Nathanael Yellis

This July, I’ve been slowly reading The Stories of John Cheever. He published short fiction in The New Yorker for half a century and won the Pulitzer for this 1978 collection.

I’ve picked CRM systems a few times. Some flopped immediately, others worked at first but were outgrown, and only rarely did the CRM provide long-term value. But it’s those CRMs that stuck around that were the best: CRMs only add value if you keep them!

We’re about to push off for Plymouth. Like the Pilgrims of yore, we’ll have a minivan full of beach games, towels, and our beach wedding best on some hangers. It’s an early summer wedding, of my older brother.

BEVERLY, MA In our last local election, my longtime city councilor’s re-election message was a list of the things he’d opposed. Highlights on the list were stopping a gymnastics place from opening and successfully blocking the licensing of a new day care in our part of town; his lowlight was that he’d tried and failed to stop the new Whole Foods from going in. Happily for the neighborhood, his failure to stop the Whole Foods ensured that the old dump by the highway overpass was turned into an ok little shopping plaza.

These three pieces have stuck with me. Most writing on the internet doesn’t. And I read a fair amount of the internet!

After starting my career in the family business (taxes!) and then shifting to non-profit work, I now work in technology. I’ve noticed a thruline: everyone complains about how little they make. The most common reason my friends have had for switching jobs is to increase their salary.

This is my third try at a podcast. In 2004-6, I hosted a short-lived podcast (MindPlacebo) with my brother Andrew. It was really fun for us to record. I'm not sure why anyone listened. But listen they did: we reached about 60 people per episode and began a regular listener mailbag, where people wrote in and we made jokes about their emails.

I cried when I read this.

Greetings friends and Happy New Year!