There have been a couple of new Agneses in my life. Whenever there's a new Agnes, I find myself reflecting on what they see upon their first visit to Free Refills. We had a conversation and something in it piqued their interest. What do they find when they visit? How long do they stay? Will they return?
In the past, my answers left me slightly dismayed. After all, if I don't know exactly what I'm doing here, how much sense do I expect Free Refills will make to someone who doesn't have access to what's going on in my head, especially someone who's new to the place?
But now I'm coming to find a strength in asserting that the process is the product. Every week, I'm drafting 5,000 words of new material. Every week I publish fives pieces. These two rules define the contours of my exploration. But understand: it's very much an exploration. I assert that the Internet presents a bigger change than we've thus far been able to comprehend. (This is why so many old structures and systems--newspapers, ad-based publications, and so on--aren't really working.)
The crude maps left by prior explorers have proved to fail to properly show the contours of the terrain. And what honest exploration of a new place starts with a certainty of what you'll find?