It’s ~10:33 p.m. as I write this, and that feels like the best possible time to test out my new publishing strategy: writing the shortest posts possible.
We’re doing this as an A/B test. Half of my subscribers will receive a comprehensive newsletter about today’s topic — Neil Banging Out the Tunes — featuring original investigative work and input from subject-matter experts. It’s also the funniest newsletter I’ve ever written. The other half will receive an extremely short post, meticulously crafted to seem like something I dashed off hastily so I could get it out before 11:59 p.m. and thus make a self-imposed deadline.
Many publishing companies and tech companies run these types of tests to better understand their users’ preferences and behavioral patterns. Whichever version of today’s newsletter has better metrics will have… won… the battle, I guess. And I will show that data to our executive committee for some reason.
Who knows which version you’ll get!
Without further ado…
Today, April 13, marks 15 years since Neil banged out the tunes. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Neil! We all know him — a born entertainer. Well, he banged out some tunes and everyone loved it.
Here, let me refresh your memory.
That’s Neil on the right. Admittedly, there’s little known about Neil. It’s not even clear where this photo originally resided on the internet. Know Your Meme says the earliest known version of this screenshot comes from a circa 2014 Tumblr post, but I’ve unfortunately never been able to contact that user (or whoever has that username, lambhoof, now). It feels like Photobucket but I’ll never know.
Neil is an internet celebrity in the same way Punxsutawney Phil is an IRL celebrity. He’s celebrated for, and because of, exactly one day, and then goes away for the other 364.
I hope Neil is doing well, wherever he is (definitely Heaven).
Elsewhere…
here’s a neat thing I read about trying to get rid of racist terminology in computing