# My new job. Sorta.

![My 30th birthday cake](../images/63ac11fc9fc7.png)\
*My 30th birthday cake made by my beautiful and talented fiance!* *Like
most good things in this world, the cake [is a Drake
reference](https://youtu.be/HBnI5QevaKA?t=281&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta).*\
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***Personal updates:***\
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**So, probably the biggest personal update I could possibly share**:
Last week, I turned 30. On Friday, [I stepped down from
99U](https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/773236242309869568?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta).
And next week I'm getting married (!!!). And then on October 9th, I
board a plane with my soon-to-be-wife for a five month trip across the
the Southern Hemisphere — one I've been thinking about since I've
been in high school. \
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**What will I be doing after that? ¯\\(ツ)\_/¯**. In March I'll be back
in NYC and likely looking to work on or for another awesome publication.
Communities built around editorial are still my favorite thing to think
about. In the meantime, I hope to dabble in some side projects like
[Well,
Actually](http://wellactually.email?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta),
do some consulting, and lots of writing. I also still think a bunch
about careers and career advice and hope to write more there. Don't
worry, I will not start a travel blog and this newsletter will keep on
coming. \
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Updates here as they come!\
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***The links:***\
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**TFD's Chelsea Fagan setting us all straight**: [It's not cute to take
pride in not knowing how to do basic adult
things](http://thefinancialdiet.com/stop-taking-pride-not-knowing-basic-shit/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta).
Competency is cool. "Adulting" is lame. Fagan: "It should not be a
source of Zooey Deschanel-esque pride to be wobbling through life with
an oversized lollipop in one hand and an iPhone in the other, unsure of
how to open a checking account." I'd add that all of those awful
Instagram memes about being "flawed"
([ahem](https://www.instagram.com/betches/?hl=en&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta)) normalize
this ignorance. Also, get off my lawn.\
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🚨🚨🚨 **White guy writing about identity politics alert.**🚨🚨🚨  The
alert is back! Specifically, I've thinking about how embracing identity
politics affects the way we talk (or don't) about certain issues. A few
essays I've been stewing over: 

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Asad Haider on Medium on how a group's embrace of identity politics
[derailed a tuition protest at University of California Santa
Cruz](https://medium.com/@ahaider/passing-for-politics-559e14c813f7?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta#.6yrma0hjc).
" We are all Rachel Dolezal; the infinite regress of 'checking your
privilege' will eventually unmask everyone as inauthentic."

 

Rachel Lu at the Federalist asks [why is white pride
creepy](http://thefederalist.com/2016/08/29/white-pride-creepy-black-pride-isnt/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta)?
And of course, how can intersectionality and Trump supporters
coexist? If they do at all. Lu: "Privilege theory is indeed a real
problem. It helped re-awaken tribal loyalties that would have been
better left shifting in their shallow graves."

 

Does this internalization of policy affect how we debate? Charles Cooke
on the danger of seeing [every policy decision as an attack on
you](http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/440141/jerry-browns-veto-tampon-tax-abolition-does-not-mean-he-hates-women?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta).\
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Lionel Shriver makes the case that even if you consider yourself a
faithful lefty, [the current state of identity politics should be
alarming](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/opinion/will-the-left-survive-the-millennials.html?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta).
"As a lifelong Democratic voter, I’m dismayed by the radical left’s
ever-growing list of dos and don’ts — by its impulse to control, to
instill self-censorship as well as to promote real censorship, and to
deploy sensitivity as an excuse to be brutally insensitive to any
perceived enemy... The shrill tyranny of the left helps to push
\[people\] toward Donald Trump."\
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Thing I'm thinking about: how partisan identity is a huge blocker to
coming to agreement with "Other Side." Can we ever compromise if we see
our politics as forever intertwined with our identity?\
 

**Continuing my crusade against Neil deGrasse Tyson** ([first strike
here](https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda/the-tyranny-of-facts-being-right-is-not-enough-3bc4513d690a?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta)):
Science is not the [unassailable institution you think it
is](http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21707513-poor-scientific-methods-may-be-hereditary-incentive-malus?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta). \
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**Joshua Topolsky, founder of the Verge and former editor at
Bloomberg,** [offers more insights into his latest project "The
Outline."](http://digiday.com/publishers/josh-topolsky-new-startup-theres-new-generation-not-interested-facebook/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta)
In sum, Topolsky isnt going for scale. He'll be less focused on ads and
won't rule out subscriptions and wants to leverage new ways of telling
stories. A few thoughts here: If you aren't going to scale you need a
defined target audience. The best Topolsky offers is "millennials."
Inviting new forms of telling stories sounds good. But [ask Vox
about their card
stacks](http://digiday.com/publishers/two-years-vox-com-reconsiders-card-stacks/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta),
you usually default to the normal stuff. It's early and I root for all
indy media. But this is... looking suspiciously like other high profile
launches....      \
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**Black Swan author Nassim Taleb on the danger of "intellectuals" with
no "skin in the game"** opining about things whose consequences
[ultimately won't affect
them](https://medium.com/@nntaleb/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211e2d0577?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta#.8qgu21n3h).
Whenever you see pundits or writers treat politics as a horserace or a
game, think of this essay please. This stuff matters dearly to lots and
lots of people. And not all of those people are on TV / have a column in
a magazine. \
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*- Related: [Trump voters are not complete
idiots](https://medium.com/@Chris_arnade/trump-politics-and-option-pricing-or-why-trump-voters-are-not-idiots-1e364a4ed940?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta#.dqc0lumf0). *\
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***Official Newsletter Flag (for now):***

 

![mongolian flag](../images/067c9bb0fe6f.png)

This is the flag of Mongolia, since 1992. We've seen tricolor flags
before but that symbol on the left is what makes this flag instantly
recognizable and damn cool. That arrangement of symbols is called the
"Soyombo" which was used to mark the beginning and end of text in
the Soyombo script, no longer in use. Part of the symbol is also on
the [Buryatia (part of Russia)
flag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buryatia?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=my-new-job-sorta).
Last cool fact from the wiki: The two rectangles "represent unity and
strength, relating to a Mongolian proverb: 'The friendship of two is
stronger than stone walls.'"\
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Dear reader, I consider our friendship stronger than any wall, \
- Sean