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CJ Chilvers

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A Lesser Minimalism

Minimizing your processes is more important than minimizing the amount of your objects. Objects are often just the byproduct a process and a reflection of its health. But there are painful places where the two ideas meet. One of the first nerdy courses I bought, many years ago, was MacSparky’

A Lesser Minimalism
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Be everywhere. But be your best here.

The biggest trend in branding this year appears to be one of the oldest trends — signature models. From shoes to guitars, old-school brands are flooding the market with products stamped with a creator’s personal brand. A “brand” is just a “reputation.” The bigger you get as a company, the

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Ghosting to Improve Relationships

This post is my first on my new host, Ghost. They were kind enough to port my 15+ years worth of blog posts and newsletters over to kick the tires. My former host, Squarespace, was built up by word-of-mouth during the second golden age of blogging, and evangelized by bloggers

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New Newsletter: How to Enjoy What Doesn’t Exist

Why particles don’t exist, the best title ever for a haunted house book, and inspirational garden offices — it’s all in the latest issue of the newsletter [https://www.cjchilvers.com/email/issue-277-how-to-enjoy-what-doesnt-exist].

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New newsletter: How Spring Break Broke

The great personal newsletter migration, text files aren’t forever, and why boredom is exciting — it’s all in the latest issue of the newsletter [https://www.cjchilvers.com/email/issue-276-how-spring-break-broke].

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A New Brand of Unsubscribe

A few weeks ago, I downloaded the Substack app. I didn’t like what I saw, so I deleted it. That action unsubscribed me from every email newsletter on Substack. Fast-forward a few weeks. This is what I just received. Notice: 1. Substack newsletters are now just email “notifications.” 2.

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Is plain text best?

Derek Sivers [https://sive.rs/plaintext] and Patrick Rhone [https://www.patrickrhone.net/11399-2/], two of my favorite writers, have just posted about how the simple text file is the most stable, malleable format for storing your thoughts and work. This is probably the most widely accepted truth among nerds

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New newsletter: HustleTrust

The great newsletter migration, character > competence, and logo paralysis: it’s the latest issue [https://www.cjchilvers.com/email/issue-275-hustletrust] of my newsletter. Is it possibly the last in this format?

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The great personal newsletter migration

For the third week in a row, about a dozen of my favorite indie newsletters have landed in the spam folder — newsletters I’ve opened and click-through hundreds of times. What gives? I love how Apple, DuckDuckGo, Neeva, and others are making our online lives a little more private and

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New(ish) Newsletter

I really have to get better at cross-posting about my newsletter issues. Last week, I did one on Creation and Kit Kats [https://www.cjchilvers.com/email/issue-274-creation-and-kit-kats]. It was part of a test on formatting, linking styles, and self-imposed constraints. The results? I love plain text emails. You seem