It's time to retire this Friday ritual. A final note on burnout and what's ahead.
I've spent the last few days staring at Notepad, the app I use to write everything (unless I'm on a Mac, then it's Text Edit), trying to find the right way to say goodbye to this specific Friday morning ritual. To be clear: I am not leaving the Android Faithful community, nor am I hanging up the podcast mic. But after nearly a year—44 weeks, if you want to be specific, but "a year" makes it easier for me to insist to myself that I sustained the course—this is my final issue.
I have mixed feelings fluttering throughout my body. After 15 years in this industry, I'd hoped to shape this newsletter into a dedicated podium all my own, without the confines of shareholder stakes and shaky algorithmic pivots. It was a major challenge that I hope to tackle again someday under improved conditions. I wanted to show up with more gumption than I did. I'd personally hoped to pursue some original reporting. Instead, I got bogged down by a bad landlord and figuring out how to maintain a separate, somewhat siloed freelance business while also being the sole editorial North Star for a blog in a landscape that feels increasingly unrecognizable.
People will say I'm hard on myself and that I shouldn't publicly call out my own faltering, but what I'm about to share is because I'm hoping you'll relate to what's been my internal reality. I've been burnt out, wickless, for years. I'm surprised there's still wax to enable some structure. The ability to write for a smaller, curated audience of diehard Android users was exactly what I needed while I recuperated because I got to be completely myself. You guys made it fun again and even supported my experimentation with various ideas and review formats. And you left kind comments to let me know you liked what I was attempting to do here.
I will try this again someday, with more gas in my tank. I want to thank our nearly 1,000 subscribers for tuning in weekly to the Android Faithful newsletter. We actually had a consistently average open rate of over 42%, which means a significant number of AF supporters dug into their inboxes to read the words and links I curated each week. Thank you for reading what I wrote and for your support during this creative time!
What's next for me, your author? I'll be in the podcasting sphere each week on Material and often here on Android Faithful. I've taken a full-time gig where I'll still be writing about Android, Gemini, and the broader mobile world. You'll find out where soon enough, especially if you follow me on social media.
Thank you, everyone. And stick around because Android Faithful, the podcast, isn't going anywhere.
...is Android Faithful! Android 17 takes a major step forward, and we wrap up March with an array of interesting phones and news of Apple's acquicense in this week's episode. Bless!
