Intuitive+ Update: Changes for Second Half of 2024

A year ago, I posted on my personal blog that I was building out a subscription platform for fans of my various blogging, podcasting, and educational productions. And in October 2023, Intuitive+ launched.

📣 Today, I’m announcing a major set of changes to Intuitive+. Some of these changes I’m very excited about. And some I’m having to make due to personal necessity.

Let’s get that second set out of the way first. When Intuitive+ launched, the marquee publication was the CSS Nouveau course offered by The Spicy Web. This course was my love letter to the CSS language and modern web development techniques which focus on Using the Platform™, and I remain very proud of it.

Alas, despite my best efforts to follow it up quickly with a similar focus on vanilla JavaScript programming techniques, such a course is still in the early stages of its development. I could give you many excuses, but the long and the short of it is almost to the day since Intuitive+ launched to the public, I’ve had to deal with a string of unforeseen family emergencies (as a divorced dad of two) regarding my children’s wellbeing and education which has definitely taken its toll on my own mental—and now physical—health. Believe me, I resent having to re-evaluate my business plans and recognize the very real limitations placed on my creative energy and available time, but such is life.

And so I’m here to say that further development of courses for The Spicy Web is on hold—at least for the rest of this summer. I will reassess later this year and determine if I’m able to dive in once again. In the meantime, I intend to take some of my initial JavaScript-related material and release it for free in the form of new articles & videos. Stay tuned.

(And ICYMI, my good friend Ayush Newatia and I are in the midst of producing season 2 of the Just a Spec Podcast which is squarely in Spicy Web territory. Catch up if you haven’t already! All episodes available for free.)

🤘 And now for the good news. I’m in the process of revamping my email newsletter strategy. Creator Class will continue to live on, but it will refocus more specifically around the sorts of artistic & mental health topics I like to write about on my personal blog. To complement that, I will be launching a new newsletter as a companion to my technology blog The Internet Review. This newsletter will take a critical look at “hype cycles” and the ways Big Tech steers conversations towards its own financial goals and away from grassroots development of person-centered tech (which I see as the only way the open web will ultimately survive). I’ll also be sprinkling in discussions of micromobility, a technology space which is truly transforming the urban fabric and tilting it towards greater health and sustainability and away from the ravages of climate change.

In addition, my long-awaited podcast The Internet, Reviewed will be launching next month. Each episode will cover a past article published on The Internet Review and show the through-line of how that technology affects us today and what we can expect in the future. In both this and the companion newsletter, you can also expect further deep-dives into the evolving underpinnings of the new social web, The Fediverse.

I’ll also be working to bring the Fullstack Ruby blog, podcast, and newsletter under the umbrella of Intuitive+.

Going forward, my strategy will be to offer a free component to all these publications, while providing bonus content or early access content for subscribers of Intuitive+. As “patrons” of my work in these various areas, you directly help make these efforts possible. I am so grateful that, with your support, I can continue to be an indie publisher and grow this platform in a way that’s sustainable and valuable over the long haul.

💬 Let’s stay connected. As always, I’m available at any time if you have questions, ideas, and other feedback. Email me, ping me on the socials (jaredwhite@indieweb.social), or even set up a free Zoom call via my web studio Whitefusion. I hope you stick around as I spin up the various publications and adjustments next month, and I’m very excited about this next phase of Intuitive+. Indie Web Forever!

–Jared White
June 24, 2024