Sign in Subscribe
1 min read reading

Matt Gemmell - Raw Materials

Everyone has their tales to tell, and the ones that resonate most tend to be the troubling ones… we need to share those experiences. We can perform a kind of exorcism by exposing them to the cold light of day where no deep shadows are cast, and to the hearts and minds of others.

Invariably, we find that the tales are a mirror, reflecting a common thread in the lives of both reader and writer. That’s how the cleansing magic works, and it’s a powerful realisation.

This is from the introduction from Matt Gemmell‘s collection of essays, Raw Materials. He has been one of my favourite writers on the web the past few years, writing about life, work, and technology. He is also one of the main influencers of getting me to write in Markdown and have a static website, instead of publishing on WordPress.

His book is free for a limited time only (as of August 28th), and has a reasonable price of $3.00 normally. I encourage everyone to check it out and discover a new up-and-coming writer.

Published by:

James McCullough

You might also like...

Jan
16

micro-01-16-2025

But, from personal experience, I know there are many ways to use AI for writing that are not only ethical,
1 min read
Jul
28

micro-07-28-2024

In his late seventies he wrote a will stating that his life was not to be artificially prolonged. The hospital
1 min read
Jan
25
2023: Get Back in the Box

2023: Get Back in the Box

Today is Bell Let’s Talk Day, and like last year, I want to use it to help prepare myself for what is to come this year. I do that by coming up with a theme to follow for the year.
6 min read
Jan
25

Prime Writing Hours

Prime writing hours, as @SheaSerrano would say. It always feels good to get something new down and scheduled to post.
Mar
04

Hey World - Establishing Something New

Complacency and comfort are poison pills for the creative mind. - Jason Fried
1 min read

Member discussion

DigitalOcean Referral Badge

Social Links


Mastodon
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() { // Get all links in the document const links = document.getElementsByTagName('a'); const currentDomain = 'foursides.ca'; const amazonAffiliateTag = 'four0b-20'; // Replace with your Amazon affiliate tag // Process each link Array.from(links).forEach(link => { const href = link.getAttribute('href'); // Skip if link is null, empty, or just a hash if (!href || href === '' || href.startsWith('#')) { return; } try { const url = new URL(href); // Handle Amazon links if (url.hostname.includes('amazon.')) { // Remove any existing tag url.searchParams.delete('tag'); // Add your affiliate tag url.searchParams.set('tag', amazonAffiliateTag); // Update the link attributes link.setAttribute('href', url.toString()); link.setAttribute('target', '_blank'); link.setAttribute('rel', 'nofollow noopener noreferrer'); } // Handle other external links (not Amazon and not internal) else if (!url.hostname.includes(currentDomain)) { // Add referrer parameter url.searchParams.set('ref', 'foursides.ca'); // Update the link attributes link.setAttribute('href', url.toString()); link.setAttribute('target', '_blank'); link.setAttribute('rel', 'nofollow noopener noreferrer'); } } catch (e) { // If URL parsing fails, it's likely a relative URL (internal link) // Do nothing for internal links console.debug('Skipping internal link:', href); } }); });T