Explains the following topics: - Why you should start an email newsletter. - Different kinds of email newsletters and what is the best - Writing a curated content newsletter - the standard approach - A better way - how to build a second brain, so the content engine runs on its own - the Zettelkasten method

1. How to create a
curated email
newsletter
(THAT DRIVES OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR
CAREER)

2. What we’ll cover
Why should you start an email newsletter?
Different kinds of newsletters, and what is the best (you know the answer ).
Writing a curated content newsletter – the standard approach.
A better way: How to build a content engine that “runs on its own”. In particular, how to build a
“second brain” that makes the writing process seamless.
Demo of my process.
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3. Quick Intro
Group Head - Strategy and Business Development @ LUXASIA (Asia-Pacific’s
leading distributor and retailer in Prestige Beauty)
Angel Investor
Founded a consumer Internet company; ran from 2013-2017.
And of course, I write Sunday Reads, a weekly newsletter on business, strategy
and entrepreneurship
Newsletter: https://jitha.substack.com/
Twitter: @jithamithra (still fairly new)

4. Why should you start a
newsletter? It’s a lot of work!
Source: Benedict Evans, Platforms, Distribution and Audience
Almost nothing
for 2 years
Launched
newsletter
He’s one of the successful ones!
Don’t forget Survivorship Bias – you only hear of the ones who succeed.

5. So why do it?
Makes you more interesting
Builds a community around you
Develops your communication skills – you discover and sharpen your “voice”
Opens up downstream opportunities
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But most important of all: Writing a newsletter helps you learn, and become better at what you do.
All of these are
pure optionality
on top. A bonus.
It’s worth it even
if you get none of
these.

6. Why do I do it?
Helps me learn and truly internalize concepts I read about:
◦ Understanding and applying what I call “The Grand Unified Theory of Management”
◦ Realizing that My Minimum Viable Product can be more minimum than I think – and using that to iterate on my
product
◦ Learning How to save myself from a bad startup idea that looks good – both as a founder and an investor
Gives me an excuse to learn more about stuff I’m excited about.
◦ Going deep on crypto and articulating why I’m optimistic.
Makes me smarter.
◦ Writing clarifies thought.
◦ Trying to do more makes you more productive.
Any downstream opportunities (angel investing, network, etc.) are a bonus. I would write even if I have zero subscribers (and I
do – I’ve written 1.1M words in my digital notebook in last 18 months – 95% of which will never be published)

7. That’s the focus of Sunday Reads:
Learning

8. Now that we’ve decided to write a
newsletter...
… What kind of newsletter should we write?
Type of Newsletter Pros Cons
Blog Posts Can stand out with
great original content
Limited ability to add value; hard to keep up (are you
an industry expert with something new to say every
week?)
Ends up being “motherhood and apple pie”
“Link Love”
(a list of links)
Very easy to do Not enough value add, unless there’s a connection
between the links (and changes every week)
Curated newsletter
(links + your editorial)
Doable, with the right
strategy.
Develops your “voice”.
Needs strong habits
Highest
ROI

9. What kind of curated newsletter
should you write?...
Editorial Effort
Curation
Broad
Shallow
Narrow
Easy Moderate Hard
Deep

10. …One that adds the most value –
to you and your readers
Editorial Effort
Curation
Broad
Shallow
Narrow
Works for Tim Ferriss.
People are signing up for
him, not his 5 bullets.
Are you that interesting?
You learn a lot, but it’s hard to
find an interested audience.
Plus, you start filtering your
reading based on “will this make
good copy”
A lot of work (not as much as
Broad and Deep), but adds the
most value – to you and your
readers
Slightly more work than 5
generic bullets. Gels with your
learning agenda.
But, are you (and your audience)
learning enough?
Where I try to play –
most weeks my
newsletter is 2000+
words
Deep

11. Now, here’s the standard way of
writing a curated newsletter
Select
Content
Read
Content
Outline
Newsletter
Draft
Newsletter
Edit &
Refine
Publish
This is HARD work! I would spend 8 hours a week on this every week – difficult with a full time
occupation. Plus, output was not superb either – there was no “magic”.

12. The trick to building a content
engine that runs on its own is…
… to realize that the process starts much earlier.
Read as if writing is the only thing that matters

13. Read as if writing is the only
thing that matters
You’re not reading to pass time
You’re not reading because “that sounds
interesting”
You’re reading to learn.
And you only learn when you can summarize
what you read in your own words.
Tiago Forte introduced a concept called
“Progressive Summarization”.
Each time you touch a piece of content, you
take it to the next level:
Paraphrase → Summarize → Extract learning
→ Link with other learnings
Read in an active manner Push content through a writing funnel
Definition of Victory: When you sit down to write your newsletter, it’s already written. You just have to
put the pieces together.
Where the
“magic” happens

14. There’s a system for doing this
consistently.
It’s called the Zettelkasten (“slip box” in German) method.

15. The “inventor” of Zettelkasten –
Social Scientist Niklas Luhmann
Niklas Luhmann was a prolific social scientist:
◦ Wrote 50 books
◦ Wrote over 600 journal articles (not blog posts)
◦ Had 150 unfinished manuscripts when he died (including one over
1000 pages long!)
◦ And it was all on paper! (i.e., no computers)
How did he do this? [Hint: He had help].

16. His “second brain”, his
Zettelkasten, helped him
Whenever he read something interesting or had a promising
idea, he would write it down on an index card (a Zettel, or
“slip”)
He would then put it in his slip box, and link it (densely) to
other topics in the box.
So, whenever he picked an index card to start writing with, he
would follow the thread of cards wherever it led him. And
suddenly, he’d have something original to say, linking several
disparate ideas! A 21st century version of a Zettel. Source: Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method
Luhmann created hypertext, before the Internet

17. Sounds too intricate? Well, here’s
why it’s worth it – some examples:
Source: Sunday Reads #111: How would you discount your life?
Source: Sunday Reads #122: The Universe beyond your Filter Bubble.

18. OK, so how does a Zettelkasten
work? Some key principles.
Read as if writing is the only thing that matters
Writing is not what follows research or learning. It is the medium of all this work. Read with a pen in
hand.
Thinking takes place as much on paper as in your own head.
Simplicity is paramount – treat the Zettel / index card as the “shipping container” for ideas.
No work starts from scratch. Writing is a circular process, not a linear one.
◦ Corollary: I don’t research much when writing my newsletter. Whatever I want to write about, I have already
written about.
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19. Thinking takes place as much on
paper as in your own head.

20. This is what the Zettelkasten
process looks like.
Read Content
Write Fleeting
Notes
Write
Literature
Notes
Write
Permanent
Notes
Add to the Slip
Box
You’re reading
all the time. Not
just when it’s
time to select
articles for your
newsletter.
As you read,
highlight the
paragraphs /
statements that
tell you
something
important
In your next
pass, summarize
/ paraphrase in
your own words
Pull out the key
learning. Simple,
atomic,
declarative
statement – so
it’s widely
reusable in
different
contexts
Link it densely to
other ideas in
your Slip box.
Associative
linking, not
hierarchical.
Think like a
writer, not a
librarian.

21. This is what the Zettelkasten
process looks like.
Read Content
Write Fleeting
Notes
Write
Literature
Notes
Write
Permanent
Notes
Add to the Slip
Box
Think of it like a restaurant kitchen. This is like cutting the veggies, marinating the meats, pre-
cooking the beets, etc. So that when it’s time to serve, all that’s left is the plating.
But it’s also two other things:
◦ It’s a filter. You only make Permanent Notes of things that resonate with you. So you’re already pruning and
pulling out the essence from what you read.
◦ It’s a thinking process. You wrestle with the ideas you read about. Sometimes it’s a jigsaw puzzle, seeing the
connection between two seemingly disparate ideas. Sometimes it’s a big ball of clay – which you knead to pull
out the central insight and make it reusable.

22. This is what my process looks
like.
Read Reading Inbox
Write
Seedlings
Write
Evergreen
Notes
Add to the Slip
Box
I read on all
interfaces – books,
articles, twitter,
email, kindle, etc.
Whatever I find
interesting goes
into a Reading
Inbox
- Kindle
Highlights
- Web page
annotations
- Tweets I like
- Podcast
snippets
I process the
Reading Inbox
from time to time,
summarizing the
key insights in my
own words
I process the
Seedlings from
time to time, and
pull out the central
insight from each.
- Atomic
- Simple
- Declarative
Like an API.
Link it densely to
other ideas in my
Slip box.
Contextual linking.
Not “which
category does this
belong to?”, but
“in which other
context would I
like to stumble
upon it?”
Optional
Note: Inspired by Andy Matuschak’s Digital Garden

23. Let me show you an example.
Read Reading Inbox
Write
Seedlings
Write
Evergreen
Notes
Add to the Slip
Box
I read on all
interfaces – books,
articles, twitter,
email, kindle, etc.
Whatever I find
interesting goes
into a Reading
Inbox
- Kindle
Highlights
- Web page
annotations
- Tweets I like
- Podcast
snippets
I process the
Reading Inbox
from time to time,
summarizing the
key insights in my
own words
I process the
Seedlings from
time to time, and
pull out the central
insight from each.
- Atomic
- Simple
- Declarative
Like an API.
Link it densely to
other ideas in my
Slip box.
Contextual linking.
Not “which
category does this
belong to?”, but
“in which other
context would I
like to stumble
upon it?”

24. Now that you have a slip box, how do
you write a newsletter seamlessly?
Remember:
I’ll walk you through my process for writing a 2000-3000 word newsletter, in under 3 hours every
week.
I use a tool called Roam Research. But this can be done on any note taking system – a paper
notebook, OneNote, Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, etc.
Definition of Victory: When you sit down to write your newsletter, it’s already written. You just have to
put the pieces together.

25. FAQs
Frequency: Weekly or fortnightly feel just right, unless you’re doing it full time. Most of us don’t have
enough original stuff to say every day.
Length: I like to keep the length moderate – 2000-3000 words. Less than that is not enough value add
most times; longer than that is too difficult to keep up with.
Tools:
◦ Note taking software / second Brain: Roam Research, Evernote, OneNote, Notion, Obsidian, etc.
◦ Collecting highlights:
◦ Readwise + Kindle (ebooks) + Hypothes.is (articles) + Pocket (to read later)
◦ Sticky notes + Otter.ai for transcribing highlights from physical books
◦ Publishing: Substack, Revue, Ghost, Wordpress + Mailchimp, etc.

26. Parting Thought: Keep it simple.
Gall’s Law: All complex systems that work evolved from simpler systems that worked. If you want to
build a complex system that works, build a simpler system first, and then improve it over time.
Start from the basics. Read with a pen in hand and summarize what you read / learn in your own
words. From there, evolve a system that works for you.

27. Thank you!
Reach out to me with any feedback, responses, questions.
@jithamithra on Twitter.