Summer

An update

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while. I’ve been deep in the weeds with my next book — 23,000 words deep — and all the writing, rewriting, thinking and rethinking has used up all of my headspace. I did not mean to go this long without an update.

If you're a paid subscriber: thank you. I know you're not getting great value right now, and I really appreciate your patience. I want to acknowledge that, because your support genuinely helps makes my work possible — book writing included.

For everyone: my second book is happening. It’s starting to feel like a real thing. I’m aiming to release it in October, but before then, I’ll have more updates. I’ll preview some of it here, too.

I wrote my first book in a 3-ish month sprint and it was…a lot. Would not recommend. What could have been six-ish months of steady work was instead a stressful, exhausting marathon where my whole life revolved around the contents of a Google Doc. I would love to tell you that I learned the lesson this time around, but I did not. For many boring, tedious, uninteresting, and kinda embarrassing reasons, I’ve done the exact thing I said I wouldn’t do again. Hence all the time away from the newsletter.

But Book #2 is very much a thing now. And it’s about climate change. Or, more accurately, it’s about the things standing in between us and a healthy planet. And how these obstacles are making the world suck in many other ways. While fashion is one of the world’s biggest consumer industries, it’s still just one piece of a confusing, messy, destructive puzzle. Fashion is about consumerism and identity, sure, but also manufacturing, supply chains, logistics and finance. That’s what makes the industry so interesting, but it’s just one part of a much bigger story on how the world works. Book #2 takes many of the themes from The World Is On Fire… and puts them into a much bigger, more global context.

Also, solutions. Lots of solutions. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the world’s miseries and lose sight of the way forward — especially in the midst of Trump 2.0, and especially when you’re writing about climate — but for almost all of the problems we’re faced with, there are answers. A big frustration I have with left/progressive/liberal politics is that we do not focus anywhere near enough on the answers. We’re lost in the discourse, the meaning, the symbolism, when we could be focussed on the solutions instead. Turn climate inside out and you’ll find all sorts of ideas for how the world could be.

Which brings me to my next update: the future.

As I wrote a few months back, I’ve relaunching my newsletter under a new name — Ordinary Delusions — to reflect how this project is evolving. Rather than sticking to one fixed niche, this space is growing and shifting alongside the messy realities of life under late capitalism. My aim is to give readers (and myself) a way to make sense of the chaotic world we live in — and maybe even learn how to thrive within it — by navigating the cultural and economic forces shaping our everyday experience.

Here’s how I put it a while ago:

The story we were told growing up is that the world is on a steady upward trajectory, that slowly but surely, capitalism and technology and democracy will fix all our problems. We will grow up and work the jobs of our dreams, make loads of money and own fabulous property. Our kids’ lives will be even better. Clearly, that’s not what’s happening. Life in the 21st century has so far given us climate meltdown, fascist politics, burnout jobs and unaffordable rent. The dream we were sold does not seem to be coming true, and that’s what the name Ordinary Delusions is about.

Ordinary Delusions builds on all the themes my newsletter and book(s) have touched on so far — fashion, consumerism, sustainability, climate, the economy and what they all mean for us as human beings. It will also focus on personal, everyday issues that are increasingly shaped by the world around us. How do we feel fulfilled at work while navigating a constantly shifting — and in some cases disappearing — career ladder? How do we prepare for an uncertain future while thriving in the here and now? How do we build wealth when the world is full of so many cool but expensive distractions? The world is scary, life is hard, but let’s figure out a way to thrive despite it all.

I’ll be doing this with this newsletter, and adding a podcast into the mix as well. And working on Book #3, which will be spread out over a year rather than jammed into a few months. It’s a lot, but it’s exciting.

Thank you for being here. Again, I’m sorry it’s been so long. I think you'll find my ideas sharper after this time away.

Alec