# A brand new SHUFFLE EDITION™️ (aka- 8 questions as we enter 2021)

*Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading [one of my
essays on
Medium](https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as),
[my personal
website](http://seanblanda.com/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as),
or seeing something on
[Twitter](http://twitter.com/seanblanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as).
I send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I’m
working on and thinking about — all ending with a sweet flag. See past
issues
[here](https://buttondown.email/Blanda/archive?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as).
There are always typos. Now, to the newsletter…*

![](https://i.imgur.com/JbdYhoG.jpg) *Philadelphians storming Broad
Street after the results of the 2020 election were made official.*

\-

*Welcome to a SHUFFLE EDITION of this newsletter.*

*Rather than giving you one big thing to read, I'd like to share several
smaller thoughts and updates. Hopefully, it's a fun, casual read during
this sleepy week.*

*This is an unsorted list of things I am thinking about. Are you
thinking about them too? Reply to this email and let me know. Half-baked
ideas, hot takes, and thoughtful diatribes very welcome.*

### Q1 - Is there a future for Localism?

Localism is the belief that we should invest first in and support our
local community. I strongly believe that when you commit to investing in
a geographic area, the benefits (both spiritually and economically) will
compound both for you and your neighbors.

Yet, COVID makes this difficult. When everything is online, place does
not matter. When we are encouraged not to leave our homes, we see our
neighbors less. Meanwhile, the economic forces that discourage local
investment are thriving: remote work, e-commerce, delivery apps, Zoom.
It's not only foolish to gather in person with those geographically
close to you — it's often illegal.

I find myself thrashing around a bit, unable to live a life according to
my values. I have few ways of supporting local businesses, but a myriad
of ways to give money to massive tech and retail businesses that do not
invest in my city. I fear the things that make our towns great will fade
away for a few months or years.

### Q2 - Is "commitment" more of a virtue than ever?

Much of the conversation in my bubble is around the rise of flexibility.
People loving that they can work wherever, live wherever, and create
wide by loose social connections easily. This is a good option for
people to have! But it should not be the default.

I've found myself thinking that as flexibility becomes easier, those
that will thrive will be the ones that commit to something. That
"something" could be a job, a place, a religion, a group of people —
anything.

I think the companies that DONT embrace remote work will thrive over
those who do. I think cities that that encourage long-term investment in
physical spaces and quality of life will thrive over the cities hoping
to attract those chasing paychecks (see San Francisco). And I think the
people that dedicate years of their life to a problem will be ultimately
more satisfied, more interesting, and more well-rounded.

### Q3 - What are the effects of "The great unbundling" of our culture?

Schools are becoming learning pods. Restaurants are becoming cloud
kitchens. Media companies are becoming 10,000 Substacks. Marketing
agencies are becoming "collectives".

I'm working on writing something about this, but we're losing a shared
culture, shared place, and shared reality. In some ways, this is neat
because you can assemble your own world/career/existence (see Q2). It's
the ultimate freedom. But this is having some nasty effects on things
like politics (see: Election 2020) and collectivism (see: our response
to COVID).

### Q4 - How does one create a category leader in tech?

This is related to my work at Crossbeam, the startup where I am the
Director of Content. If you look at most SaaS tech verticals there is
often an outright dominant winner that captures 80% of the revenue. And
often, there is a list of also-rans.

At Crossbeam we are creating, and thus attempting to dominate, a new
category of software. As one of the marketing leaders, I spend a lot of
time thinking how to make a category leader using editorial work,
events, and other channels. How do you both lead a new way of doing
businesses while being responsive to how it's evolving?

And how is the category creation playbook different in 2021 than it was
when, say, Salesforce or Uber were created?

### Q5 - How will this "missing year" affect us in the future?

Of the many many many tragedies of COVID is one that feels unspoken: the
feeling that this extended pause — while in some ways refreshing or
reflective — feels like a lost year.

A lot of us do hard things like work, work out, and study in preparation
for some other thing. But what happens when that "other thing" can't
happen? Why study for a job market that is not hiring? Why work out when
you can't even leave the house months?

It's kind of short circuited our goal-driven careerism and forced us all
to take a breath. Maybe that's a good thing, but it feels awful in the
moment.

I identified with [this line from a Vox
Essay](https://www.vox.com/first-person/22169447/coronavirus-pandemic-2020-young-adulthood-twenties?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as):
"I feel like there is so much I’m supposed to be doing, but I don’t know
what it is or how I’m supposed to get it done because of the pandemic."

### Q6 - Is it the end of work as a political platform?

In September, the cryptocurrency trading app Coinbase
[announced](https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
that it was effectively banning discussion of "broader societal issues"
in its workplace. Meanwhile, stories from newsrooms such as
[Vox](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/substack-and-medias-groupthink-problem/617102/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
and [The New York
Times](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/11/inside-the-new-york-times-heated-reckoning-with-itself.html?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
have shown an internal culture of political activism and employees
clashing with other (often older) employees.

In the weeks after, there was a broad discussion about whether
Coinbase's decree would stifle political discussion (and thus, progress)
or is something that's well within the rights of a business.

I'm 34, and something I've noticed in (especially tech) companies is
that some employees clearly see their jobs as the primary arena for
their political activism.

I've been wondering if this is the result of gridlock in our political
sphere combined with our work-first culture. Especially as young,
upwardly-mobile Americans invest less in local communities (see \#Q1)
they are viewing their workplaces as their primary "community."

After all, isn't America just a bunch of overlapping workplaces?

### Q7 - What is the future of Pilcrow House?

[Pilcrow
House](http://pilcrow.house/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
is an event series my wife Allison and I organize that aims to surface
new ideas. We've hosted folks like NYT reporter Taylor Lorenz, Adobe CPO
Scott Belsky, and author Matthew Stoller among others to small, intimate
gatherings here in Philadelphia. It was going well! And we were even
starting the verrrryyyyy early stages of exploring whether getting our
own physical space was a possibility.

Alas, COVID made the idea of gathering in tiny spaces at restaurants
with strangers who have traveled from afar comically impossible. And
while many events went to digital versions, that would be antithetical
to the Pilcrow House mission of helping us all build connection and
community in IRL.

I admit, It's been a struggle to simply do NOTHING and wait this whole
thing out. I've been thinking a lot about how Pilcrow can come back,
when it can come back, and how its mission of connecting people changes
post-COVID.

### Q8 - What new business models are created as a result of the pandemic?

Here in Philly (and I suspect elsewhere) I've stumbled into the world of
people running food businesses from their home kitchens that people can
order via Instagram. There's
[1-900-ICE-CREAM](https://www.instagram.com/1900icecream/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
(which has recently opened a retail location),
[nanostortillas](https://www.instagram.com/nanostortillas/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as),
[spstevembno](https://www.instagram.com/spstevembno/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
[foxyladychef](https://www.instagram.com/foxyladychef/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as),
and many more.

I love how someone can test a restaurant or food cart concept with
minimal overhead. It's a small ray of hope as brick-and-mortar
restaurants struggle to stay open and a fun thing to sample as we enter
month 10 of quarantine.

## I've been on 5 podcasts!

1- [Superpath Episode 01 "Sean Blanda on learning or
earning"](https://anchor.fm/superpath/episodes/1---Sean-Blanda-on-learning-or-earning-egehho?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as) -
I'm obsessed with career paths and feel that those in the "content"
space often don't get candid advice. Superpath's Jimmy Daly invited me
on to discuss [my essay on content career
advice](https://www.seanblanda.com/what-i-wish-i-knew-five-years-ago-about-building-a-career-in-content/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
for the first episode of his Superpath podcast (now 20+ episodes in!).

2- [Sean Blanda: The Angst of
WFH](https://www.seanblanda.com/our-remote-work-future-is-going-to-suck/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as) -
My friend and former 99U coworker Jocelyn Glei and I discussed the
impact of remote work [based on my
essay](https://www.seanblanda.com/our-remote-work-future-is-going-to-suck/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as).
Got a lot of feedback on this one, both very positive and, well, very
negative.

3- [Building a 10,000 Strong B2B Email List from Scratch w/ Sean
Blanda](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4No71zkOIoTVLkL5eNHn4M?si=OKALxGfgTHeNjzxs9aTijA&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as) -
Jason Bradwell invited me on to talk about some early success we've had
at Crossbeam, including the four campaigns we ran to build an email
newsletter list from 0 to 10,000.

4 & 5 - I also appeared on on my first [YouTube show Work
Friends](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=783mi8goxIU&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
and the [WFH
Podcast](https://lowerstreet.co/podcasts/wfh/is-the-future-of-remote-work-really-going-to-suck-sean-blanda-crossbeam?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)
discussing remote work on both.

## Official newsletter flag (for now):

![](https://i.imgur.com/6Jbngd4.png)

This is the official flag of Nunavut, Canada's newest and largest
province, created in 1999. Nunavut contains the northern-most lands in
North America and has a population of ~40k. The flag features a red land
marker or "Inuksuk" and the north star.

This oft-forgotten region is home to people groups who have been there
for centuries and rich history of unique languages, mythology, and
culture. Oh, and it is impossible to drive there. You can only fly to
Nunavut.

Dear reader, may you soon be able to visit far-off wonderful places
which rich, under-appreciated histories like Nunavut.

--Sean