What Owen is doing now

Aug 1, 2019

Moving to Canada

We’re moving to Toronto, Canada in August! It’s sad to leave Amsterdam, which has been a fabulous place to live, but it’s time for something new after living in Europe for almost five years.

Wrapping up freelance

…which means I’m largely wrapping up freelance right now ahead of the move. I’ll share more later, but I’m joining Shopify in September full-time to lead a team of writers… so won’t be picking up anything new—other than my OneZero column, which will stick around.

Hacking on newsletter ideas

I’ve had my daily newsletter for two years now, but I’ve not yet made available the custom backend I built that powers it all. I’m hacking away on that tool, which allows anyone to monetize their words online with a simple, self-hosted setup, and hope to release it by the end of the year.

Trying to refocus

For a long time I’ve found myself frustrated by how distracting the internet and my phone can be. I’ve disabled all of my notifications, avoid Slack during the daytime, and only check email in dedicated slots—which feels a lot better.

I don’t know really what the aim is, but I’m tired of being interrupted all day and feeling fragemented by the bleeps and boops that just never stop.

P.S—This page was inspired by the ‘Now’ page project. Also, the drone video at the top of the page was shot on a Skydio R1 at the Three Sisters in New Zealand.