2025 in the rear-view mirror

Jamie Gower

— 5 min read
2025 in the rear-view mirror

Happy New Year to you. So glad you made it. 

I could comment on the vast frying pan of 2025 that we have all just trekked across, but you know what happened. You know what you endured.

Instead, let’s just step back from the latest fastball being launched at our heads by The Batting Machine of Life, and talk about something light. Something trivial. Like this newsletter.

Last year about this time, I sent you The (quarter) year in review, where I took a blatantly inadequate amount of data about the first few months of this newsletter and made all sorts of half-baked conclusions with it.

Well, now I have an entire year of data, which should make for even tastier half-baked conclusions. And maybe even answer the big question:

Should I even keep doing this?

I’ll show you the data. Right after the news.

What’s going on?

I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now.”

Three data points from the last year of (required field) Transmissions

Look, I have a whole big spreadsheet of all sorts of data analytics from this past year, but here are the three points I think you may find interesting:

26 issues emailed

It looks like I hit my original goal of posting every other week, even though my posting schedule was a bit more erratic than that, and one post was a correction (Update to “Fortnightly”). Still, 26 in a year, and I barely dented my “Ideas” folder.

Here’s the five most-opened issues of the years (number opened/number sent):

  1. Why did the robo-taxi cross the road?
  2. Gather your restrictions (tie)
    Commit to the bit (tie)
    Life as an iceberg (tie)
  3. I only trust what can be haunted

Again, this is probably not a lot of data to draw conclusions from, but that’s never stopped me before:

30% subscriber growth

This is the big number. There was a steady trend of subscriber growth throughout the year.

Does that mean I hit my goal of 100 subscribers?

Goodness, no. Oh, no, no, no. I’ve still got a ways to go on that goal.

But 30% growth is encouraging. I think it means that I’m not necessarily doing anything wrong, I'm just not doing enough right. I’ve heard from a couple of sources that someone with a newsletter should be spending at least as many hours marketing as they do writing. Yikes.

So that’s another goal for me this year: to find the things that an introvert like me can do to get the message out about this newsletter. And to keep watching and listening so I can continually shape this into something you want to read.

So it’s really up to me. Except...

CTRL-F to glory

There’s one thing I would humbly like to ask of you: Could you please forward this email to a friend, family member, co-worker, or unspecified other whom you think would enjoy this? Just hit CTRL-F (⌘-F for you Mac folk), and send it on over.

I’m asking you since you are a marketing genius with your finger on the pulse of this newsletter’s readership – because you already are a reader! So anyone you think would also enjoy this newsletter, probably will. They are what marketers call a pre-confirmated probulator. (I think that’s the term. I had a lot of tabs open at the time.)

So please forward this to a pre-confirmated probulator in your life. It would be the swellest holiday gift you could ever get me.

Fun facts to know and share

‘The paradox of horror’: How scary films can soothe your anxiety
Jump scares and gore might not seem like the most soothing watching, but scary films can actually be the ideal therapy during anxious times.
BBCDavid Robson

Remember when I wrote about How Microsoft turned me into a horror fan? Turns out I’m not the only one who finds horror reassuring.

I’m up for any musical instrument that comes with its own little ladder.

Tangaroa, by Alien Weaponry
17 track album
Alien WeaponryMercercenary

Heavy metal from New Zealand in Maori ? Yes, please.

A Goddess.

Remember when I posted a link to Ethel Merman’s disco album? Well, here’s Tom Jones covering The Talking Heads. You’re welcome!

Over to you

And I mean, literally, over to you. A quick forward would help this newsletter so much. Word of mouth is the bestest word there is – even tentpole movie marketing budgets can only get people to go to the first weekend. After that, it’s all people talking to people.

It’s been a delight talking with you this past year, and I’m looking forward to further chats. I truly appreciate your readership. You’re helping me order my thoughts, and providing a direction and purpose to my week and how I interact with the world. And remember, you can make this even more of a discussion by using the comments section. I’d enjoy hearing what you’re thinking.

Until we talk again, I remain,

Your pal,

Jamie

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