“I had a whole plan for the newsletter this year. The year did not go to plan. Many reasons. A good deal of them were out of my control. Shit happens. Projects die at the oven door, as a friend of mine likes to say. Everything is set up and suddenly it’s all circling the bowl.
“It happens all the time, to everybody. That’s the thing to remember. There can be years of one step forwards and two steps back. For every project you see from any creator, there are probably ten dead ones laying in a ditch behind it.
“The only thing under your control is making new things. Every new project is a new roll of the dice, a new thing you want to make, a new set of opportunities and lessons. You don’t stop learning and you don’t stop losing. You have to bear in mind that winning is a happy surprise, but it’s not what you do it all for. You do it for the joy of making new things and putting them out into the world.”
—Warren Ellis, Orbital Operations newsletter, July 5, 2026
Beautifully put.