Experimental Stippling
I’m a big fan of personal experimentation.
I find that regularly tweaking the variables that inform my thinking, shape my day, and feed my productive output helps me stay excited about all the things I do (and might do), while also giving me a more three-dimensional view of those same things—which at times helps me identify better ways of doing them or alternatives that might be a more optimal investment of my time and energy.
Such experiments also sometimes help me realize that a dramatic change of some kind is warranted, or that I’ve changed and might want to consider doing some mental recalibration so that my actions align with my beliefs and perceptions as precisely as possible.
Which is a verbose way of saying that I like to mix things up and see what happens. And I sometimes learn something from the resultant, temporary transformations, which can in turn point at worthwhile, permanent adjustments I might make to myself, my work, or my lifestyle.
Some of the most vital shifts in the way I do things and see the world have been the consequence of this mode of operation.
I allowed myself to consider the possibility of full-time travel by mapping out a plan to try it for a year and then, after that trial period, decide whether to keep going or return to something like what I was doing before. This allowed me to see what such a lifestyle would be like in practice before making a determination about whether or not it was actually for me.
I transitioned away from doing branding work after deciding to try my hand at writing a book to see if the resulting artifact would be valuable for folks who read it, and if the undertaking would prove valuable for me—if I enjoyed the process and grew from it.
In both cases, I didn’t know what to expect before I got started; not really. But deciding to give both efforts a try, taking an “it may work or it may not, and either outcome is okay” approach, helped me get past the many valid concerns I had about upending my norms and tip-toeing out of my comfort zone.
Not all experiments lead to such changes. Most of them result in a broader understanding of things, but no permanent adjustments after the investigatory period is over.
Just like with real-deal scientific experiments, it’s important to remember that efforts resulting in negative outcomes—we didn't discover a new cure, we didn't find a new way of living that seems more ideal than what we’ve got now—are just as important as those that completely redefine medical knowledge or radically reshape our lives in a fundamental way.
All such explorations, as long as we approach them earnestly and with an open-mind, can tell us something we didn’t know before. Sometimes that something will reinforce what we’re doing now, and sometimes it will call our current state-of-affairs into question.
Stippling our lives with behavioral nudges of this kind can help keep our minds malleable and ever-iterative, while also helping us feel more confident about and contented with the decisions we make—wherever those decisions might take us.
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Projects
Brain Lenses:Inner Speech & Materials
Let’s Know Things: Offshore Wind Power
Curiosity Weekly: April 6, 2021
Other: I’ll be embarking on a quick roadtrip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in a little over a week. I’ve been on the lookout for places to set up a new home base where I can work, explore, and from which to travel once it’s safe to do so again. And I like the outlook for the region, the chillier climate, and I’ve enjoyed the city itself when I’ve passed through, previously.
The departure was also scheduled so that my parents and I would all be fully vaccinated (over two-weeks after our second shots), and we’ll be on this mini-pseudo-vacation for my birthday and their anniversary. So it’s a reconnaissance trip for me, but also a little something different for all of us to mark these milestones, after a year-plus in a necessarily pretty hardcore lockdown.
I’ve got quite a few project-related plans in the works for when I’m in my new place and able to double-down on some types of work that are trickier to consistently manage when in a shared space, and I’m super-excited to dive into those.
That said, it’ll also be a bittersweet transition, as this time with my folks was both unexpected and in many ways a true joy; especially compared to other possible pandemic-setups that might’ve been more prudent, had any of the variables leading up to the lockdown been even a tiny bit different.
I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to spend this time with them.
Interesting & Useful
Some neat things to click:
Winners of the 2020 World Nature Photography Awards(absolutely stunning)
After Midnight, Time and People Move Differently(beautiful photo series/analysis)
Photographer Captures Portraits of “Childhood” From All Around the World(this series made me smile so wide)
Museum of Soviet Arcade Game Machines. St. Petersburg, Russia(video walkthrough; this is on my list of places to visit)
Animated Knots(I feel like this kind of content/resource is what the internet was made for)
Stunning Footage of San Francisco Four Days Before the 1906 Earthquake(the video footage itself is wonderful, and the article’s explanation of what we’re looking at is also useful)
Milky Way, 12 Years, 1,250 Hours of Exposures and 125 x 22 Degrees of Sky(science-plus-aesthetics-plus-technical wizardry on display, here)
Outro
I’ve restarted an old habit I dropped a few years back, but which I always enjoy and find valuable when I keep it up.
Each day, I handwrite one page in a little notebook.
Generally, I write about where I happen to be when I do the writing—the space, my headspace, the global situation, whatever.
I allow myself to be as florid or minimalistic with my words as I want, in that moment., and I write with the intention of never showing anyone what I produce—and those two tenets tend to incentivize experimentation and practice for the sake of practice, which is nice.
I also always stop at the end of a single page, which encourages me to be concise, but also sometimes forces me to get creative in how I wrap-up the things I’m expressing.
The handwriting component is also a nice change-up from how I usually write: I’m a typer by nature, and I find I typically write better on computers, though my written voice is also just a little different when I handwrite, which I think is valuable, even if I don’t tend to like the output as much.
This may or may not be a valuable exercise for you, but it’s worth considering—for writing or for some other practice you want to work on slowly but surely over time—as it can provide slightly different freedoms and limitations than those that constrain and liberate your usual efforts.
How’re things going in your neck of the woods at the moment? Making any plans for the near-future? Seeing any potential for change, or will things likely remains fairly status quo for a while longer? Drop me a line and let me know what’s been up.
Also: if you’re not doing great for whatever reason, please feel free to reach out and vent, or if you’re just keen to receive some encouraging words about anything at all. I respond to every email I get and would love to hear from you.
You can reach me at colin@exilelifestyle.com or by responding to this email.
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