hey —

yesterday i told you about an email i've been meaning to write for a while.

here it is.

(but first: since this is coming from a new address, hit reply with literally anything — an emoji works. it lets me know you got it and helps me stay out of your spam folder.)

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i torched my site.

a few weeks ago, santi.wtf had draggable windows, a music player, a habit tracker, a live chat, and more features than snoop dogg.

i built it to look like a windows 98 desktop — my first computer, my intro to the world wide web.

everyone loved it. but i kept adding features, until i realized something wasn’t right: the cool shit was distracting me from the important shit.

i wanted a place to explore and share ideas. instead, i had built a digital theme park.

so i asked myself: what’s the atomic version of this?

a terminal.

i went with the mac UI because while windows 98 popped my digital cherry, my first macbook was where i first explored my creative self and began developing my taste.

you can check it out at santi.wtf. i hope you enjoy it as much as i do. and let me know if you find any easter eggs ;)

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and i torched my newsletter.

yesterday i said: when i started 0ffbrand, i thought i needed a brand. something clever. something that would scale.

here's the rest of that thought.

i spent way too much time on the name, the positioning, the strategy. i built systems before i had anything to say.

i couldn't explain 0ffbrand to anyone — not my friends, not my girlfriend, definitely not to you. it was just me, trying to figure things out in public. but i overcomplicated it. i made it about the container instead of the content. the cover, not the book.

so i soaked it in gasoline and put a match to it.

0ffbrand is now this — santi's letters.

don’t think of it as a rebrand. it's more of a confession. it’s always been me just me writing to you. now the name accurately reflects the vibes.

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i also moved platforms.

i was on beehiiv — one of, if not the best platform for newsletters. powerful features, slick analytics, built for growth.

but i don't want to optimize for growth. i want to write things that matter to me and share them with people who care about similar things. i want a tool that gets out of the way so i can focus on what’s important: sharing ideas.

i just want to write emails.

so i switched to buttondown. indie, minimal, run by a tiny team. no VC money. no pressure to maximize shareholder value.

it's the newsletter equivalent of my site — a quiet corner of the internet where the focus is on ideas, not metrics.

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what to expect from santi's letters

- what i’m thinking
- what i’m learning
- what i'm making
- what i'm liking

if that doesn't sound interesting, i get it.

i'd rather you unsubscribe than feel obliged to stay. no hard feelings.

but if you're still here — thank you.

thank you for signing up in the first place. thank you for opening these emails even when they were confusing. thank you for giving me the space to figure shit out.

i don’t have it all figured out now. but i'm done pretending i need to — for now.

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the philosophy underneath

making things is just fun.

i feel like, as creatives, we've forgotten that. everything needs to become content now. it needs to be polished and follow templates and frameworks to perform. that approach sucks the fun out of the work because it’s focused on the outcome — views, likes, follows. it’s like we’ve forgotten the magic is in the process. it’s always been.

my whole creative philosophy is "make a mess."

the old website was me making a mess. the old newsletters were me making a mess. but through that mess, i’m starting to find clarity.

if you're feeling a little stuck, make a fucking mess.

it’ll show you the way back to you.

talk soon,

<3 santi

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p.s. — explore the new site at santi.wtf. just type / to begin. it’s a ton of fun.

p.p.s. — if you're terrified of starting something because you don't know how it'll turn out, this email is your permission slip to make a mess.