What Is The Dispatch Newsletter?

Someday, I’m going to quit my day job. Some people call it retirement, but instead of playing golf everyday, I want to start a business. Specifically, I want to use my technology background to help people run their own small businesses, just like I help Jill run our travel advisory.

I’m years away from quitting the day job, mostly because I love what I do. But I’m starting to build the foundation for a pivot when the time comes.

The Dispatch newsletter is a monthly missive focused on three key areas:

• From the field: personal narrative about what I’m wrestling with and what I’m building
• The stack: my lens on tools, systems, and thinking for people building a solo business
• The shortlist: A curated list of articles, products, tools, reads, and things helpful

Writing can be cathartic. It’s connective. It’s a tool for exploration for truth, for meaning. It’s also entrepreneurial, and I explore the intersection between the writing life and the business of writing, in both fiction and non-fiction.

The Dispatch’s audience is myself. Writing it helps me think through the problems I’m trying to solve, and it serves as a repository of this thinking for later review.

Maybe you’ll like it. If that sounds like your jam, you can check out previous editions and subscribe here.

Free, published monthly-ish.

Hand-written, always.

Why I Write

I write to explore ideas.

Like… should I continue writing fiction in an age of generative AI? I honestly don’t know. See my post titled The Case for Writing in a World of AI.

And, I write to make sense of the world.

For example, what happens if I use AI to try to write a book about AI?

Spoiler alert, it didn’t work very well.

I also write to explore the human condition, which is what stories are fundamentally about. The first story, or more precisely compilation of stories, is generally thought to be the Epic of Gilgamesh written down by the scribe Sîn-lēqi-unninni around the 13th to 10th centuries BCE.

Thats how long humans have been using stories to examine and celebrate the human condition.

Why I Travel

In 2001, right before 9/11, I moved to New Delhi to help run off-shore software development for the consulting firm I worked for. Our flat was in Anand Niketan, where we lived for over a year, and our office was in Gurgaon. During that time, I traveled throughout Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The amazing people I met were cemented in my consciousness forever. Some are still dear friends.

Now, I travel for the same reason I write: to make sense of the world, explore new ideas, and push my own boundaries of comfort.

Nothing adjusts your perspective like the world view that evolves from traveling through unique cultures, meeting people different from yourself, and breaking bread with locals.

• Countries visited: 23
• Most recent trip: Tahiti with Jill
• Favorite destination: Tokyo
• Favorite hotel (so far): Ritz-Carlton Nikko (Japan)

The picture below serves as my Facebook profile. Jill took it in Bangkok in February 2025, and it represents purposeful exploration. One of my core values.