The first two years

Hello, dear reader! It’s been a while since my last post in this newsletter, primarily due to a lack of anything interesting to say. Between my thesis and some early-stage projects, most of the cool stuff I’m doing nowadays is still at an early stage, and most other things do not lend themselves to exciting writing.

Today’s issue, instead, is meant as a brief recap of the first two years of this newsletter, which I created on 15 July 2021. Back then, I wanted a virtual space where I could write down things and test some ideas without the formal commitments of work. I also needed somewhere to write more extensively about non-professional stuff that interests me, such as sci-fi or life in Italy. Last but not least, I wanted to gain some practice in long-form-ish writing in English and try to find my writing voice. In my opinion, the newsletter has been successful according to these three criteria.

Of course, success in these personal goals does not necessarily mean I’m producing an interesting newsletter. But I am delighted that so many of you seem to think this is the case; your reading is most appreciated, and please feel free to contact me if you want to discuss any topic covered in the newsletter. For those of you who receive the newsletter by email, that’s as simple as hitting “reply”, and I’ve already had some great discussions thanks to that.

Today I want to highlight some posts from the early days of this newsletter that might be relevant to current readers:

• Lawyer-programmers and online mustelids (22 July 2021), in which I speak a bit about my trajectory and otters
• Lessons learned from software engineering (29 September 2021), with some considerations about how software engineering informs my law & tech research
• On infrastructure (6 October 2021), with a quick reaction about the brittleness of digital infrastructures
• On definitions (1 December 2021): early engagements with the idea of technology neutrality, which is now a core part of my thesis
• Thinking about bad doctrine (19 January 2022), in which I try to make the cause that doctrinal scholarship is a good thing even though most of it sucks
• We never go out of style (30 March 2022), with some reflections about writing and the first pictures of Winnie, my lovely dog
• Roads not taken (18 May 2022), about abandoned projects
• EU Law as a foreign language (26 October 2022), about my experiences working on EU law as a scholar trained outside the EU

Overall, I really enjoyed the back-and-forth this newsletter has given me in the last two years, and I hope it continues to be an interesting space in the future. What about you? What would you like to read more about?

Finally, to stay on brand, it is time to finish this issue with a lovely otter. Thank you, and see you around!