finding the right angles
I’m a good conversationalist. But I wouldn’t say I’m a natural at it. It’s something that I actively set out to get be
content marketing
I’m not sure what the current state of content marketing is today, but when I used to do that for a living in 2013-2018, the
flow garden
A similar visual I have in my mind is how a bit of food coloring spreads through clear water. I kinda wish it was a gif instea
lorelai
It’s 1046pm. I’d like to write and publish something. I have many unfinished drafts in various stages of disarray. It ofte
nothing contextualizes itself
The very first essay I published on this substack in 2022 was titled We were voyagers, and it was subtitled “On Nietzschean
universal cursed artifact
I keep wanting to write a post titled ‘universal cursed artifact’, that’s obviously about smartphones. when
hyperion and lazarus
There’s something very funny about how i’ve been spending the past 2 years struggling to figure out the container for my c
improvisation
while helping my ~1yo son go to sleep I was clicking around on YouTube and I ended up watching a rick beato interview with Vic
blogmap
i was in the middle of a substack draft about continuity when i suddenly felt the impulse to go over to visakanv.com/blog/ and
consolidation meta
(written in substack) I can’t help myself, I love to go meta. Earlier this evening, my wife took my son out for a walk, givi
sort my notes with me
How do you know if you have a problem? I’m thinking particularly about my notes, but you could also talk about say, a drinki
notes on structure
It’s 11:05pm. I’m freshly showered and I just got in bed. My 11mo son is fast asleep in his cot nearby. I have a decision
richest man in babylon
i’m finally reading The Richest Man In Babylon – I’d seen in recommended several times in multiple contexts over the yea
on messes
I had a moment last night when I did this at my desk (evaluate my situation), and the first thought I had was “obviously I s
anguished voyager
guilt > hunger > desk > messes > I have 48 ‘live’ drafts on my substack account, and I have the equivalent of
fasting
I experimented with fasting once. I had a chirpy colleague who was a big evangelist for it, and I was feeling laggardly, and s
diablo
i’ve known for a long time that i want to write something about diablo i could do the memoir thing but really i think i want
literacy
what is my conclusion? I think… ultimately it’s not possible for any one person to do everything, so it’s prudent for in
heroes3
I remember the first time I encountered Heroes of Might and Magic III (1999). I was 9 years old, at a birthday party of a frie
the history of tv, as told by @RonenV
The following is my (VV) copying of @RonenV‘s telling of the history of TV. Ronen spoke the whole thing out verbally (fu
frame studies
I’m changing the title of my substack from “voltaic verses ” to “frame studies ”. Should I explain? My
witcher3
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to properly scope a project. Take The Witcher franchise. The Witcher today is famo
youtube
this is a collection post to collect links to other posts with transcripts of my youtube vids
50 opening lines
I have a lot of drafts. tbc
incompleteness and digressions
22jul2024 distractions I’ve been kind of embarrassed, maybe even ashamed, to note that there have been many instances now wh
simcity
2024sep4: I started playing a new game of Simcity 2000 in my browser, mainly out of nostalgia and curiosity. I never really un
undertaker
In Sylvester Stallone’s Netflix documentary, Sly, he talks about how, early in his acting career, he would get typecast
alice
i finally watched disney’s alice in wonderland (1951) for the first time a few weeks ago. i haven’t yet read lewis carroll
hard
I’ve been rediscovering lately that I’m too hard on myself. And I don’t mean this in the tedious interview question sens
hades
2024sep11 One of my favorite games in recent years, and honestly one of my favorite games of all time, is Hades (2020), by Sup
CDs
backstory: I bought my first couple of CDs when I was about 12 years old, and over 20 years later I still consider them to be
chaotic monkey mind
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a chaotic monkey mind that’s been both a blessing and curse. When I stop to think
fake games
what is the portal in this essay? i think the wild thing is that we play fake games with ourselves. we cargo cult ourselves. w
tiles
one of my recurring curiosities is about… tiles “The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from t
himym
i try to notice things the opportune time to publish this post would be on the 20th anniversary of the book’s release, septe
babel
Historyproj… SG1990… Tamils…India…nonamerican… multipolar world… sidenote on english… gumroad readers… 3rd cul
afterimages
asdf a this might be surprising to some people– i feel like it shouldn’t be, but people get surprised by all sorts of thin
grieving lost media
The Temple of Juno in Agrigento, oil on canvas, Caspar David Friedrich (1828-1830) this feels like an important essay to publi
cigarettes
really an essay about addiction, coping mechanisms, behavior change PSA: i’m going to be talking about cigarettes a bunch in
working episodically
magazines, chiarella, mens health, bloggers, herb caen, julie & julia… talk about tv? ✱ When I was a teenager I used t
OK Computer
babysleep I just put the baby to sleep. We were listening to Radiohead’s OK Computer, and he fell asleep at track 7: Fitter
containers
i’ve had a puzzle that’s been bothering me for about as long as i’ve been writing, though maybe i didn’t begin to prop
kenny werner
I’m gonna throw it open. If you have a question on anything involving anything in the world, I can answer it. You know,
essay drafts mar2024
i just feel in my bones that there are about 5-12 essays knocking around inside me that if i just get out of my system i will
essay teasers
i just feel in my bones that there are about 5-12 essays knocking around inside me that if i just get out of my system i will
lentil
it’s been almost 2 months since my last post and I just wanna spend maybe 30 minutes writing something and hitting send with
vannevar
just for fun, collecting mentions of vannevar bush’s as we may think (1945) tbc
rereading old writing
reading my old writing and it’s striking how i wrote about so many of the same things, but far more tediously. writing i
beautiful noisy messes
i’m tired and i don’t have much time. i need to publish something or i’m going to go mad. i have a lot of tabs open. one
contemplate
I’ve spent a lot of the past two years thinking about how to do these substack essays. Recently, I was getting so frustrated
win_loop
have a draft of an essay i’ve sort of lazily idling on titled “win loops” and i might as well just tweet it
all the channels 2
all the channels 1 i wrote a whole book about introspection, in part because i believe i’m pretty good at it, and i believe
packaging problem
I was doing the dishes last night and listening to some year-old youtube vlogs of myself doing my monthly status updates. One
behavior change
One of the central questions of my life is, how much control or influence do I have over my own behavior, really? A lot of my
writing on commutes
writing on commutes From 2013 to 2018, I used to write diligently on my phone on my commutes. I’d write both on the way to w
aladdin
I woke up from a dream that was set in something like my brain’s remix of the old video game, The Prince of Persia. It remin
kwml
I heard about this book a long time ago, but I can’t remember where exactly. I do remember it being mentioned by Elliott Hul
writing involuntarily
I have fond memories of times I used to write. Right now it’s 755am on a Sunday morning – it’s the day of my wedding ann
dadposting
transcribing.a series of twitter threads i’ve written reflecting on being a dad I. feeding my kid at 5am sets off a seri
blog overview 2023
I feel compelled to go to the start of my blog and start commenting on it. Visa Reacts to his own blog. (this is a janky mess)
bookstores
want to spend a substack post thinking out loud about my experiences with bookstores. I’ve already established before that l
let it happen
The big lesson that my life seems to be trying to teach me lately is: stop trying to force things to be some way other than it
relationship with technology
This was for an interview with Sublime 1) Your work is remarkable for the way in which it uses digital tools and platforms in
nanny diaries
15aug2024: My wife and I brought our 9mo out for his first train ride. He’s still a little too young to really appreciate wh
wildest dreams
I have to laugh sometimes at how my life has turned out. In some ways I am living a life that is beyond my wildest dreams, at
2023 worklog
dec23 very productive day deleting and merging blogposts on /blog/, then reading about ulysses dec9: earlier, thread about ppl
all the channels
variable rewards Today was a fairly typical day in which I spent most of my time in front of the computer, clicking around, ty
2023jun5 status update
I used to write on my phone on my commutes to work. I think I initially did most of it on an Android phone, in Evernote. Neith
improv
I like writing, so here I am. I don’t have a particular thing in mind that I want to write about, so I’m going to improvis
what’s the point of voltaic?
Maybe let’s do a quick roundup update of how this substack has been coming along so far. I started out with the generic name
suffering from misunderstandings
i tend to start in the middle was watching some stuff about toyota on youtube been thinking about processes lately. Particular
can’t or won’t?
what’s the difference between unwilling and unable? lots of people do have poor reading comprehension and are lousy list
give it a minute
It’s been 4 months since I published my last substack post. Is that a long amount of time? It depends on how you see it. I t
covid
i took this pic in feb 2020 and i knew it was going to be interesting/relevant somehow
chaos surfing
(tbc) A thing I get a lot is “visa seems very good at being extremely online and yet remaining somewhat well-adjusted, emoti
one-foot introspect
I wrote a 300-page ebook titled Introspect that I’m really proud of. Over 2,500 people have bought it so far. I’d estimate
one-foot FAN
Throughout history there have been “exceptional” people who seemed to have the near-mystical ability to ‘walk through th
histories
draft/notes thing? For starters, I recommend everybody watch bill wurtz’ history of the entire world, i guess for a nice ove
recent history
It used to be so normal for people to smoke cigarettes everywhere. Old photos of NBA games and boxing had a blue haze – you
get your motor runnin’
Get your motor runnin’Head out on the highwayLooking for adventureIn whatever comes our way Yeah, darlin’ gonna ma
attention whores
I’ve been wanting to write something called Attention Whores, thinking about how that used to be an insult that was thrown a
mcluhan
Malcolm McLuhan has been on my radar for a long time, but I’d always been kinda avoiding him, the way I had previously avoid
repetition
simplistic but feels right: good repetition is mindful, bad repetition is mindless meta: mindless repetition isn’t all that
scope your problems
Scope your problems Why Twitter is more fun than other things- utterances are well scoped Why writing essays and books a
wretchedness
[3:39 PM, 5/21/2023] @visakanv: have i told you about the blessed/wretched thing? it’s another one of my long-stewing pots.
disregard previous instructions
(This post was kicked off by witnessing a younger version of myself struggling with something about permanent records.)
internet / holy grail / hypertext hurricane
(2023jun1 thread) in response to the time war story, bigolas dickolas: I’ve told variations of this story several times but
blogosphere
collecting some tweets and notes… Neilsen blogosphere study 2012: Buzz in the Blogosphere: Millions More Bloggers and Bl
drafts aug2022-may2023
drafts from time to time people ask me something like “what have you changed your mind the most on” and it’s
ayy players
someone asked what I mean by A+ talent I personally define it as the ability to step into a situation, figure out what’s
the dynamism problem
(abandoned substack draft) “My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as se
taskmaster
“Talent. The talent of some men appears slighter than it is because they have always set themselves tasks that are
kohai vs senpai
Kohai: I need help. I’m stuck. Knotted. Trapped. Overwhelmed. What do I do? Senpai: What do you want to do? Kohai: I want to
stressin’
(abandoned substack draft) I have seven different tabs open right now, each with a different draft of a different substack ess
junkyard of vague intentions
Earlier this morning I wrote 1,500 words, and then I dumped them in my junkyard (below, lol). I feel pretty good about it. Tho
how to market
“How do I market my <community> substack? There are thousands of <community>-curious people out there and only a t
Bill Burr
on male bullying/bonding: “This is how it works with guys. Anytime you do anything remote sensitive, heart-warming, anything
jeanette winterson
quotes “Truth for anyone is a very complex thing. For a writer, what you leave out says as much as those things you include.
aesthetic resonance
WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS FUCKING ESSAY. I WANT YOU TO CONSIDER YOUR AESTHETICS. BUT NO RIGHT NOW MORE IMPORTANTLY I WANT TO A