One of my epiphanies when I left Big Tech social media in 2020 was how the timeline had come to dominate my mind. The...

One of my epiphanies when I left Big Tech social media in 2020 was how the timeline had come to dominate my mind. The (little) writing I was doing at the time was dictated by the topics discussed in my timeline. Freedom from the timeline meant freeing my mind, in some small way. Writing for engagement can feel, in the moment, like writing about the most burning issues of the day–and to some degree it is. At the same time, writing for engagement is self-limiting. “Hot takes” feel a bit less hot when you realize you’re only thinking about those things because the timeline told you to. The best way to gain perspective is by being irrelevant.