Building a Quiet Rebellion: Join The Secret Society

A reminder that the fastest way out is to slow down

Hello and Happy Monday!

While the world outside felt a tad more uncertain and gloomy, I spent my weekend thinking about this little corner of ours, a space where anxiety, fear, and uneasiness about the future can hit pause for a moment.

And you know what I realized? I thought naming a newsletter was like naming a child—once you pick it, it sticks. Turns out, I was wrong. Twice.

Here’s what happened:

Last week, I kept writing Short Daily Updates as if I were simply recounting my day. That’s how this started—daily reflections on work (I even had a work mood tracker, remember?). But as the weeks went by, I gave myself permission to turn this into an exploration. And the more I wrote, the more I felt drawn to sharing what’s really on my mind, not just what happens inside an office I’m increasingly uninterested in.

I’ve told you about forgotten diary entries that read like oracles. I introduced you to one of the most incredible women I’ve ever known: my grandmother, even if, unfortunately, you can now only meet her through my words. I wrote about the uneasiness, the creeping doubt I feel when reading the news, part of what seems like a neurotic collective experience that none of us signed up for.

But at the same time, all of this — the reflections, the rawness, the inner landscape — is part of a bigger journey. One where I put a ticking clock on leaving the corporate life. And, since I’ve unofficially elected you all as my accountability partners, I share the ups, the downs, the decisions, realizations, and fears behind each experiment toward that goal.

I’ve told you about that weekend when I reminded myself how not to start a business. About how I curb my fears by realizing I actually do have a financial buffer to take the leap. Or that time I quit work for a week to start a business, only to discover I wasn’t enjoying it — an experience that’s directly shaping how I’m approaching things this time around.

So, here’s my first realization:

You’re probably here for one of two things (or maybe both?). Can you help me figure that out? Just take this quick survey:

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The Fear That Keeps Me Up at Night

Here’s what scares me: I could leave the corporate world, only to build myself another cage. A different set of rules, a different kind of rat race, but still a race.

I’ve reflected on this before. And every time, I come back to the same realization: the best antidote to that fear is to slow down. To be present. To stop sprinting toward the next thing and actually exist in the current moment.

And that’s where Slow Ink Society comes in.

What is Slow Ink Society?

It is a rejection of speed for the sake of speed. It’s an alternative to the endless rush of digital noise, the pressure to always be producing, always optimizing, always chasing the next milestone. It’s about stepping back, slowing down, and reconnecting with the things that actually matter: human connection.

For now, it’s a minimum viable life experiment. Maybe it’s a philosophy. Maybe it’s a lifestyle. One day, it might even be a business. Who knows.

I don’t know where this will lead, and that’s the point. I’m not chasing scale for the sake of it. I’m not turning this into another race. Slow Ink Society is an invitation, to myself and to anyone who feels the same pull, to build differently. To create something that values presence over productivity, depth over distraction, and meaning over metrics.

It’s not about leaving one system just to join another. It’s about carving out an entirely new way to exist in the world. A quiet rebellion against everything that tells us to move faster, work harder, do more.

The Society You Might Already Be Part Of

And that’s the story of my weekend. The look and feel of this newsletter is changing, and I hope those changes better reflect what I’m trying to build, so that I can remind myself of what I’m trying to do.

And you? You’re already part of this secret society.

You can be part of it even if you don’t realize you are, so long as, here and there, you choose to slow down. You can invite your friends without ever telling them they’ve joined, just by nudging them to slow down too.

Maybe every tweak, every change, here on our little corner, isn’t really a reinvention. Maybe it’s just a sharpening of something that was already taking shape.

Hoping you have the chance to slow down today,

Matty

Week 6, Day 35 of 365 to leave the corporate life. Which means 10% of the time has been lived already.