again. So I’ll shed a few to-dos from the to-do list. I’ll lock into the process instead of the product. I’ll get back to putting one Hoka in front of the other. One step at a time. Process. Paperbacks. Greenlights.

Pioneer Newsletter Announcement

Due to my now chock-full schedule of running and reading (as well as crying internally for 9 hours a day whilst staring at Microsoft 365), this newsletter is officially moving to every other week. It was a tough decision. But if you are upset by this news, go to your local watering hole and inquire about bartending openings as this form of employment would provide me far more time to rank third-wheel names from rom-coms. Reply to this email with any leads and I will provide to you with my real name and relevant experience.

Recs

Jurassic Park (BOOK) - It’s actually pretty good. Maybe you’ll finish it before me.

That Will Never Work (BOOK) - Co-founder and first CEO of Netflix Marc Randolph’s memoir about the creation of a company that spiraled far beyond his and Reed Hasting’s initial idea - mail-order DVD sales and rental. The book focuses heavily on pre-dot-com bomb startup culture rather than entertainment and it’s just about the strangest origin story for a film and television studio I’ve ever heard. I think anyone who’s interested in how great ideas triumph, fail, and are then re-considered would like this book. And just to be clear…I listened to it.

The first 15 seconds of this video: