Consistency: The hobgoblin of little minds

Hi, situation normies!

Two quick announcements.

#1 I’m taking the rest of the summer off

Frankly, it’s too hot to write. Sure, we have air-conditioning, so I could write, but I need a break. Also, I need ice cream, preferably that artisanal full-fat old-fashioned ice cream that runs $81 per scoop, but really, any ice cream will do, unless it’s one of those weird flavors with bits of lobster, or ghost peppers, or Takis. Screw Takis. And seriously, why can’t we stick to 31 flavors? Who knows? Anyway, I’ll be back after Labor Day.

Meantime, if you need something fun to read, grab a copy of Not Safe for Work at Amazon or a non-Amazon store. Spoiler alert: You’ll laugh your ass off.

#2 Situation Normal will get a lot more interesting when I return

Astute situation normies may have noticed that the title / subject line for this post references a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote:

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

The thrill of writing Situation Normal is the possibility that you may misunderstand me. I want you to laugh, but I also want you to consider topics you may have ignored or discounted, and maybe even see those topics in new ways. I don’t aim to be consistently funny, rather I’m determined to embrace variable curiosity, i.e. a wide range of topics that don’t fit neatly into a tagline.

Some examples of variable curiosity. Over the past five years, I’ve written about natural disasters and our broken information ecosystem; mental health; middle age; autonomous driving; Nixonland; porn conventions; the federal occupation of Los Angeles; artificial intelligence; the economics of creator economy side hustles; more AI; doppelgängers and the politics of division; apathy, civics, and a total misread of the Clinton-Dole debate; coups & insurrections; and a local crime wave.

Mostly, I’ve tackled these topics by writing comedic personal essays. Going forward, I’m adding long-form journalism and critical essays into the mix. Instead of writing (almost entirely) about me, I’ll be writing more about us, our world, and this combustible moment where everything feels unmoored. As they say in Hollywood: same, but different.

What happens next?

(Mostly) nothing. If you’re subscribed to Situation Normal, you’ll continue to receive emails from me. My publishing schedule might change, because some of the pieces I have in mind will be heavier lifts, but that’s TBD.

If you’re not subscribed to Situation Normal, please fix that immediately👇

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It’ll still be funny, right?

Yes! We need laughter, especially these days.

But it’ll also be serious?

Yes.