If you found this article interesting, click the like button for me! I would greatly appreciate it :)
It's hard to believe I’ve been writing these articles every week for 3 years already. Also wow, my writing quality and style have improved so much over that time. I’m also more optimized at researching and writing which is certainly helpful. I’ll give a bit of a site update. The Gray Area has grown to nearly 1300 subscribers over that time, not meteoric growth by any means but cool for a side project of mine. My goal would be to grow and generate revenue off the site someday, but it may take a while. They say consistency is key!
I try my best to provide quality research, insights, and contrarian takes that are useful or thought-provoking. While balancing a full-time job, I sometimes struggle that I don’t have hours or certain resources to give full research that some topics could use. However, even if that were the case sometimes the readability or length may become an issue.
I genuinely enjoy learning new things and am quite proficient at researching topics. Writing or speaking things is a good way to test if you really know something too. You may have ideas in your head that you are confident about, but have you ever tried telling someone and then felt silly that you weren’t as knowledgeable as you thought? Maybe you’ve found other people like that too.
I plan to keep going with the site and the research. Lately, my interests have been more on the economic side and less on energy. I’ve been doing roughly three economic and one energy post a month which I’ll probably keep aiming for. With the bandwidth I have for doing this, I just have to go with what interests me which certainly changes over time (this being the first full year under the new Gray Area name).
I wanted to give a big thank you to all of the readers out there, those who like/comment, and give me feedback. Hopefully, I can provide you all some value and insights with my research into trends or squirrely things that may happen in the world.
I’ll leave you all with some of my favorite pieces I’ve written over the past year, also as a belated sendoff into 2025.
Most Liked
Year Of Pain For Real This Time - Jan 3
People thought 2023 there wouldn’t be a recession and they were wrong, ever since, the idea of recession has been fading more and more. I don’t project a 2024 recession (thank goodness I would’ve been wrong), but I start warning that things are not quite as they seem.
Thematically Represents - The Gray Area
Money Chase - Feb 14
As the more libertarian-minded folks know, good-intentioned government programs don’t always have the desired outcomes. Now to enforce those “good” policies, we need to infringe on certain liberties and delegate more people for enforcement.
Counter Bias
U Won't Leave Me Out - May 29 | It Hertz - Jan 24
I am typically quite favorable toward uranium/nuclear energy, skeptical of the EV revolution, and biased against subsidies. Here I challenged those biases and tried to paint a more balanced view.
Does Trump Read My Work?
Future Prospects - Jul 24
The Department Of Education might as well be worthless if you look at its track record.
Science Is Screwed
Peer Review - Mar 13
It may seem like the world is developing new technology and inventions like crazy, but science has gone downhill big time. Do you (or want to) know who were the pioneers of the modern peer review system?
Personal Favorites
Passive Investing Issue [1,2,3,4] - Sep/Nov
Do you really think the stock market is a true market? Not when 40% of participants are fully passive and don’t care about price signals!
The AI Train
Keep AI On Energy - Dec 13 | Power Hungry - Apr 17| Three Mile A-island - Oct 2
Should we stop innovation because it uses “too much” energy? Either way, just use nuclear.
And many more, until next week,
-Grayson
Leave a like and let me know what you think!
If you haven’t already, follow me at TwitterX @graysonhoteling and check out my latest post on notes.
Socials
Twitter/X - @graysonhoteling
LinkedIn - Grayson Hoteling
Archive - The Gray Area
Let someone know about The Gray Area and spread the word!
Thanks for reading The Gray Area! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Hi Grayson, I enjoy reading your weekly posts. Best wishes for the New Year!
Great job Grayson!! We enjoy reading your work. May 2025 be a blessed one for you!🥰