What Is It Like To Be A Writer? - by Jasmine Sun

Hello! If you’re here from Odd Lots, perhaps check out my other tech writing first. This will be more of a navel-gazey year-end reflection post. I didn’t start 2025 with tremendous confidence. In January I would’ve told you that there was a 50 percent chance I’d return to product management after the year was over. It took several months before I got comfortable introducing myself as a “writer,” and several months more before I took the j-word in stride. It felt safer to act like I was in-between things, like I’d wrapped up my four years working at Substack and was now flirting with journalism as a low-commitment creative sabbatical. Of course, I harbored a not-so-secret hope that the writing thing would work out. But I wanted to be realistic, so I wrote down three exit criteria: Am I having fun? Am I doing work I’m proud of? Do I see a path to financial sustainability? Three yeses would provide permission to extend the project for another year. Nos would send me back to a real job—no

Hello! If you’re here from Odd Lots, perhaps check out my other tech writing first. This will be more of a navel-gazey year-end reflection post. I didn’t start 2025 with tremendous confidence. In January I would’ve told you that there was a 50 percent chance I’d return to product management after the year was over. It took several months before I got comfortable introducing myself as a “writer,” and several months more before I took the j-word in stride. It felt safer to act like I was in-between things, like I’d wrapped up my four years working at Substack and was now flirting with journalism