Ghosts In The Machine
In Which The Newsletter Shifts Focus For Good
When I started Are You Experienced over a year ago, I was looking for work again, dejected at the decreasing prospects in the ever-young world of startups for a dude in his mid-50s, and processing a barrage of grief for a succession of lost friends.
Over the course of 50 odd essays (or 50-odd? I prefer the former!) I worked out in public these very personal fears, emotions and theories about an evolving media and professional and technological world.
And now, having successfully conquered every one of my fears about aging, grief, medical trauma, social media, generative AI, addiction, careerism, and death, there is nowhere to go but up.
Ok, fine, maybe not.
I’m doing this thing called “Never Search Alone.”
It’s a sort of job hunting as a codified program. You examine your weaknesses and strengths with the help of others, and start to define “Candidate / Market Fit.”
I took full stock of my professional career.
I can see the clear factors where success eluded me:
Trying to sell products that were not ready for prime time
Trying to sell products that were ready but poorly timed for market fit
Trying to sell products in an under capitalized enterprise
Letting my own weaknesses give other people leverage over me
Because of that leverage, letting others dictate strategy and expenditures I knew were wrong
Like my friend Ian said once, maybe it wasn’t them, maybe it was me that was the problem.
I think I’ve learned what I can learn from writing about careers and ageism.
No matter how hard I’ve tried to keep this thing on target, the drift toward the things I really love - movies, music, comics, genre - has always been the current that pulls me.
My wife is not a fan of this Substack because she says I give too much of myself away.
Or I reveal things she doesn’t agree I should reveal.
There’s a lot on the cutting room floor.
I always thought I have to be uncomfortably real to get anything across that might resonate universally.
Like Karl Ove Knausgaard-level uncomfortably real.
Werner Herzog-level ecstatic truth.
Otherwise you might as well just read my resume.
That’s not very exciting.
Unless you really like indents.
And so we come to an inflection point.
I find I need to shift the focus of this newsletter to something more universally compelling but also personal enough to be real and occasionally raw.
I’ve written enough about grief and aging and the perils of job hunting after 50.
Substack just announced they finally have created a Film and TV category.
And I’ve been writing a multi-part podcast series about why horror films are important.
I sense a convergence.
There are Ghosts in the Machine and I feel I need to follow them.
What you’re going to see over the next couple weeks is a complete reframing of this newsletter.
A personal tectonic shift like this doesn’t come without danger.
I bear no expectations that all of my current 850 or so subscribers will hang on through the pivot.
That’s ok. Glad to have had you here in the first place.
I will be keeping the Are You Experienced domain and email. But I plan to change the name of this newsletter, to Ghosts In The Machine.
Having thoroughly maxed out my willingness and interest in discussing life post-50, I turn now to my first love, movies.
Specifically genre film.
I’ve got some fun stuff in the hopper.
The aforementioned multi-part series on why horror films are important. Taking into account horror films as art, as popular culture, as literature, and the roots of horror in fine art, like German Expressionism, Goya, Hieronymus Bosch.
A series on Creature Features from the 70s and 80s, and how those afternoon matinees shaped a generation.
Looking at technology and its impact on our attention spans and ability to focus, specifically regarding media in an age of the Binge.
I hope you stick around!
I’m excited about this change. It’s been coming for a long time.
Welcome to Ghosts In The Machine.
I’m Nick Tangborn and you can find me at nicholas@areyouexperienced.co
It’ll take me a couple weeks to thoroughly change all the things that need to be changed. Also if you’re an existing paid subscriber, I’d love it if you stuck around, but totally understand if not! Thanks for your support in the first place.
I hope you enjoy this new direction.
Can’t wait to read your thoughts. Will there be an audio/actual podcast?
I’m stoked!! Bringing the horror-joy is your true calling!!!