The Winds of Change

When I set out to build a website I had spectacular ambitions. It was to be a place where the masses would flock to read, listen and digest the latest musings of a perpetually restless individual and his cohorts desperately attempting to make sense of everything. That, inevitably, led to us trying to cover and produce a ton of content which, also inevitably, led us to failing to cover a few things really well.

After discussing our "core competencies" at length with the writing team, we have decided to pivot away from general political commentary toward more veteran-related content. We are in the process of designing and rolling out an entirely new website, with a new focus, and we think that our efforts will have a much greater impact within that niche.

What does this mean for the BrainBust?

At the moment, not much. Jeff, Seth, Johnny and I will still continue to roll out our bi-weekly BrainBust Podcast as usual. What will be affected is our written content. I will still use the website to publish non-veteran related articles, but our Weekly Bust news product is done. I've had to kill it. We don't have the team, experience, or set of skills necessary to immediately and effectively cover the broad range of "important news" every week. Some of you have read them regularly, and we appreciate that immensely! However, everything has an opportunity cost, and the insane amount of time I spend putting the Bust together takes away from more productive work.

So what's this veteran stuff all about?

I thought you might ask. I don't want to put the entirety of our mission out there before we're ready to release, but I will offer enough to (hopefully) whet your appetite -- even the non-veterans appetites out there.

Today, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel commented on the overwhelming lack of veteran involvement in nearly every key level of politics. We too have recognized this trend. But unlike Mr. Hagel, we're going to do more than pay it lip service.

We believe that rank-and-file veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq have a wealth of wisdom and experience that goes largely ignored and unnoticed in policy discussion and debate. We intend to bridge that gap by seeking that wisdom and experience, producing content based on it, and disseminating it to the public-at-large in a novel manner. We believe that this will not only make for a unique, engaging perspective, but will also help veterans "find their voice" and assist civilians in understanding that voice (mostly by telling them to ignore all the F-bombs).

That is all I am at liberty to tell you for now. I just wanted to let listeners and readers know that we are actively involved in "Operation Do Awesome Shit" and that has led me to kill the Bust. I didn't have much of an original mission when we started writing and publishing on thebrainbust.com; we now have a clear mission, clear objective, and I believe that it will lead us to producing much better content.

To everyone who has been there since the first episode of our podcast, thank you. We would not have gone this far down the rabbit hole without your support, and I just want to let you know that it means the world to us. More to come soon.