Housekeeping: Substack Pause & Hiatus

Just a quick update for everyone who is a subscriber

Hello! First off if you’re reading this, thank you so much for being a subscriber. It really means a lot to me. I didn’t think that this substack would have anywhere near the amount of success it had. I just thought this was going to be a temporary thing but now I am committed to continuing to write for ya’ll. I will be writing the substack when I’m back and until the foreseeable future.

When I initially set out to do the substack it was going to be something to do between my job on the buy-side and hiking a thru-hike. What I found and created was a lot cooler than a job and something I want to sustain and grow. But I only came to the substack because it was after I quit my job… to well go thru-hiking. And that’s going to be quite some time.

For context; I will be setting off to hike the Continental Divide Trail on April 16th. I think I will finish sometime in early to mid-September. This next month I will be using it to really mentally and physically prepare for the trial.

I have always found myself very good at single-tasking 1 big thing, but very bad at multi-tasking 2 big things. The hike is a very big thing and will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done physically and mentally. I need this time to prepare.

Substack from now until March 30

But I’m not exactly done with the substack quite yet - I want to post a few more posts to my subscribers but I didn’t want to give you a bad deal. I hate to disappoint my customers and I thought it would be unfair to pause subscriptions and stop writing. I will be finishing up with two more posts. One for subs and one in public.

• Paid: Write up about ALGM / ON / IFX

• Public: Some “predictions” for when I’m gone and just general thoughts on high-level trends.

I also want to make sure ya’ll have your questions answered so I will still be readily available to answer questions. March 30th I am going to kind of shut it down for the season so you’ll get 15 days of “free” support.

Substack When I Come Back

I think I’ll start slowly before I turn on the paid posts. Getting into a cadence with writing is hard for me, and I like to post once a week if not more. It’s going to take quite some time to recover mentally and physically from trail. I expect to finish in early September and have a ~month of rehabbing into normal life.

I will likely start writing and publishing by the end of September but not turning back subscriptions until somewhere in October. That way I think that everyone who stays on with me will get a lot of “free” time. Partially in March, and partially in September. I want to make sure ya’ll are taken care of and feel like you got a good deal.

I have a lot of big plans on the other side and will make a much better product than I currently do. I want to buy access to better data sources, and maybe bring more consistent editing and collaboration onto the substack. I want to post more in public for general primers, and I want to have better and more actionable ideas. It’s going to be a blast. But for now, I need to go do this big thing, something I have always wanted to do.

I truly cannot thank you enough for everyone who supported me and who will continue to support me. This substack has been a pretty special journey for me and is part of why I consider myself to be extremely lucky. I have had a lot of fun talking and conversing with many of ya’ll, but for now, I need to go do another huge life goal. Happy trails ya’ll.

- Doug O’Laughlin