Hi there,

Every project I create is an experiment. Sometimes, the experiment works, and sometimes, well… it doesn’t.

People say it’s essential to make mistakes. But making mistakes is overrated because I’d rather make none, so I don’t have to force myself to learn from my mistakes. Learning from your mistakes is hard and most people don’t learn from them.

Otherwise, we wouldn’t have poems like this:

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes me a long time to get out.

Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…It’s a habit…but,
my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five
I walk down another street.
— Portia Nelson, There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self-Discovery

On Thursday, I launched Carajo.org, which is a cool project where I experimented with many things:

A specific audience (Venezuelans)
An out-there name (Carajo, which depending on your Spanish, means different things)
A more colloquial and informal vocabulary

Naming the thing is as important as making the thing itself. Imagine being named Chad.

Just kidding.

I hypothesized that it’s an out-there name, but maybe people will like it, and if the target audience finds it funny and uses it, why not?

Only, if that was true.

My hypothesis isn’t wrong, but I CAN’T EVEN test it because the people (TV channels, magazines, IG pages, etc.) who can help distribute the project to as many people as possible don’t want to share it because of the name.

Ouch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Saturday, I was reaching out to those people and I texted a TV reporter. I share the project and tell her why it’s important. She gets excited but then tells me:

TV person: It’s a great initiative with a horrible name.
Me: (silence)
TV person: Really! I can’t even say the name on air because we would get FINED!!!
Me: (screaming inside my head and crawling around the floor)
TV person: I would love to help you share it, but I can’t.
Me: Good point. I’ll need to think of a different name.

I have two paths:

I continue pushing the project even with its flaws with the hope that it will pay off
I return to the drawing board and start implementing the changes, so I have less friction when sharing the project.

Let’s think about it.

If I go down with number 1, I would because of the possible payoff, but here’s the thing: the payoff isn’t that great. The best-case scenario would be: All young Venezuelan people in the US (and other countries) start using the website to change their lives.

But to get to that point, I need ways to reach those people, and with the project's current form, I can’t even reach that point.

That brings us to number 2 and the changes. What changes would I implement? New experiments! I’m starting to sound like a scientist with so many experiments.

1st Experiment:

Previous: Specific audience.
Reflection: Broader audience. I wanted to focus the project on helping Venezuelans in the US, and I can do that without saying it's only for Venezuelans. What about Colombians, Mexicans, Peruvians, and many other Spanish-speaking countries?
New Experiment: I will start with a broader audience to help all Spanish-speaking immigrants. However, when it comes to distribution, it's a lot easier to focus on only one target audience, which will be Venezuelans. After that, I will expand. This changes lots of website terminology.

2nd Experiment:

Previous: An out-there name.
Reflection: Better name. I’ll admit it. The name wasn't that great, but I still wanted to run the experiment. It hurts losing 12 dollars, but it's ok.
New Experiment: I will think about better names and change everything related to that name. If you have naming suggestions, please, please, please let me know.

3rd Experiment:

Previous: A more colloquial/informal vocabulary.
Reflection: Friendly, not too formal vocabulary. The informality might attract people strongly but turns off a big percentage of people. Cultural dynamics matter and I’ve forgotten that some parts of American culture care little about formality, while Venezuelan/Hispanic/etc culture might care about things like names.
New Experiment: I will change the vocabulary and keep it somewhat neutral such as avoiding Venezuelan words.

As much as I would like to finish the project and put it on autopilot like most of my projects. I need to calm down to reflect, think about the new changes, and retry with as much energy as possible.

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The year ends soon, so we needed to finish editing the UIUC Talkshow videos. We’re almost at 40 interviews (only 25 have been published), so yesterday, we found an empty computer lab full of computers. We worked nonstop for 12 hours to finally finish editing and exporting the videos.

𝙅𝙪𝙖𝙣 𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙙 𝘾𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙤 @jdcampolargo

What do you call a video editing expert? Adobe Premiere Pro Pro.

We have three more interviews before the end of the semester. We’ll reach a mindblowing number of 39. As cool as that is, no project is perfect, and perhaps next week I’ll write a UIUC Talkshow Revisited essay.

Don’t forget to watch the World Cup. Highlights are not the same thing.

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Have a great week,

Juan David Campolargo

Juan David’s Newsletter

Juan David's Newsletter - December 4th, 2022