What is Iterate?
Iterate is a publication and community for stressed-out knowledge workers who have three things in common:
We love our technology, but we’re sick of it ruling our lives! (The Mitchells vs. The Machines can be a real horror movie! How can we avoid that?)
We believe in hard work, but we don’t want to be defined by our 9-5 jobs. Let’s figure out ways to be smart with our time so we can fill our days with activities that are both productive and nourishing. Learning, growing, and…iterating are non-negotiable aspects of life.
We strive for healthy balance and mindfulness. Life is too short to be stressed out all the time! We dive deep into concepts, tools, products, and content that enrich our lives so we can feel energized and avoid burnout.
Who is Iterate for?
Iterate is created for knowledge workers who are looking for ways to improve their relationship with technology. You appreciate that you can make a living while staring at screens all day, but you want to feel more control over how you spend your precious time.
Iterate will help you:
Discover emerging technology trends that will improve your quality of life
Treat lifelong education as the rewarding job it is
Be more connected with your internal clock so you can better allocate your time & energy
Stay mindful and intentional while managing all the curveballs life throws at us
Find like-minded individuals who are redefining the concept of work/life balance
This content is going to be most useful if you work in tech, media, the arts, or if you’re a multi-hyphenate solopreneur trying to get a slew of new businesses off the ground while raising some kids and training for a marathon (good luck with all of that!)
Who is Writing This?
Iterate is the proverbial brainchild of me, Christopher Michael (aka Chris) Jennings.
You may remember me from several jobs in advertising, tech, and new media around the Bay Area. Any old-school AppJudgment or CreativeLive fans out there? Did I help you make money in the early days of Airbnb? I may have even been your coach! These days, my main gig is in the world of influencer marketing where I help talented young creators make a sustainable living in this wild new thing we refer to as the “creator economy”.
In all seriousness, I’ve worked in Silicon Valley for over a dozen years and gathered more experience than I could possibly cram into a weekly newsletter. I’m a lifelong learner who earned a Master’s Degree while working full-time at a tiny startup that was acquired by one of the largest media companies on earth.
Some other things about me: I’m a certified deep work guide, a daily meditator, and a fourth-grade spelling bee champion (who still commits typos). I’m a native of the Hudson Valley of New York who has found a home in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. When I’m not working, I’m running, biking, skiing, or surfing... ideally with my wife, three-year-old daughter, and scruffy rescue dog nearby.
Our Schedule
My goal is to give you content that provides value. I want to send you things you actually want to read without spamming your inbox. So please feel free to comment or reply to any email to give your feedback and help me make this a better place.
Iterate Weekly (every Tuesday)
This is where it all began. In early 2021, I started sharing a weekly breakdown of mostly current (some evergreen) stories from the worlds of tech, productivity, and mindfulness. While the categories may change slightly from week to week, you’re guaranteed to learn something new in a simple, easy-to-understand format. Whether that’s details about how the latest VR headsets will be controlled by your thoughts, a new book recommendation that will fundamentally change the way you use Google Calendar, or how my outdoor standing desk setup radically improved my productivity, posture, and mindfulness - the goal is to offer you my easily-digestible perspective about what I’ve learned each week.
In-Depth/Longform/Iterants (Saturdays)
Some topics just need more time, research, and words than I care to fit in the concise format of the Tuesday post. These could be literal rants (we may change the title) where I just need to get something off my chest that’s bugging me. It will likely include long-form articles the likes of which you may have read on Medium in the past. The objective here is to separate the longer articles for when you have a bit more time to dive in. Nothing here will be too far removed from our core topics of technology, productivity, and mindfulness but when given enough time, motivation, and caffeine, who knows what I’ll come up with?
Iterations (as needed)
The working title for this section is “Iterations” but it’ll be a proverbial petri dish to test out some new experiments. You may see some discussion posts here for members of the community to share what they’re reading this month. There may be some video posts where I explain a concept that could benefit from my facial expressions and excessive gesticulation. Or perhaps this is where the long-in-development Iterate Podcast lives, we shall see. Whatever you find here, I promise to keep experimenting with new products that may not fit into the nicely formatted Tuesday edition.
Join hundreds of informed digital citizens from around the world who patiently refresh their inboxes each and every week awaiting the latest content from Iterate!
