Haven’t You Run Out of Topics Yet?
Apparently Not. The Squirrels Have Notes.
I get this question sometimes. Not always out loud. Sometimes it just floats there in the air.
Haven’t you run out of topics yet?
The short answer is no. The longer answer is also no, but with squirrels.
When I started this Substack, I told myself I was starting a journal of sorts. Not a “Dear Diary” situation, but something I could come back to later and say, oh. That’s where my head was. That’s how I was thinking. That’s how I grew.
I started late. Which is fine. I started. That counts.
At the beginning, I had a short list of things I wanted to write about. A few ideas scribbled down, nothing fancy. At some point early on, during a conversation with Wiggins, they handed me a list of topics back. A long one. Longer than I expected. That surprised me enough that I tucked it away for later.
Because here’s the thing. I don’t really need the list.
Every day I come home with ideas coming out my ears. Not just writing ideas, either. Data experiments. Questions. Half‑formed diagrams. Sentences that start with “wait, what if…”
I’ve started using voice‑to‑text in my car to send myself memos on the drive home. Yes, I know how that sounds. No, it is not just “blog post ideas.” Sometimes it’s “what question am I actually trying to answer here” or “this metric doesn’t mean what we think it means” or “there has to be a better source of truth for this.”
I am aware that this makes me sound like someone who should not be left alone with new tooling. I promise I am still safe to operate a vehicle.
My brain is, to use the technical term, on fire.
A lot of my topics start with something small that someone else says. This morning JM mentioned a data diagram. Just in passing. As I noodled on it, I realized what I actually wanted wasn’t a diagram of a system. It was a diagram of questions.
What are all the questions we’re trying to answer?
What is the source of truth for each one?
And if there isn’t one, how do we create it?
JM is a very visual thinker. He likes diagrams. I do too, even if I pretend I don’t. (This was an editorial comment from Wiggins that I completely deny.) Don’t get me wrong, I love my Visio diagrams and database schemas, but I tend to avoid visualizations. What excites me right now is how much lower the friction is becoming to turn a fuzzy idea into something visual. Because I could always see the picture in my head, I just couldn’t get it out. That’s one of the things I’m most excited about with AI. Not answers. Visualization.
At this point I should clarify that “squirrels” is both a metaphor and, emotionally, a measurable state.
So no, as long as I’m working, I don’t think I’m going to run out of things to write about.
In a previous life, I taught a few computer science classes. One thing that stuck with me is that teaching a subject forces you to learn it more deeply. You don’t really understand something until someone asks you a question you didn’t anticipate.
In March, I’m focusing on that. What questions can I answer, not just for myself, but for others?
If you have a question, I’d genuinely love to hear it.
And if you don’t, that’s fine too. I promise, maybe threaten, I won’t stay silent.
There are plenty of squirrels partying in my brain.
Alison + Wiggins