Fluffy and Foundational
Current location:
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Reading:
Imaginable
by Jane McGonigal
Listening:
Dolly
by Tierra Whack
(if you have a moment, reply with your own 3-item status)
Fluffy and Foundational
I've historically experienced a significant shift in my lifestyle, priorities, and thinking every seven years or so.
Based on that schedule, I'm likely to see another such shift around a year from now.
Between these fairly radical recalibrations, I tend to undertake minor to moderate situational and orientational renovations every few months.
At the base of these lower-grade overhauls are what I think of as interior purpose statements: journal entries, basically, but focused on how I'd like my life to look in the near-future.
These entries differ from my normal scribblings because rather than documenting things that've happened or thoughts I'm having, I paint a picture of what I'd like life to be, how I'd like to feel, the work I'd like to be doing, the people I'd like to spend more time with—things like that.
These entries tend to be a bit fluffy because figuring out the specifics is what comes next. The initial effort is cobbling together a foundational concept—a prophetic vision—that will then inform my practical efforts and plans.
Lacking this sort of loose blueprint, I find it's easy to optimize in the wrong direction and to start building habits and making investments that seem to make sense in isolation but which don't support the larger, holistic reality I'm trying to coalesce around me.
Tweaks are to be expected along the way, as are revamps to plans and projects that didn't take me where I'd hoped they would.
As long as I have that blurry sense of a destination, though, I can nudge and regulate without having to pause for a wholesale reassessment—my imagined next-step is hazy enough to encompass and incorporate all sorts of changes.
I recently read an essay about vision papers, which are broad, at times narrative ideas about how certain technologies or understandings might evolve (as opposed to cold, fact-focused explanations of where we are and where we might go).
These papers tend to be a bit vague in their specifics because the idea isn't to prove something is right or describe a hard-set reality, but to share a vision and communicate a what-if.
Because of that indefinite nature, these papers frequently go on to inform major discoveries and even scientific movements—not because they're good science, but because they're compelling maybes that serve as imagination-scaffoldings for whatever comes next.
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Projects
Select, recent works from across my project portfolio.
Aspiring Generalist: Obscurity
Brain Lenses: Incomplete Information
I Will Read To You: Chicago
Let’s Know Things: ESG Investing
Curiosity Weekly / Daily: May 31 / May 31
One Sentence News: June 1 (podcast version)
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Interesting & Useful
Visualizing All the Electric Car Models Available in the US — www.visualcapitalist.com When it comes to purchasing electric cars, Americans have a few to choose from. Here’s a look at all electric vehicle models available today.
The Codes of Comic Books — artsandculture.google.com Inspired by the exhibition ‘The Palace of Versailles in Comic Books,’ this online show gives visitors an opportunity to learn more about the creative techniques of the “ninth art.”
Social Media Usage by Age — flowingdata.com
Social media apps are on a lot of phones these days, but some tend towards a younger audience and others an older. Some are common across the population.
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Outro
I'm leaving for Door County, further north in Wisconsin, tomorrow morning.
The idea is to meander northward in the morning, stop at some places of interest along the way, then stay at a cool-looking dome house with my girlfriend for about a week, where we'll meet up with locals, peruse the parks, cook, read, write, doodle; hang out in an unusual setting.
It'll be the most vacation-like thing I've done in ages, and I say that because I'll be taking a week off from running One Sentence News (my other projects will operate as usual, as I've either been able to pre-make and schedule them or I can make/send them from Door without too much trouble).
So OSN will be operating in truncated, pre-scheduled form the 6th through the 10th, and there may be some delays in my answering of emails during that time, as well (though I may be even faster to respond than usual if I discover I'm bad at vacations).
That said, I'd love to hear from you, and respond to every email I receive (eventually). Drop me a line and tell me something about yourself, your plans, what's on your mind, etc. You can reach me by replying to this newsletter or by writing to colin@exilelifestyle.com.
You can also communicate via the usual methods: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or radioactive consumer product.
If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider supporting my work: Become an Understandary member / Buy me a coffee