[Meta] Newsletter updates and plans for the upcoming weeks
Going through some numbers and ideas
Hey lovely readers! This week’s issue is a meta post as I was travelling during the weekend, and I decided to take a break from writing. Today, I’ll talk more about the newsletter itself, share some related numbers and would look forward to your feedback in the end. I wish to keep the writing process transparent!
About Computing Systems is now 8 weeks (and 8 issues) old, most of it comprising of Paper Pursuit reviews! I’ve absolutely enjoyed writing each week and also learnt new things on the way.
One skill I think I’ve improved myself at is reading papers. The first couple of issues of Paper Pursuit took me about a week each to read, summarise and write the review. The latest ones took me about 4-5 hours in total (!) I love this improvement. Saylee helped me define a simple “brand identity”, choosing consistent colors and the logo, thanks Saylee! For embedded illustrations I usually use Figjam or Photopea, both of which are free-to-use web tools.
Statistics
We are a group of 36 individuals now! Each subscriber means a lot for me as a writer as it’s a huge motivation boost knowing that you find value in what I write. Each email issue has an opening rate of about 50-60%, which apparently is a good number in email newsletter world.
The growth rate is varying and I want to keep the pace going so that the newsletter wins the consistency game. I am convinced that Substack considers consistency as a factor to recommend newsletter to readers on its platform.
Plans for the newsletter
In the coming weeks I plan to continue the Paper Pursuit series with some more interesting papers. I am also thinking of other content ideas:
Historic storytelling: Issues that go over crucial events in computing history
Topic research review: Research review and opinions on broader CS and software topics, e.g. privacy on the web, observability, web performance, etc.
One other idea I have been thinking of is inviting guest writers and writing issues in collaboration. This could be a paper review together, or an opinion exchange on a topic or event. So if you are someone who likes the content of this newsletter and would like to write together, reach out to me at karekar.mohit@gmail.com
Feedback
Before ending this issue I’d like to know from you what content you’d prefer to include in the newsletter. Apart from Paper Pursuit what would you like to read?
The options mentioned include the ideas from the previous section. If you have any other ideas you can simply reply to this email or comment on the post if you have a Substack account!
Have a nice week and I’ll see you next Tuesday!