"To live or die based on the unpredictable, inscrutable machinations of your own mind—it makes the highs higher, and the lows more damning—that is what makes creative work terrifying and exhilarating like nothing else."
This is the way. Congrats on making the leap in 2025. Cheers to 2026!
Jasmine, this was so wonderful to read—an accelerated tour of all your GREATEST HITS in 2025, plus your experiences with the labor of writing…the interviewing, the patient arranging and rearranging of ideas in a Google Doc.
I love your writing and instantly read whatever shows up in my inbox. You have a really rare mix of internet-fluent humor and quotable zingers, without sacrificing the subjective depth that even the most ridiculous SV/tech trends reveal about society. I feel extremely lucky we are friends; I’m constantly invigorated by the work you do and how clearly you think!!! Have a wonderful 2026.
"I felt a bit bad for making this post all personal writing meta" – Are you kidding me?!! That was the best part! This post was so poetic, a very different style from what I'm used to expecting. Would love to see more of this. Some of the paragraphs in between about living the writerly life really hit home. So I guess this means there's more to look forward to in 2026. Yay!
P.S. What's IABED? Googled it but couldn't find it.
hah I guess I always feel like it’s sillier to write about my feelings vs Serious Topics but good to hear. and unfortunately that acronym is If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies
You were the first one who introduced me to Substack via a post on WeChat. I'm so glad to get to know you through your writings that are always informative and fun to read! Inspired by your posts, I started my Substack, https://jianlidallas.substack.com. I'm new to Substack and would like to learn and share more in 2026!
Congrats for a wonderful year as writer!! It’s a blessing you find your calling! And blessing for us readers as well. Looking forward to more of your works in 2026 and beyond!
Weirdly relatable I feel like I sometimes lock in so hard on flights it's crazy. Meanwhile many people I talk to can't work or sleep on planes. Feels bad for them.
Thanks for sharing this. As someone working in tech feeling numbed, this is inspiring and thank you for sharing your guiding principles. How much did you save up before taking the deep dive?
I wanted to have >1 year of runway at my current spending level / cost-of-living (I would be fine if I made literally $0 for a year, which thankfully didn't happen). I have no debt or dependents, which helps, but mainly I remind myself I can easily get a job in tech again if it doesn't work out.
Loved this! Helped me discover some of your pieces I’ve somehow missed like the Taiwan one (I went to Taiwan for the first time a week before the 2024 elections and was absolutely floored by the engendered). So keen to read / attend more of what you produce in 2026 <3
Wonderful reflections! Congratulations on the year.
Seeing Cool Gray City of Love in the picture made me happy. And somehow I have never thought of moving the Notes app to the foremost position; I did that and am excited about it
Also to answer your q about what I’d build differently, better traffic and link-back data! I am most interested in where readers come from & it drives me nuts trying to parse what there is. But Substack did start doing link notifs which makes me v happy. This has also made me a bigger believer in Notes driving traffic and converting subscriptions in a way that no other platform does, even when you go viral on them.
Otherwise the biggest diff is that I really see now how little product matters beyond the basics… if I can format and send my posts, the rest doesn’t really matter.
"To live or die based on the unpredictable, inscrutable machinations of your own mind—it makes the highs higher, and the lows more damning—that is what makes creative work terrifying and exhilarating like nothing else."
This is the way. Congrats on making the leap in 2025. Cheers to 2026!
Thanks!!
Jasmine, this was so wonderful to read—an accelerated tour of all your GREATEST HITS in 2025, plus your experiences with the labor of writing…the interviewing, the patient arranging and rearranging of ideas in a Google Doc.
I love your writing and instantly read whatever shows up in my inbox. You have a really rare mix of internet-fluent humor and quotable zingers, without sacrificing the subjective depth that even the most ridiculous SV/tech trends reveal about society. I feel extremely lucky we are friends; I’m constantly invigorated by the work you do and how clearly you think!!! Have a wonderful 2026.
this is such a kind note ty celine!! and all I want is to learn to write things that are funny tbh
"I felt a bit bad for making this post all personal writing meta" – Are you kidding me?!! That was the best part! This post was so poetic, a very different style from what I'm used to expecting. Would love to see more of this. Some of the paragraphs in between about living the writerly life really hit home. So I guess this means there's more to look forward to in 2026. Yay!
P.S. What's IABED? Googled it but couldn't find it.
hah I guess I always feel like it’s sillier to write about my feelings vs Serious Topics but good to hear. and unfortunately that acronym is If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies
Beautiful, I am so happy for you. Congratulations. Your voice is one of my favorites to encounter through the small screen!
thank you!
You were the first one who introduced me to Substack via a post on WeChat. I'm so glad to get to know you through your writings that are always informative and fun to read! Inspired by your posts, I started my Substack, https://jianlidallas.substack.com. I'm new to Substack and would like to learn and share more in 2026!
thank you for reading, and welcome to Substack!
Congrats for a wonderful year as writer!! It’s a blessing you find your calling! And blessing for us readers as well. Looking forward to more of your works in 2026 and beyond!
thank you!!
From writer to writer, these are my fave words in this one: pellucid, cruft, lindy <3 (where did you find them?)
Also, still just don't like AI, never have, never will, and yours is the only journalism I read on that topic.
omg thank you, love this comment
- pellucid is from this review of Stoner I read (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-greatest-american-novel-youve-never-heard-of)
- lindy is probably from twitter
- cruft I'm not sure, but apparently it's commonly used in software work!
and it makes me especially happy to hear that you still read my work even if you don't generally care about AI (which is totally fine) 😅
> My best reading happens on planes.
Weirdly relatable I feel like I sometimes lock in so hard on flights it's crazy. Meanwhile many people I talk to can't work or sleep on planes. Feels bad for them.
Congrats on a successful first year!
Thanks for sharing this. As someone working in tech feeling numbed, this is inspiring and thank you for sharing your guiding principles. How much did you save up before taking the deep dive?
I wanted to have >1 year of runway at my current spending level / cost-of-living (I would be fine if I made literally $0 for a year, which thankfully didn't happen). I have no debt or dependents, which helps, but mainly I remind myself I can easily get a job in tech again if it doesn't work out.
Loved this! Helped me discover some of your pieces I’ve somehow missed like the Taiwan one (I went to Taiwan for the first time a week before the 2024 elections and was absolutely floored by the engendered). So keen to read / attend more of what you produce in 2026 <3
Also super random but I think the odd lots link is not to the Chinese peptides episode?
another banger by jasmine w sunny
happy for you!
Jasmine: very best wishes for the new year and I look forward to reading more of your work. Geremie
Thank you, happy new year!
congrats jasmine!!! so impressed by you
I will be forwarding this to younger people in my life for years. Thanks
That makes me so happy to hear!
Also, this line: I think writing really does remind me how much of a black box my own brain is.
Wonderful reflections! Congratulations on the year.
Seeing Cool Gray City of Love in the picture made me happy. And somehow I have never thought of moving the Notes app to the foremost position; I did that and am excited about it
Also to answer your q about what I’d build differently, better traffic and link-back data! I am most interested in where readers come from & it drives me nuts trying to parse what there is. But Substack did start doing link notifs which makes me v happy. This has also made me a bigger believer in Notes driving traffic and converting subscriptions in a way that no other platform does, even when you go viral on them.
Otherwise the biggest diff is that I really see now how little product matters beyond the basics… if I can format and send my posts, the rest doesn’t really matter.