Where do we go from here?

Before I went to Europe in 2022, I knew that many people wanted daily updates of my travels. But I thought it would be inefficient to provide updates via iMessage to people individually. Sure a group chat could have formed, but when so much cool random stuff happens in a day, a collective medium for the flow of information was the logical move. It’s precisely why I created this blog (well I also wanted to one day look back and remember my travels, and having a daily blog held me accountable).

But now sitting at hundreds of loyal readers, I have a decision to make. Do I wait until the next phase of my olive oil / food ventures to write to you again? Do I create a new newsletter for non-olive oil related material? What is the best course of action here?

Olive Oil is one component of my life. But if you were to take a look at my Notion (notetaking platform) — 99% of my notes and writing are about other topics away from olive oil a lot. Mostly to myself - and the topics are super, super random.

Think my dream journal from last night. Definitely not publishable to the internet, but random is a proper way to put it. My typical day-to-day thoughts are quite random as well. You can check my X account for proof (x.com/extravirginguy).

I’ve come to the realization that this blog was not designed around olive oil. Sure it morphed into that and sure there was a buy now button at the bottom of every single post over the past 18 months.

But going back to its roots, the blog was designed to track my personal journey. Every day it was a home for my observations throughout my 50 days in Europe. The focus of the trip was olive oil, but by no means did the blog only discuss olive oil.

Look at the Hook for Day 9. Nothing to do with Olive Oil. Everything to do with Wall Street.

So setting Phase 2 of Palloncino aside, we first need to address the next phase of this blog.

No longer is it olive oil deep dives. I will occasionally do them and maybe even in the future will only be doing food deep dives.

But at this juncture, the best use of this medium is for my thoughts as I navigate the messy waters of life. It’s not meant to be about “me” but leveraging my personal experience to provide you (the reader) entertainment, education and insight into how a “me” thinks — hopefully in a way that makes your life just a bit better or gives you just a bit more inspiration to take calculated risks, etc.

I’m excited to continue writing to you. There is no set day or time in mind that articles will come out. Just read them as they come.

One day, once things start to settle down, perhaps we may do a regular “Sunday Writeup” or something along those lines.

For now, happy reading.

-Jack