Tuesday, September 29th, 2026

I decided yesterday that the best way to jump start my creating and sharing my creations is to start to publish my daily journal writings on my blog. Not that these sessions are ever well thought through or crafted entries. They are just a quick capture of what I am currently thinking about, struggling with, or observing. There is no edit pass, so as far as sharing them represents an example of the idea of the shitty rough draft. There really is not much of a justification to share this writing on the internet. No one is likely to read it, which is also the reason to use the process to work through my own resistants to writing in public.

I read something yesterday that from Andy Matuschak, “Work with the garage door up” . Most of my “work” if you will is working on my self. Finding my way through the next chapter of my life. Even though I don’t expect anyone to read through these notes, there is something about publishing them that puts them on another level. Not sharing them. Not marketing them. Not that the notes are for anyone else. I don’t know why I am even doing it sometimes. But I know, writing, even writing poorly, has helped me over the years work through whatever is going on in my life at that moment. For me, it has been the best type of therapy. Most of the time I never go back and read what I wrote. Or even do a pass to see if what I wrote was clear or not.

This whole idea of starting to share my journal entries has been slowly emerging as I struggle with how to think about our travel. And how to share what we are doing with the people we care about. And some of it is a nostalgia of how the internet used to be. Random people, sharing what they were doing, for themselves. And the small group of people who may stumble on their work. As the internet has shifted from protocols to platforms, and now to AI generated content it is harder and harder to find those people. When it became possible to make a living as a ‘content creator’, the conceptual gap between that polished production and someone just sharing what they think started to be difficult to see.

When we tell people that we are going to spend two years traveling through Latin America on motorcycles often we get asked if we are going to have a YouTube channel or can they follow us on Instagram. For me the challenge in that question is how those platforms work. How they are driven by algorithms to push content. And the game to be seen on these platforms is competitive. And as I think about it, even though I know I am not interested in trying to make money on these platforms, there is something about they reward system of these platforms that bring out something in us that I don’t believe is healthy. At least not for me. I don’t want to be checking if someone liked my latest post when I am riding through the mountains of Peru. I am not doing this ride to create content. But it is difficult to distinguish today the difference between a traveler and a content creator. Not that I think there is anything wrong with making a living creating. There are some really helpful and amazingly creative people who I have learned a ton from doing this. I just know it isn’t something that I want to be doing. But the struggle is that I want to capture our experience. Mostly for ourselves first, remembering what that day was like. Taking photographs, and videos, and writing notes of our experiences. Second for friends and family that are both excited to follow our journey and a little concerned for us. Then lastly to share years from now. I’m still not sure how the longer term sharing will work. Or if it is even viable on today’s internet. But, the digital version of that slide show that no one wants to sit through when someone came back from their vacation, but thirty years later becomes a cherished keepsake.

I’m trying to find this line. The line between sharing what we are doing, in public, but staying away from creating something that distracts us from the actual journey. Trying to do stay focused is more about creating constraints than building discipline. The algorithms are too good.