Choose Your Own Adventure

Ep 1. Pilot

< — Postcard 70 — | — Next Episode — >

Hi friends!

When I was a kid, I loved to play Oregon trail on the school computers. You play as a wagon leader and your mission is to move your caravan westward— to the Oregon region. The simulation takes place in the Manifest Destiny epoch in American history.

Orange = Oregon region. In a period of 40 years, from 1813 to 1853, the USA expanded its territory 3.4x, from 224M to 766M hectares.

At each point you are presented with a menu of decisions— that impact what happens next.

Wouldn’t this be a fun idea for an email series?! Where I play myself and you help me craft the story— with real stakes involved?

Let’s try a pilot.

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My mission is to build a fashion media brand.

To get you started, I’ve already taken a few steps.

I’ve moved to Manhattan, NYC.

I took this photo on top of the Panorama Room on Roosevelt Island

I’ve figured out which neighborhood I need to be at.

ChatGPT said SoHo.

It was wrong.

A fashion student told me — SoHo is tourist heaven — and to actually get into fashion — go to Garment District.

Best Neighborhoods for Fashion according to ChatGPT vs a fashion student

At Mood Fabrics in Garment District, I’ve begun to learn the basics of fashion design:

• Fabric is stored in rolls and are measured by yards (the width varies but ranges usually from 40-55 inches)

• The number of yards of fabric to make a dress depends on the complexity of the piece. For a simple dress, 2-3 yards suffice.

• The silhouette is the shape of the dress; a swatch is a small piece of fabric usually for testing purposes.

• A pillowcase is the easiest thing to make. It’s just two rectangles of fabric sewn together.

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Choose what I do next:

1. Crystallize my vision

   define a 10 and 50 year end state
   write out hypotheses

   do a mood board
   would help w/ attracting others

2. Go to Mood Fabrics to look for fashion designers

   ask if they need a hand
   perhaps get an interview,
   or hands-on experience
   would help with building out a network

3. Create my first short-form video
   i’ve pinpointed the best short-form video course on the internet,

   just gotta go through it
   would help with growth and discovery

My Character Card