What’s Next

Some updates on my writings

Over the last three years, I’ve written +150,000 words. I’ve covered things from payments past, present, and future to financial economic history. I’ve also been blessed with two wonderful and healthy children, moved houses, gotten my CFA charter, and changed jobs. And while waiting to start my next role in December, I took time to reflect on what this blog means for me.

With that, it’s time for things to change direction. It’s less hard pivot and more changing of tack to catch the new winds blowing in my life. My writing will still bend towards history and explaining context — some things never change — however the “deep rewinds” era is coming to a close. I’ll explain what that means below.

---

Context Setting

Starting out my stated goal with this blog was to “cut through the Gordian knot” of modern finance. I was new to the finance industry, and this blog was my way of making sense of it all. Drawing from topics that had come up at work or in my CFA studies, I committed to writing dives into the history of modern finance.

For me, this meant building a foundation in payment systems (cards, real-time, and cross-border), financial economics (namely the Efficient Market Hypothesis), and history (founding of National Data Corp). All this work culminated with a 5 part series on the history of modern payment systems and my first conference presentation, “The Metaphors We Pay By.”

Along the way, however, I have found my draft folder growing faster than my publishing. There are thousands of words written about things that don’t fit the theme of this blog or, candidly, that I didn’t have time for or had gotten bored with. It’s why finishing the Philosophy on Payments series took nearly a year.

Catching a new wave

I enjoy surfing: the anticipation of paddling out to find a wave, the thrill of getting up to speed, and the bliss of catching it all the way into shore. Like any surfer knows (though may not acknowledge in the moment), however, all waves eventually end.

As shore approaches you have a choice: ride it in for the day or turn and paddle out to search for another wave to ride. My first wave — financial economics and deep payments history — is approaching shore and I’ve spent the last two months thinking about whether I’d like to ride this into shore for a while or paddle back out.

I’m going to search for a new wave.

What that will look like is more frequent posts focused on topics that I encounter in my new role. I’ll still focus primarily on payments and finance, but not quite as deep in the weeds and context. Also be covering CFA events, speakers and various things going on in my professional societies. Consider this the “paddling out” portion.

I’ll still do the occasional deep dive into a company or product but the length of my post to shrink somewhat from the 10,000-word exposé to a much more manageable 1,500. This allows me to deliver quality writing for myself and for you. It’ll get things out in a timelier manner rather than once every quarter or two.

At some point I’ll find a topic or theme that really hooks me. That’s when the long write-ups will start, and a common theme will emerge — my next wave.

I start my new role December 2nd, so stay tuned — there’s some exciting work ahead.