Good morning,

Today is certainly an Update, but not about tech: it’s about me.

On August 1, after 22 years (12 years continuous), I relocated back from Taiwan to the United States. The move is done at this point, although there is still a lot of unpacking to do, and some number of my possessions are on a boat on the Pacific, but actually writing this out feels as momentous as anything.

The key driver of my decision was family: my daughter graduated from high school this past spring, and is attending college in the U.S.; we were always going to stay until that point, and then make a decision about our son, and my wife and I decided that he should attend high school here. We do believe that the future of both of our children is in the U.S., and that it was better to get the acclimation process started sooner rather than later.

That, by extension, and in anticipation of questions I am sure to receive, means that security concerns were not the key driver. The situation in Taiwan is complicated, and, I think, somewhat riskier than it has been for decades, but I do not believe that military conflict is imminent nor inevitable; I am hopeful that the status quo will prevail. I retain a home in Taiwan, and anticipate continuing to spend time there.

What this means for Stratechery and the broader Stratechery Plus bundle is still being determined, but I’m excited to figure it out. I’ve been experimenting the last few weeks with a Tuesday–Thursday posting schedule for Updates, with the idea of posting Stratechery Interviews — there is already a great lineup scheduled for September — on Mondays; however, I’m not locked on the idea yet. I also plan on getting much more into video, but I don’t have any immediate plans to share — stay tuned.

It has been weird, I admit, to lose the sensation of living a day in the future; I always maintained that the biggest advantage Taiwan afforded me was the time zone. On the other hand, being on the opposite side of the world was definitely limiting in a lot of ways. The reason I say I’m excited is that the next few months and years feel like a new chapter for Stratechery Plus: if Taiwan was optimized for a one-to-many email Update, what can I optimize for by being in the U.S.?

Still, all of that is in the future; not much is changing for you except the Update posting schedule; in addition, we are leaning towards keeping Sharp Tech’s summer mullet format: instead of two 1-hour episodes, Andrew and I have had a lot of fun doing a single 1.5 hour podcast with serious discussion up front and a bit of mailbag-inspired silliness in the back; I think our summer episodes have been our best episodes for a few years now, so we’re going to stick with that for the time being. And, like I mentioned, stay tuned for video updates. Dithering, meanwhile, will continue to be 15 minutes twice-a-week, and all of the other Stratechery Plus content will stay on their same schedules.

For now, however, I have hit a bit of a wall and need a break; I’ve only taken one vacation week this year so far, and (1) the August slowdown has finally hit tech news and (2) I need a break to recover from the move, do some unpacking, and get myself right for what should be a busy fall. To that end, this will be my only Update this week; there is a Dithering today, but that will also be my last podcast for the week as well. I’ll be back in the saddle next week.

Thank you for your understanding, and support for all of these years, even on the other side of the world.

Ben