Hello World

My original Substack article written to fulfill my desire to start writing more and publish my thoughts publicly on Substack. However, I did not really follow through with this.. Perhaps, I will be better about it on here! So here is my first post re-posted on here for you to enjoy.

Substack: jamesejordan

print('Hello World!')

Vision for Substack #

Originally Published: 2022-04-02

Hello My name is James Jordan. I am a fairly straightforward man, so I will get straight to the point. This first newsletter outlines my reasons for creating this Substack account and the following future entries. I hope to create a shared vision for myself and readers who stumble onto these writings by mapping my motivations. My goal is to use these Substack entries as a way to articulate my thoughts on challenging, complex, and often murky problems and topics. I intend to get these thoughts out into writing to learn and improve myself, bringing forth a better version of myself over time. I expect to make mistakes, say stupid things, and experience failures. But maybe I won’t be too idiotic, selfish, or naive through this process and can find a way to make my corner of the world a little better and perhaps inspire others to make theirs a little better.

I am, and always have been, a firm believer in free speech for reasons I won’t dive into here. However, I grew up naively thinking my quantitative skills (math and science) would suffice and how wrong I was. I recently realized I foolishly undervalued the ability to write throughout most of my life. It turns out that it is rather hard to explain why an employer should hire you for that job if you cannot even write it out for yourself when preparing for an interview.

Many might be less than awestruck with my reasoning and conclusion here, thinking, geez, is that not self-evident, James? And you would be correct! However, reaching an understanding and consensus on why tremendous value should be placed on improving your writing ability has been one of my many weaknesses. I never quite realized that writing is not much different than thinking, and you cannot have one without the other. Therefore, I aim to utilize this Substack to improve my writing skills by putting my thoughts into words. So please bear with me as I stumble through misspelings grammatical errors, and mistakes.

Most people, myself often included, unconsciously assume their thoughts, ideas, and values are correct or the settled truth. However, when you openly place your thoughts out for the world to see and judge, you can swiftly find others that will disagree and say not so fast. Challenging myself to better understand those who disagree and explicitly articulating my thoughts, values, and beliefs is why I am placing these newsletters on Substack. Therefore, I candidly invite readers to provide me with constructive and honest feedback at any time. Hit me with your best shot!

Closing Time #

Wrapping things up, I aim to use Substack to help organize and articulate my thoughts, get these out into the world, and learn from this experience to hopefully be better off. Living in this day and age I was born into is a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because I live such a rich, free, and safe life here in the United States. I have ample food, a secure and warm place to sleep, sanitary medical care, and loved ones surrounding me. However, these freedoms (blessings) come with the curse that I am obligated to not take them for granted and must burden the responsibility of being so blessed. I owe it in the sense of gratitude to my forefathers to be the best I can be, and I feel part of that means attempting to write, however poorly, on this Substack. So, God, please grant me the courage, humility, patience, and words to give this Substack experiment my all.

“I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning