I am studying visual art. I am both hopeful and concerned about where it will lead me.
I have resonated with so many of your ideas and think about them daily. Because of it, i started observing and fighting against bad habits. Itās especially exciting to notice the daily things I do which are dressed up as something virtuous, but is actually coming from avoidance just to do the work.
I love how observative you are and how you take your ideas and go to real depths. I would like to create artwork in the same essence as your work - with deep and clear intention.
I have never participated in communities, but if its really a place to build on insights, Iām so excited to be part of it.
Iāve been a programmer since 1981 (Apple ][+) and I was extremely lucky that what I fell in love with as a kid was also something just exploding. For most of my life Iāve basically been paid to do what Iād do anyway (and itās what I do in my spare time too).
I donāt remember exactly how I bumped on this island (may be a youtube suggestion), but I liked some of the videos and I donāt mind contributing a little bitā¦ content seems quite interesting.
Hi, Iām a technologist with philosophical leanings.
Iām inspired by people like Joan who are steadfastly centered in truth, and Iām hoping to find other like-minded truth-seekers who will help me refine my understanding of this reality.
Last three years Iāve been translating the insights from my mystical experiences into a mathematical framework for representing meaning and understanding the unfolding of Life. Iām currently working to make this practical by designing new kinds of technologies that, in my view, have the potential to catalyze unity. This level of clarity and openness is relatively recent for me, but Iāve found that truth and insight tend to emerge from earnest dialogue.
I am interested in engaging thoughtful discourse. Especially the type that can show the shortcomings in my own thinking.
It was the YouTube video of Joan talking about āDeleting My Second Brainā that got me interested. I had initially been sold on the idea of zettlekasen and programs like obsidian, but that video made me question, āTo what endā? I am thankful for the challenge.
Hi, Iām Erin, though I mostly go by Six in online spaces. For nearly 18 years I worked in daily newspaper production, where I edited, designed and wrote headlines for print newspapers all across the US. Itās a job I really believed in and embraced before all my employers were systematically bought out by private equity.
Two years ago I quit my job, sold all my stuff, moved to Adelaide, South Australia and got married. Itās been a heck of a life change, and while on the whole itās been positive, sometimes I feel like I donāt know who I am anymore. Iām trying to get back that spark of creativity, figure out my role in life and address my mental and physical health issues. Really glad to be here!
Also really glad this is a Discourse and not another Discord for me to mute and chuck on the pile.
Bruce Maples from Louisville, KY. I am the publisher of a news-and-commentary site focused on Kentucky politics, policy, and politicians. (Donāt worry ā I will NOT talk any politics here; I get enough of it in my day job! )
Iāve been reading Joanās work since I discovered her writing, and find it both well-written and thought-provoking. I decided to go Pro so I could both get more of the writing and see what the Community was like.
Looking forward to lurking and occasionally commenting!
I love that phrase: āwhere builders come to think.ā
It feels like Iāve found the right place.
I first came across Joan Westenberg through an article on Medium ā and I found Medium itself through a blog Iāve followed for some time. Itās fascinating how these things happen: one link leads to another, and suddenly you arrive somewhere that feels like itās been waiting for you.
Since that post, her voice has stayed with me. It was āand still isā the only newsletter Iāve ever subscribed to.
Now, on this platform, I introduce myself as an architect. But more than that, Iām someone who observes, who writes, who builds ideas as much as spaces.
Iām drawn to intersections: architecture and philosophy, marketing and narrative, time and speed, form and meaning.
I have an intimate relationship with making ādrawing, writing, craftingā not out of productivity, but out of a need to understand the world through what I create.
Iām Matt, and itās a pleasure to be here with you all. I would second the appreciation of an async salon to pull up a chair when itās time.
Iām a software engineer from the outskirts of London in England. Semi-radical in my approach to life but then, it doesnāt feel all that radical to me of course.
I found your writing today Joan and took great pleasure in your article about deleting your second brain. It chimed with my recent exhaustion of all things āproductiveā, or even āimprovementā (yuck!). Extensions, Iād say, of a capitalist idea of what āpurposeā or āmeaningā involves.
Looking forward to getting to know you all (slowly!)
Checking in from California. Hoping this discourse might help put the pieces back together again, obviously not in the same order, since Westenberg broke me into more pieces than Humpty Dumpty with the ādeleting obsidianā article. I think I may not even be joking when I describe āShattering World Viewsā as one potent superpower!
Pirsig rocks. My definition of quality is more like āfitness for purposeā which makes it obviously subjective. What Pirsig calls Quality is what I would call āvalenceā which is a positive or negative association with a word, thing or experience.
Iām Chris. I like to read and write and think and build. Iām a software engineer at Apple in the SF Bay Area. I use Obsidian every day but Iām very strict to keep the extensions to a minimum. This place seems like a good place for me to share some thoughts Iāve been having.
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