Unlocked
3-Item Status
Current location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Reading: Witch King by Martha Wells
Listening: Goodie Bag by Still Woozy
Quick Notes
I Have Returned: Well dang, that was a wild (and exhausting) couple of weeks. First Covid, then visiting family in Seattle—but I’m back! I’m still recovering from everything, but feeling generally pretty good (I pulled something in my lower back in my enthusiasm to get back to a normal workout routine, but after a night’s rest it’s already feeling quite a bit better, fortunately). Apologies for the lack of newsletter last week! I didn’t have the time or energy to do anything meaningful, so opted to do nothing :)
Question: This week’s question is connected to the essay, and I’d love to hear your answer if you don’t mind sharing!
(If you have a moment, reply with your own 3-Item Status and/or Quick Notes about what’s happening in your life.)
Unlocked
One of the reasons I love doing the work I do is that it provides me more opportunities to say the right words to the right person at the right time.
Sometimes those words are delivered via a book or essay, sometimes in a podcast or as part of a public presentation. Sometimes they arrive via email—maybe in a newsletter, maybe in a response to a quick hello or a question about something.
And sometimes those right words contain implicit or explicit permission to do something they were feeling conflicted or concerned about. Other times they’re encouragement (which can accomplish the same) or reaffirmation; maybe a bit of knowledge, or a point of view that unlocks a new perspective that—because of where they are in life, what they’ve been thinking about, who they’ve grown into as a person—suddenly changes everything.
I’ve been the beneficiary of such words many times over the years, and almost always they’ve been meaningful primarily to me: they hit me the way they did because of where I was, what I was thinking about, and where I was headed (or was considering going) next; the words I received were circumstantially revelatory, not inherently so.
A friend recently told me, for instance, that he thought I should write more fiction.
I wrote a few series and short-story collections a long time ago, but I’ve entirely refocused on nonfiction work in recent years, and haven’t consciously considered writing any new fiction for a long time.
After he said that, though, I realized I had a concept for a novel (maybe a series?) jostling around in the back of my brain. In the weeks since, that concept has seemed to keep bubbling up, demanding attention.
I jotted down gobs of notes on my recent flights to and from Seattle, tightening-up a lot of vague concepts and narrative paths, and sorting out what the point of the whole endeavor might be.
I didn’t even realize this idea was there, but that single sentence (embedded in a conversation about other things) flagged, excavated, and forced me to pay attention to it.
We live in a world of immense communicatory potency, all of us wielding godlike powers that allow us to broadcast our words to a substantial portion of the total, global human population.
The channels that empower us are flooded with other messaging and media, too, so our capacity to break through is limited not just by the resonance (or lack thereof) between what we say and those who receive our transmissions, but also by all the noise (and our increasing, collective aversion to that noise).
All of us have keys that might benefit someone else, though, unlocking and nudging (or whole-body-shoving) them in a direction they may never have considered before we said what we said.
A few uttered syllables can change the course of someone else’s life, can make them feel something they needed to feel to confidently face an imposing challenge; our words can spark an enthusiasm that would have otherwise remained buried, unrecognized, or untended.
This also means we have the opportunity to do the opposite, though: our words serving as malevolent incantations that hinder rather than help, encumber rather than elevate.
The right words in the right ears at the right time can make all the difference in the world, but the wrong words can, too, and the difference they make might be substantially less beneficial for that recipient, and maybe even (ultimately) for the world.
The stakes of this are seldom that high, as most of what we say will be lost in the noise that garbles our technological connective tissue.
But when we do happen to puncture that hubbub, what we say and how we say it can be vital, even if just to one other person, and even if only in non-obvious (to us) ways.
If you enjoyed this essay, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee.
Interesting Links
In recent years, influencers have resorted to doing more extreme things for attention, political disfunction has reached a nadir, the media sensationalizes the news at best (or flat out makes it up at worst), and many companies that hyped their “massive total addressable markets” rose quickly to dramatic heights, only to fall in spectacular fashion (see Robinhood, WeWork, Peloton, and FTX, just to name a few).
As a result, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that confidence across countless parts of society has fallen to levels not seen in decades.
The Plot Against the Principality of Sealand
Investigators learned that the owner of the houseboat was a German citizen named Torsten Reineck, described by some acquaintances as well-spoken and polite but by others as “obnoxious, unpleasant, disgusting.” He also owned a Las Vegas health spa where orgies allegedly took place. Reineck was a socialite who loved showing off his Sealand passport and was said to have diplomatic plates from Sealand on his car. Consequently, authorities began looking into the micronation to see what role it may have played in Versace’s murder.
Heralding the Ancient and Otherworldly Charm of Future Medieval Graphics
If you spend time in design-y circles of the internet, you may have already heard about Swedish electronics brand Teenage Engineering’s new release, the EP–1320 medieval: a synthesiser pre-loaded with hundreds of built-in medieval sounds like hurdy-gurdies, lutes, clashing swords, and yes, even a dragon’s roar (forget Brat summer; we’ve moved on to Gregorian chants). But the EP-1320 doesn’t just sound medieval—it looks the part too.
(If you want more links to interesting things, consider subscribing to Aspiring Generalist.)
Question
Today’s question is related to this week’s essay.
Consider answering in the comments (via the button below) or hitting “reply” to answer via email. Here’s the question:
What’s the most memorable piece of advice, bit of information, implicit/explicit permission, or other “right word at the right time” you’ve ever received?
I could name dozens of these off the top of my head, but one that stands out is from when I decided to basically call a mulligan on my life, get rid of everything I owned that wouldn’t fit into a carry-on bag, and start traveling full-time.
My family and most of my friends were incredibly encouraging, and my parents actually said (even though they were worried and harboring doubts) that if I ever needed it, I would have a plane ticket home.
That offer (and the safety net it implied) meant the world to me, and it made me feel a lot more confident in my decision to start traveling and change my life.
Please interpret this question however you like, and share your answer in the comments if you’re comfortable doing so. You can also email me your answer if you’d like to share, but not publicly :)
Outro
Oh man, what a month. Glad to be back in Milwaukee! Especially since the weather is showing signs of maybe finally transitioning into Fall, rather than sticking with the (hot and sticky) Summer-ness it’s been fixated on seemingly forever.
I’ll probably keep tinkering around with that fiction concept for a while, but in the more immediate future (hopefully the next week or two) I’ll be getting the first pieces for Some Thoughts About out the door (I’ve been meaning to do this for the past month, but, well, the month ended up being more complicated and busy than originally anticipated) while getting back into my normal diet and workout routines, attending some fun events, and generally trying to chill out for a few weeks.
What have you been up to this past month? What do you have coming up in October? Drop me a message and tell me what’s been going on, and/or take a moment to introduce yourself—I respond to every message I receive and would love to hear from you :)
It's difficult to explain, but stick with me!
You did an LTK episode and mentioned meta realities (examples like countries' borders, the concept of money) and I realised how many meta realities exist that are treated as sacred (doing things with friends that are 'tradition').
As a recently diagnosed autistic who's struggled with social anxiety, this new view was a game changer to interpret reality my own way and not be pressured into things I don't wish to partake in, or feel guilty for declining to be involved when I would've felt uncomfortable to do so.
Be open to all points of the compass. I have found that life is full of twists and turns and unexpected ups and downs with a constant stream of new people coming into my life and beloved favorites streaming out of my life. By being open to all points of the compass both in my mind and my heart, I find I can handle and manage this amazing life of mine and wherever it takes me.