💫 Finding inspiration again

vol. 4 // recalibrating // essays on the blockchain

Happy Saturday!

This month marked the start of my master’s coursework, and turns out writing & side projects are much easier when you have two months of break. Nevertheless, the past few weeks have been a good wake-up call for me to reevaluate how I spend my time. I found myself maxing out to-do’s with little break to evaluate if I was finding joy in what I was doing: a fast-pass to burnout. When time is dictated by tasks that feel obligatory, it can become difficult to find inspiration.

Even though I was still reading the same newsletters, following the same people on Twitter, and reading the same books, I didn’t find as many ideas from what I consumed as I was when I was in a free creative mindset. It felt like I would consume the content only to know that I have to switch back to work right after. I wasn’t coming up with many ideas, and I didn’t feel any urge to write or produce more work.

Although I believe that action can fuel motivation, I think that an initial spark of inspiration helps with open-ended creativity. An idea that has stuck with me is the idea of making time to follow your inspiration, as time is abundant and inspiration is fleeting. The exact quote from the Indie Hackers podcast is below:

“I think, for me, inspiration is hugely effective in terms of, you know, I use it as a productivity multiplier in a sense, but it’s perishable, right?

And so, it doesn't last forever. And so for me, taking advantage of that inspiration is hugely important. And so I continually prioritize a clear calendar and freedom to be able to act on my ideas as they come.” —James Traf

With full schedules, the ability to act on ideas as they come becomes difficult, and those great ideas come far and fewer in between. My task now is to spark back the optimism and curiosity that drove me to begin writing and producing in the first place. Although that natural spark still feels somewhat random, I’m hoping to explore how consuming different content forms and creating different schedules may help.

In the meantime, enjoy the slightly shorter issue for this week!

💫 Life updates

To be completely honest, I pushed a few commits on my Best of Your Twitter project and didn’t do much else side project wise. In an effort to get creativity flowing again, I’m aiming to read & write more. Some goals for the next two weeks:

1. Finish reading “The Handmaid’s Tale”

2. Finish reading “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman

3. Write on opportunities in decentralization

4. Write something inspired by the Rehoboam from Westworld

💫 Digital serendipity

Curiosity provoking content & ideas from the last few weeks:

1. A new platform for writing: mirror.xyz. Built on a crypto network, Mirror aims to transform how we write. With all the censorship we’ve seen from centralized platforms recently, it’ll be interesting to see how Mirror may popularize decentralized networks and create a novel way to monetize writing and invest in it.

   Trev🙃r ~ skeet.eth @whatdotcd

   Writers. @john_c_palmer just raised more than $13,000 to write an essay. That is probably more than you'd get paid to write elsewhere. Check out @viamirror -

   

   j.mirror.xyzCrowdfund: $ESSAYA new experiment begins today: using crypto to crowdfund the next essay I’m writing, titled Scissor Labels.

2. Essay (audio version included) on “What Did We Lose When We Lost the Stars?”. With most writing being optimized for short attention spans, long-form essays like the ones in The Convivial Society are a treat to find. This one touches on a phenomenon that often goes unnoticed: the disappearance of the stars in our night sky.

3. This meme. Although I’ve gotten better at letting myself take breaks, the “capitalist definitions of worth” have been tough to shake off. It’s difficult to value activities that have no clear utility when creating capital value is all people seem to care about online. Like with this Substack, how do I focus on the work itself without emphasis on the outcomes?

   Margaret Kimberley @freedomrideblog

   I wish I knew who to credit for this meme.

   

That’s all for this issue! If you got this far thanks for joining; feel free to respond to this email. Otherwise, wishing you wellness in the next few weeks.

—Vadini