🧭 Wayfinding Across The Elements

Happy spring :)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the term “wayfinding” lately.

We seem quite lost as a nation. As a civilization. Where are we going? Where ought we go?

While I’m extremely grateful for the life I’ve been given and cultivated, I have no illusions that I’ve figured out a path that will work well for anybody else — let alone myself. With so much change, is it even possible to have full clarity on one’s path?

I’m humbled to have spent so much time and energy figuring out what I want in life, only to be confronted with these existential question anew and struggle to clearly express the answer. Reminding myself, it’s okay not to know.

At the same time, I do have a disproportionate amount of experience living minimalist, navigating career transitions, and generally thinking about adaption in the coming times. I’m a liminal person, who has lived in liminal ways since graduating college almost 15 years ago. Certainly since being ejected from the corporate world 10 years ago. I thrive in liminality and transitions. I’ve learned a great deal.

This was illuminated to me a couple of weeks ago after my home burned down (I’m okay, everyone’s okay, we lost a lot of stuff). There were emotions, and it has been extremely inconvenient. But I have found myself to be quite resilient about it.

Who knows how fast and widespread AI job displacement will be, to say nothing of great climate and political changes. But I feel nervous about the careers of friends and family that are increasingly at risk, and what kind of support they’ll need to find their way in terms of lifestyle changes, livelihood, health and meaning.

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” - Hunter S. Thompson

Things are getting weirder across the board and closer to home. I’m not exactly sure how I can help, but have a sense I have much to give, and want to prepare so that I’m there when needed.

Maybe it’s a kind of Wayfinding Guide filled with helpful exercises and resources

It’s already a growing network of spaces at colleagues’ small retreat centers that can offer rest and clarity (stay tuned for a post on “micro real estate” / “Life Assurance”)

I wonder about 1:1 guidance and experience design that can help folks have a softer landing, tune into next steps, and make appropriate shifts with greater ease

In the meantime, please consider me a resource if we have a connection and you’re going through a transition. I’d like to pick up the phone.

Keep reading for more thoughts and updates on these topics, which somehow fit rather neatly into the four elements:

I wrote a bit about this bizarre life event here:

Three weeks later, I’m feeling grateful for all the caring words and offers of support that have come in, especially from friends I haven’t connected with in some time. Thank you <3

Still not quite sure what to make of the whole thing. I wasn’t there when the fire happened, and all the things I had there just disintegrated, so it’s all rather abstract.

Though I know for sure that disaster preparedness and resilient leadership is one of the most important skills to cultivate in these times.

I’m very fresh on that journey. I did spend a weekend last fall with DoomsDaddy learning a whole bunch of basics, but don’t know how much I’ve actually retained that would be useful in the moment. How are you building these muscles? Besides tuning into Nate Hagens.

Speaking of staying fluid, two days after the fire I hosted my first water dance event, which I shared more about here:

Yeah, I didn’t have “water dancer” on my bingo card either. But here we are!

I haven’t found a hobby that brings me so much joy, play, creativity, connection, exercise, learning and more.

So I feel inspired to share it with more people. This was the first water event I produced. The five-hour workshop culminated in a ecstatic moment of collective joy under a pair of doves and a rainbow that appeared directly above us.

A friend remarked “it seems like the bane of your existence is convincing people to pay nominal sums of money for life-changing experiences.”

While promoting things does take a lot of energy, it is true that the majority of the events I produce feature multiple people crying tears of awe — myself included.

I try my best to do work that generates the highest ROI in an expanded sense of capital. Water dance to me is one of those activities. So I intend to continue investing in the development of the field.

Nature is the master teacher. Why not immerse yourself in her?

In December, I announced that I was going for it. I’m writing a book on vision.

It’s going! As it twists and turns.

Over the winter in South Africa, one of the big insights that came through was that I could translate the book, not into different standard languages like French or Chinese, but into different subculture languages. I shared more thoughts on that localization process here:

And some general reflections on writing in the age of AI here:

This spring I’ve really leaned into localization by creating small previews of the book for events that I was naturally attending, which has helped refine my production abilities and get lots of generative feedback from the world.

• First, it was the 24 page Before you Build at a tech conference called Funding the Commons

• Second: the 36 page Creating Jewishly at Manna Festival

These were awesome experiments. And while it’s tempting to make one for every event I’m connected to, I’m doing my best to keep returning my focus to the main book. Sometimes making just a one pager e.g. for Bioneers and Bicycle Day.

I’m excited to have a line of sight on the 100+ pager, and hope to get a solid draft out to the world by summer solstice. Please let me know if you would like to provide feedback on that!

Meanwhile, research-in-the-open is cruising with Simon Mont, Schuyler Brown, and Cheryl Hsu. Who else should I be speaking with about vision?

And the fundraiser for the book has reached 99% of its goal!

tl;dr I think one of the highest ROI investments is building small dwellings on community land projects.

I’ve been involved with a yurt in Shasta, and have recently broken ground on a cabin in Hudson Valley and a Chumash ‘ap (traditional home made with natural building materials) near Ojai.

Each project has been a slow, relational, and educational process that has “returned” a breadth and depth of capital. Intellectual capital, social capital, experiential capital, cultural capital, spiritual capital, story capital, resilience capital, and financial capital in some cases.

Not to mention the refreshing joy of just spending time doing something outside with my hands. I’m considering spending the summer at a friend’s farm in Provence, where they spend the first couple of hours of the day doing work on the land. It’s almost enough just to stay off screens for that duration.

Stay tuned for a post on these activities soon!

The way knows the way,
Andrew