The Personal and Professional Impact of Writing Weekly

About a year ago I got so frustrated with the LinkedIn algorithm that I thought, f*ck it. I am going to launch a newsletter to share what I am interested in, share what I see and not be bound by social algorithms forcing me to talk or type a certain way.

What has changed? To be honest, my frustration is definitely still there haha! Some of my frustrations:

• Clickbait titles are out of hand, but they work.. If you don’t scream “OpenAI just killed 5000 companies” or “we will all die tomorrow because of this update”. Nobody seems to care.

• The endless “I made 500.000 EUR in 4 weeks with an AI Agent, comment Agent if you want the blueprint”. All exaggerated bullsh*t to get you into some meaningless funnel to sell you an AI Agent course.

• LinkedIn “influencers” with, somehow, mega reach posting the general updates as if it just changed everything and people loving it.

Oh well, I can go on and on but I am not going to turn this 52nd article into one lengthly complaining rant. Let’s just keep it at that LinkedIn did not get much better 🤣.

But at least I had a place to bluntly share my ideas, opinions and thoughts with more than 300+ people who subscribed, on a 60%+ average open rate. Not once, not twice, but 52 times in total. That is 52 weeks of writing and I did never (deliberately) miss a week. The only two times I did not send out a newsletter was due to heavy illness, and by that I mean that I couldn’t even look at my computer, please forgive me 🤣.

A good moment to look back, before we head towards a Band of Insiders meet up in Amsterdam on December 23 (yes this is actually happening! Email or text me if you want to join) and the end of 2025.

My Learnings so Far

1 - Finding a topic every week is harder than it looks

Inspiration does not hit daily, or even weekly. Sometimes I had a great idea that I really wanted to dedicate a newsletter to and other weeks I really had to search for a topic to write about. This goes back to something I have heard, read and seen many times and oh boy it is true: discipline over motivation. If I would have relied solely on motivation, you probably would have received only half (if not less) articles this year than the 52 you received now.

This also resulted in different kind of articles. I think there is a clear distinction between personal thinking/ideas and more informative stories. Both might be valuable, but especially the first set of articles really need strong inspiration. It is also more than normal that some original POV does not come every week or so.. All together, just discipline helped me a lot!

2 - I learned a ton myself

I didn’t immediately expect this when I started my writing journey, but it definitely did bring me a lot. I learned a lot from all the topics I shared with you guys. Writing is very different, as in that you can’t be lazy about saying something. If you explain something, explain it well. This is also, I think, the reason my articles got longer and longer.

It was one of the big advantages of writing articles: I could finally take the time to explain something properly, instead of it all having to fit in a few paragraphs on LinkedIn. But that also meant I had to be very precise about what I would write, about what I would claim, about how (for example) a specific piece of technology actually worked.

3 - The loneliness of one-way content

Maybe an unexpected one but I have felt this a couple of times throughout the year. Writing articles in a newsletter is very much an one-way street of communication. The only thing I see in terms of “feedback” is open rates and clickthroughs, oh and unsubscribes (yeaaahh… those hurts haha!). Very rarely I heard from someone who read something specific, or shared his thoughts on the newsletter in general. This had a great positive effect on my motivation for sure! This was also one of the main reasons why I decided to launch the WhatsApp community (in a week I was too sick to write anything), to see if I could get some more feedback.

Although that community is active, it’s different than what I hoped for. So yes, sometimes it was a weird feeling of loneliness. That is also the moment when motivation would dip, which brings me back to point 1, I pushed myself to deliver a weekly newsletter as promised. So I did.

4 - It changed my way of looking at things

Writing my newsletter had a big impact on how I was looking at news, things I listened to, how I checked social media etc. The question was always there in my (sub)conscious “do/can I write about this?”. I have had moments that I was driving my scooter on Bali, with my girlfriend to go to another place on the island, and I had to stop in the middle of the road to write down what I just heard on the podcast I was listening to. It sparked something, it sparked a subject, a take I wanted to write about 🤣. It worked, though, became a full article!

Another thing that I learned from this, is that not everything is “writeable”. Sometimes people in the community came with ideas for articles, but there was not enough to write about. If it’s possible to write my answer to a question, or an idea I had, in one sentence, it’s not enough to write an article about it. There had to be some depth, something interesting to share or research, for it to be enough to become an article.

5 - The final form factor is never how it started

My newsletter changed a lot over a years time. When I started, it was mostly two topics per newsletter. They would be a lot shorter then they are now of course. Added to that were things that I found, cool things I saw or listened to etc, short snackable pieces.

Now, it’s just one long in-depth article about something I am interested in or an idea/thesis I have. Very different.

I did not expect to end up here, it is where I naturally gravitated towards. So the biggest lesson here is, as so often, just start. It will never be perfect but man I did learn so much by just doing it!

6 - The newsletter became the center point of my life

The newsletter really became the center point of my life in some way. My weekly experience was something like this:

Thursday - Newsletter gets sent out
Friday/Saturday/Sunday - I could really zone out and not think about next week
Monday - Pressure starts, what to write about this week?

If I got lucky I had something to write about soon so I would sometimes spread writing sessions out a bit. Other times I did it all on Thursday and sometimes finished right on time, especially when I started putting more pressure on myself by filming/recording it for podcast purposes 🤣.

And then yes, when all was sent out I could relax a bit again haha! It was an interesting experience, but also probably the reason why I need a break 😉.

7 - Accountability

I think I am a pretty self aware person. I know damn well that there is more I DON’T know than that I do know. It was interesting to see that some of the things I have written in this newsletter in the early days have already come true, it feels pretty to be able to point back to something and say: see, I told you back then. Now there is proof 😉.

But, this also goes the other way around. I know a lot of the things I think will happen, will probably not become true at all. And that is ok. The goal of this newsletter has always been to open up you, the readers, mind a bit for the possibilities.

So yes, I don’t know it all, far from it. All I do is try my best to understand and learn as much as I can about the things where my curiosity takes me. Always with good intentions and a positive mind.

What’s next?

Good question! The honest answer is that I don’t know yet. There are many things going through my mind.

I love doing content, I think I have enough thoughts, ideas and POV’s to share and that they are somewhat useful for people. But sometimes I am stuck when it comes to what forms of content, business models (because I much rather do this all for you instead of working for a few clients) and the rules of the algorithms..

The other honest thing to share is that growth has definitely stalled. Both the community (+- 300 people) and the newsletter (+- 315 people) seem to be stuck on these numbers for months now.

I think I need something new, something fresh. I think I need a way to differentiate myself from all other “influencers” and innovation content people. My biggest challenge? I am all over the place. I am not “just an AI guy” or “just a blockchain guy”, I am a bit of everything. But is it a challenge, or my unique strength?

That is exactly what I have been thinking about the last few weeks and I think I have found a way to do exactly that. Turn it into my biggest strengths.

Thank you

That leaves me with the most important thing: YOU! Thank you for subscribing, thank you for reading, thank you for supporting.

I had a lot of fun writing these articles and putting this newsletter together on a weekly basis. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I will promise that I will be back in 2026, in whatever form that might be, you will definitely be hearing it first. Please feel free to share any ideas, feedback, or any other thoughts with me. Anything is much appreciated.

And for the people in The Netherlands, come to the meet up!! Would be awesome to see the community in person :).

For the last time in 2025, signing off a newsletter.

Thank you and much love,

Funs ❤️ 

PS... If you’re enjoying my articles, will you take 6 seconds and refer this to a friend? It goes a long way in helping me grow the newsletter (and help more people understand our current technology shift). Much appreciated!

PS 2... and if you are really loving it and want to buy me some coffee to support. Feel free! 😉 

^{Who am I and why you should be here:}

^{Over the years, I’ve navigated industries like advertising, music, sports, and gaming, always chasing what’s next and figuring out how to make it work for brands, businesses, and myself. From strategizing for global companies to experimenting with the latest tech, I’ve been on a constant journey of learning and sharing.}

^{This newsletter is where I’ll bring all of that together—my raw thoughts, ideas, and emotions about AI, blockchain, gaming, Gen Z & Alpha, and life in general. No perfection, just me being as real as it gets.}

^{Every week (or whenever inspiration hits), I’ll share what’s on my mind: whether it’s deep dives into tech, rants about the state of the world, or random experiments that I got myself into. The goal? To keep it valuable, human, and worth your time.}