Time for something new

Why I'm looking for policy work, and asking the Oversharing community for help

Sometimes you have to take the leap.

Hi, it’s Ali. For those of you who don’t know me, I created and write this newsletter, Oversharing. Thanks so much for being here.

It’s been 18 months since I relaunched Oversharing as a subscriber-supported newsletter. I did this after years of writing it for free in my spare time: late nights and bleary-eyed mornings where I compiled Oversharing from the scraps of my day job as a journalist covering the gig economy. When Substack offered me a “Pro” deal in early 2022, I had just completed a master’s degree in sustainable cities at King’s College London and was looking for the next thing. Pro let me experiment with writing Oversharing full time without taking on the typical financial risk of a leap to freelance. It was a fantastic opportunity and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Writing Oversharing is one of the joys of my career. It’s so cool and affirming to have your work find a following—to have people love not only what you say, but how you say it. I’m incredibly grateful for this community, which time and again has proved thoughtful, engaging, incisive, and kind. I’m hoping to lean on your generosity again as I take another leap now.

After 10 years in journalism, I’m ready for a new challenge. I’m looking to transition from journalism to policy or strategy work in any of the core Oversharing areas: transportation, sustainable urbanism, digital markets, tech policy and regulation. Why? I’ve spent more than a decade reporting on some of the most influential companies of our era and their tremendous sociotechnical impact, from reshaping how we move people and things, to accelerating our green transition, to exposing the holes in our labor and antitrust laws. I’ve seen how companies work at every level, from investors and executives to regular workers, and their potential for good and for harm. I’ve met policymakers and regulators and understand the careful choreography of rules that create space for innovation while safeguarding the public. I’ve had more delightfully nerdy conversations with academics, economists, technologists, urbanists, and other smart, curious people than I could possibly count.

I’m looking for opportunities to put these skills and expertise to practical use: to solve problems instead of writing about them; to have a more direct hand in advancing causes like green transport, healthy cities, fair labor practices, and savvy digital regulation. This is where I’m asking you, the Oversharing community, for help. If you’re interested in working together or know of a company or organization that could benefit from my experience and insight, please reach out. Message me on LinkedIn, DM on X née Twitter, or reply directly to this email. I’m looking for work based in London, UK, with a hybrid or in-person culture. Yep, that’s right. After several years of independent remote work, I couldn’t be more ready to go back to the office.

Credit: Giphy

I thought a lot before writing this email. Journalists are trained to keep a wall between themselves and their audience, and even now, years out of a traditional newsroom, breaching that feels uncomfortable. I also don’t like asking for help. It goes against those classic values of hard work, independence, and self-reliance that I was raised on. But if I’ve learned anything in the past decade—from working in journalism, to moving to the UK, to surviving a global pandemic and building a new life abroad—it’s that self-reliance is overrated. It’s good to trust your community and to ask for help when you need it. It might make you uncomfortable at first, but learning to tolerate discomfort rather than push it away frees you to do big, daring, exuberant things.

What does this mean for Oversharing? For now, nothing. I’m still writing it. I hope you’ll keep reading. I may revert to the original formatting—an essay and blurbs once a week or so—rather than more frequent single-subject dispatches. The past 18 months have been a great experiment, but I’m ultimately not sure Oversharing is meant for a full-time publishing schedule. This space is better when it starts with the joy of having something to say. That joy is harder to come by when coupled with the demands of rote content creation.

Finding and reclaiming joy is a lifelong journey, but you can do it one bit at a time. Today that bit is Oversharing. I hope this newsletter brings you joy and that you’ll stay on the journey with me, wherever it goes next.

–Ali