Hey there, and happy December! Today’s newsletter is a bit different. If you have Spotify or any of the services that have decided to copy Spotify, you’ve probably gotten a recap of what music you listened to this year. Well, here’s a recap of everything I’ve written this year. I’m mostly writing this because I’m interested in the numbers, and figured a few of you might be too.

I wrote 18 articles this year (including this one)

I didn’t write consistently though, hitting publish in only 7 of the 12 months this year. Six of these articles came in the last two months, since I decided to make Bearly Thinking a weekly newsletter.

That’s 16,896 words in total

Or an average of 938 words per article.

Interestingly, the my words per article declined significantly over time. I’m going to chalk this up as me becoming less loquacious and more to the point, but that’s for you to decide.

There are a whopping 22 of you!

Aren’t you part of an exclusive club? And I’m grateful for each and every one of you!

I started out this year writing for a total of 11 subscribers. Over the course of the year, that’s doubled, with the largest increase of 29% coming in the last month. At that rate, we’re only 4 years away from over a million readers (because as we all know, past performance is indicative of future results and regressions to the mean don’t exist).

I’ve sent you 291 emails

Combined with pageviews from other sources, that adds up to almost 1000 total views

Or, just a few more than some of my tweets.

But the only thing that really matters is impossible to quantify

When I started this newsletter, I had a few goals:

1. Use writing to better understand what I think about subjects that matter to me and what I really value in life

2. Give others a new perspective about a topic that matters to them

3. Get a better grasp of my voice, and a deeper understanding of how I want to communicate with people

4. Embarrass myself, because that’s the only real way to get better

And while the numbers tell a story of moderate, slow-and-steady growth, I personally have learned and gained so much this year through writing.

For each of these goals, I think 2023 has been a massive success. I’ve gained a better understanding of my values and my voice, I’ve written a few articles that had a real impact on some of you, and I’ve written things that I look back on with embarrassment.

All in all, I’m very happy. And I hope you are too!

But if you’re not, let me know what you think I can do better down below!