My free email is bi-weekly or weekly for a small subscription.
Here are some things people have said about it…
“Christian has been exploring tech for decades, and from a uniquely curious perspective. His fascination with the deeper workings of technology are contagious. In a world of algorithmic feeds serving the hottest takes, what I really value is an email like this one, full of brain candy. I look forward to reading it, to knowing what he’s thinking about and being sent down all those rabbit holes to stuff that inspires, surprises and regularly blows my mind.” ~ @WillFrancis
“One of the pleasures of the weekend (or late on Friday, if I’m in the mood) is reading Christian’s weekly newsletter, a roundup of what he’s been doing/thinking/drinking that never fails to make me muse on my own life and choices. It’s the sort of writing that feels like he’s there, whispering in your ear, and afterwards you’re not quite sure if you had a chat in a bar or were just reading about it. Worth a look.” ~ @Billt
“I thoroughly recommend it, it’s full of personality and humanity, and a whole bunch of really practical stuff too…” ~ @garethjms wrote a blog post.. [LINK]
“Your newsletter always brightens my inbox – it never fails to be interesting – usefully orthogonal!” ~ @BenjaminEllis
“Documentally by Christian Payne – an excellent Etch-a-Sketch® swipe of perspective and inspiration that punctuates my week. Serendipitous connection, great journalism, social commentary, life experience, technological adventure, whiskey. What more do you need?” ~ @FellowCreative
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘social media’ (is it still a thing and if so where and what is it?) and I’ve become increasingly dismayed at the way my favourite channels and media have become corrupted by bad algorithms and poor design thinking. Why has instagram messed with my timeline? Why does it think it knows what I would ‘like to see’? Ditto Twitter. But why is this digital shit so important to me? Why don’t I just put my phone down and get out into the wide world I love? Why don’t I go and meet interesting humans? So I guess that’s where my love of your newsletter comes in. It seems to be curated by a very interesting human – with sharp observational skills – who, despite his love of tech, spends an awful lot of time getting out into the world looking at real things. Very interesting things. And having well-informed opinions of things and then asking good questions of his audience if he doesn’t have have a well-informed opinion…. I love a good algorithm when it’s put to use doing something clever for me, but that’s usually on a functional and practical level. Now more than ever I want a human curator not just to sift the wheat from the chaff, but to actually choose some real gems for me. For me. What I’m looking for is a curator with an emotional intelligence and informed curiosity and they are rare as rare can be. I’ve resisted using the term Gonzo because everyone thinks that means getting wasted HST style but thank you for putting a lot of you into what you do. I’ll take your journalistic balance as a given and not just sit back and enjoy being pointed in very interesting directions, but also enjoy being encouraged to get out into the world and see, smell, taste and feel it for real. ~ @Timleroyis
“Friday’s tonic from @Documentally – refreshing, real, and inspiring by turn. Cheers!” ~ @Ben_Emmens
“I read Documentally from start to finish each week, always interesting and thought-provoking!” ~ @Simon_Hemsley
“The [Documentally] newsletter fills in the gaps around the other things I’ve been looking at online during the week.” ~ @MetScanner
“Documentally’s newsletter always gets me excited to listen to podcasts that I know I won’t actually listen to but, damn, they sound good.” ~ @StillmanSays
I learn something from the newsletter every week, often more than one thing. Always interesting and engaging, and full of good stuff. @tontowilliams
And now you are convinced sign up!