The Finite Scroll 001: New media habits, Pixar nails emotions again and using silence as a tool.
Like many, I came into this year with the wholly unoriginal goal of majorly resetting my relationship to “content.” Last May I came off 7 years working at the New York Times, where most of my waking life was intertwined with what was and continues to be an overwhelming period of news. That professional reality was paired with a deeply entrenched addiction to the pull-to-refresh slot machine of new information honed through 16+ years of heavy Twitter usage. It was clear these habits weren’t playing well with my anxiety and even more importantly, they were impacting my ability to be as present and focused as I’d like to be.
This reliance on social platforms also resulted in me not really having a place online that’s entirely my own and that over time would be something I could look back on and understand what was on my mind.
Sadly, all this wasn’t a new struggle for me. In fact, it was the motivation to get this site up in the first place a little over a year ago. While the immolation of Twitter made breaking my social media habit easy, I hadn’t found a suitable replacement to discover interesting stuff to read. I’ve also lacked the discipline to build a real habit around writing here beyond posting the occasional link or short post.
With that in mind, I had two specific goals around the energy I put into consuming and creating content in 2025.
First, I wanted to be more thoughtful and deliberate about the people and sources I follow, fully extracting myself from the whims of the quick-twitch algorithms that shape everything we see.
I also wanted to create the space in my brain for thoughts to develop beyond the 240 character canvas that’s shaped the last nearly two decades years of my non-professional writing.
A few months in, I’ve made great progress on the consumption goal, having established a totally new media consumption habit. It started with much less time spent on Bluesky (my last connection to the social internet alongside LinkedIn), no more news/alerts coming via push notifications and much more time following the content creators I care about using good ol’ RSS.
This obviously works great for more traditional blogs but also works really well for people sending newsletters as most platforms let you follow their new content in an RSS reader vs. your inbox (pro tip: you can drop any Substack newsletter into an RSS reader using this url structure: https://[newsletter-name].substack.com/feed)
If you’re looking for a great RSS reader app, I’ve been using and liking Tapestry from the fine folks at Iconfactory (who also happen to make Tot , another great little app I’m very happy to pay for).
My favorite thing about it is that it keeps your place in the feed and loads the newest content “above” (vs loading in new content and moving your place to the top) which lets you not miss anything but also make progress “catching up” at your own speed. It’s a small UX decision that has a huge impact for me.
The Tapestry experience also feels familiar to a recovering Twitter addict but its better because its only got the things I put into it and I can work my way through it at my own pace. Feels a bit like methadone but for content…
In the spirit of my more deliberate creation goal, I’ve decided to start a weekly mini newsletter. This is first and foremost a chance for me to give my thoughts a little more room to breathe. I’ve also always enjoyed sharing the things I find most interesting with others so there’ll be some of that too.
In the spirit of keeping it short and sweet, I’m going to start with a simple structure:
- A short reflection on something that’s been on my mind that week
- A photo of the week - some picture I took from the past week that made me think or feel something
- 2-3 quick recommendations of something I read, watched, listened to, tried, etc. that may be of interest to others
I imagine it will evolve over time but that’s where I’m starting and my goal is to not be too precious about it. I’d like it to be something you could read in ~5 minutes, hopefully find something that piques your curiosity, and then get on with your life.
And finally because I like to give things names, I’m going to call it The Finite Scroll. Welcome to issue 001, dear reader!
ps: the thing that has always kept me shackled to social networks and reticent about newsletters is the extra friction to engage with the writer. I know a lot of newsletter behavior is to hit and it and quit it but if you feel moved to leave a comment, please do! Registering is super quick 👇
Things I’m into this week
📺 Win or Lose (Disney+) - Pixar’s first animated series revolves around a championship little league softball game in a small community. Each episode is the story told from the perspective of one of eight characters in the lead up to the big game. In a vein reminiscent of Inside Out, it’s a sweet, funny and deceptively profound exploration of the emotions we all carry around with us every day. The first episode touches on anxiety in a wonderful (and funny) way. I’m only two episodes in and I’m loving it.
🎧 The Gray Area with Sean Illing: A moment for silence I’ve never been a religious person. In fact I’ve always harbored some disillusionment with organized religious institutions. However I’ve always been interested in the questions that religions attempt to answer and more generally why people believe - so much so that I minored in Religion alongside my Philosophy degree, a fact that always seems to surprise people who know me.
It can be a tricky thing to explain and this exchange from a recent episode of The Gray Area summed up my feelings towards religion better than I’ve ever been able to.
“A word you use a lot is mystery. And I quite like that. I think like you, I've always enjoyed the questions more than the answers. And to the extent that spiritual and religious traditions are just trying to keep us in contact with the mysteries of existence, I find them very valuable. But I still think I'll always believe that the dogmas and the institutions, which are all too human, do more harm than good.”
The whole episode is a great discussion with Pico Iyer, a man who’s spent a lot of time over the past few decades living on and off as a visitor in a Catholic monastery, about the benefits of silence as a tool to navigate the overstimulated world in which we live. Lots of interesting ideas and suggestions to noodle on.
Iyer’s written a book called Aflame: Learning from Silence, which I’m excited to check out.
That’s a wrap on the first issue! Thanks for reading this far and if you want to get one of these in your Inbox next week, sign up below!
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