Slowcore HQ
/slowcore-hq788
"Move slow and preserve things." (h/t Tom Beck)
This is the dream
Recently I had a slowcore breakthough of sorts.
I decided to just relax and not stress at all about building an audience or attracting engagement to my work as a writer.
(NB: I've made that same decision many times before, but it's harder to make it stick when I'm deeply ensconced in a cultural milieu that rewards people for capturing attention and engagement).
Truth be told, I'm content with quietly working in the shadows anyway. That's where I do my best writing.
But it happens slowly. On its own timetable.
If this means I'll never make a sustainable living doing the writing I want to do — because even in web3 the financial rewards go only to those who put in extra time on top of their creative work to build sizable audiences — then it's time to make my peace with it and return to day jobs.
I decided to just relax and not stress at all about building an audience or attracting engagement to my work as a writer.
(NB: I've made that same decision many times before, but it's harder to make it stick when I'm deeply ensconced in a cultural milieu that rewards people for capturing attention and engagement).
Truth be told, I'm content with quietly working in the shadows anyway. That's where I do my best writing.
But it happens slowly. On its own timetable.
If this means I'll never make a sustainable living doing the writing I want to do — because even in web3 the financial rewards go only to those who put in extra time on top of their creative work to build sizable audiences — then it's time to make my peace with it and return to day jobs.
My fellow sloth people of /slowcore-hq might appreciate this, since this channel is all about acceptance of not-doing.
Festina lente. Latin for “make haste slowly.” A wonderful slowcore defense of procrastination by Nassim Taleb in his book, Antifragile.
I’ve found procrastination to be a powerful (and poorly-understood) tool. Waiting helps reveal what is actually important. Everything feels urgent in the moment but rarely is. Learning to delay action filters out the irrelevant.
I’ve found procrastination to be a powerful (and poorly-understood) tool. Waiting helps reveal what is actually important. Everything feels urgent in the moment but rarely is. Learning to delay action filters out the irrelevant.
Slowcore Quote of the Day: On "qarrtsiluni"
"There’s a wonderful idea from the Inuit people called qarrtsiluni... sitting quietly together in the dark. Waiting expectantly for something creative to occur. I just love that as a metaphor of where we are right now as a species. We don’t know what’s coming... it isn’t about achievement and compensation and doing more right now."
~ Francis Weller
Source: https://oliviaclementine.com/francis-weller-the-medicine-you-carry-suturing-the-inevitable-tears/
"There’s a wonderful idea from the Inuit people called qarrtsiluni... sitting quietly together in the dark. Waiting expectantly for something creative to occur. I just love that as a metaphor of where we are right now as a species. We don’t know what’s coming... it isn’t about achievement and compensation and doing more right now."
~ Francis Weller
Source: https://oliviaclementine.com/francis-weller-the-medicine-you-carry-suturing-the-inevitable-tears/
As winter approaches in the Northern hemisphere, a song about slowing down & becoming "stillness in motion" 🤍 ❄️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7LymqneOtg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7LymqneOtg
Slowcore Quote of the Day
“…life is not meant to be rushed through. It is not a race, nor is it a problem to be solved. It is an experience to be lived, and living well requires presence. To focus on one thing deeply, to give it your full attention, is to experience it fully. And when we do this, something remarkable happens. Time, which so often feels like it is slipping through our fingers, begins to slow. Moments become rich, textured. Even the simplest of tasks takes on a new significance when approached with care, with attention.”
~ Bill Wear, "The Quiet Art of Attention"
https://billwear.github.io/art-of-attention.html
“…life is not meant to be rushed through. It is not a race, nor is it a problem to be solved. It is an experience to be lived, and living well requires presence. To focus on one thing deeply, to give it your full attention, is to experience it fully. And when we do this, something remarkable happens. Time, which so often feels like it is slipping through our fingers, begins to slow. Moments become rich, textured. Even the simplest of tasks takes on a new significance when approached with care, with attention.”
~ Bill Wear, "The Quiet Art of Attention"
https://billwear.github.io/art-of-attention.html
Slowcore Quote of the Day (a bit of history):
"Slow living is part of the wider slow movement which began in the 1980s in Italy. Faced with the opening of a McDonald’s in the heart of Rome, Carlo Petrini and a group of activists formed Slow Food, a movement that defends regional food traditions. [...]
"Carl Honoré, one of the most well-known authors and speakers on the slow movement, helped bring the concept of slow living into the mainstream in 2004 with the publication of his book In Praise of Slowness. Honoré explores how Slow Food sparked a broader slow living movement with ‘slow’ now being applied to other areas of life which have experienced huge acceleration, including work, parenting and leisure."
~ Beth Crane, "What is Slow Living?"
https://slowlivingldn.com/what-is-slow-living/
(See the bottom of this page for a list of resources on slow living - podcasts, books, TED talks, etc.)
"Slow living is part of the wider slow movement which began in the 1980s in Italy. Faced with the opening of a McDonald’s in the heart of Rome, Carlo Petrini and a group of activists formed Slow Food, a movement that defends regional food traditions. [...]
"Carl Honoré, one of the most well-known authors and speakers on the slow movement, helped bring the concept of slow living into the mainstream in 2004 with the publication of his book In Praise of Slowness. Honoré explores how Slow Food sparked a broader slow living movement with ‘slow’ now being applied to other areas of life which have experienced huge acceleration, including work, parenting and leisure."
~ Beth Crane, "What is Slow Living?"
https://slowlivingldn.com/what-is-slow-living/
(See the bottom of this page for a list of resources on slow living - podcasts, books, TED talks, etc.)
A place to slow down and rest.
We need these here in the U.S.
https://youtu.be/Lpz0ujUyoiM?si=JSsJuBWNfMcPrq68
We need these here in the U.S.
https://youtu.be/Lpz0ujUyoiM?si=JSsJuBWNfMcPrq68
I loathe the pace of academia.
I'm gonna finish this degree, but I'm so ready to get back to my ability to slowly savor ideas over a period of days, weeks, or even months, instead of having to cram one thinker's ideas into two works of furious note-taking and paper-writing that completely ignores the context they were writing in and anything about their lives, which would actually help with internalizing the material better.
Like, Mill was *obsessed* with autonomy and personal liberty, and when you find out that his father basically treated him like an experiment in how to educate people to be superthinkers, leading him to a mental breakdown at 20, you understand why the ability to direct our own lives was so very precious to him.
But that wasn't something taught to us in the class - that was info I found about him from my own curiosity because his words vibed with my soul so hard I had to know more about where they came from.
I'm gonna finish this degree, but I'm so ready to get back to my ability to slowly savor ideas over a period of days, weeks, or even months, instead of having to cram one thinker's ideas into two works of furious note-taking and paper-writing that completely ignores the context they were writing in and anything about their lives, which would actually help with internalizing the material better.
Like, Mill was *obsessed* with autonomy and personal liberty, and when you find out that his father basically treated him like an experiment in how to educate people to be superthinkers, leading him to a mental breakdown at 20, you understand why the ability to direct our own lives was so very precious to him.
But that wasn't something taught to us in the class - that was info I found about him from my own curiosity because his words vibed with my soul so hard I had to know more about where they came from.
We're all fafo'ing trying to produce something that people will buy into and will reach escape velocity.
What if we (I) can escape without anything external needing to happen.
What if we (I) can escape without anything external needing to happen.
“The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down.”
When life gets busy, I have to remind myself to just go slow. Usually this means subtracting activities (like casting).
But I'm moving into a quieter season season shortly and look forward to more time spent here.
But I'm moving into a quieter season season shortly and look forward to more time spent here.
Great British Tree of the Year announced.
The Skipinnish Oak now sets its sights on EU Tree of the Year.
⏳
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/tree-of-the-year-winner-uk-europe-b2637782.html?callback=in&code=ZDY2NTI2YZMTMTM3ZS0ZZDYXLWI2YJATNDA1ZGI0N2FHOWY1&state=9519293c8e3a43b8b8f9546714d8de08
The Skipinnish Oak now sets its sights on EU Tree of the Year.
⏳
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/tree-of-the-year-winner-uk-europe-b2637782.html?callback=in&code=ZDY2NTI2YZMTMTM3ZS0ZZDYXLWI2YJATNDA1ZGI0N2FHOWY1&state=9519293c8e3a43b8b8f9546714d8de08
My Word for Sundays is Structure.
It's my planning day, where I verify all my assignments and due dates, estimate how much time it's gonna take me to do all that, and then assess how much time/space/energy I expect to have for other things.
It's not something I cram into a set time period of the day.
Instead, I spend the morning mulling it over, thinking about how last week went, considering where I am in various cycles, etc. and then looking at what projects I want to focus on making progress this week.
Creating the structure for the week that allows me to flow with as much ease as possible, without being too rigid and demanding.
It's my planning day, where I verify all my assignments and due dates, estimate how much time it's gonna take me to do all that, and then assess how much time/space/energy I expect to have for other things.
It's not something I cram into a set time period of the day.
Instead, I spend the morning mulling it over, thinking about how last week went, considering where I am in various cycles, etc. and then looking at what projects I want to focus on making progress this week.
Creating the structure for the week that allows me to flow with as much ease as possible, without being too rigid and demanding.
My slowcore offering today is this quote from my favorite easy-going anime witch, Azusa:
Class of '17 crypto adopter here. Decentralized, open, and 'autonomous' governance systems was my first motivator into this space
One learning from that period to now is the over intellectualization of products and lack of simple evidence
We need more products that work rather than be marketed
One learning from that period to now is the over intellectualization of products and lack of simple evidence
We need more products that work rather than be marketed
I alternate between intensive and expansive periods.
During intensive periods, I'm hyperfocused on one subject or project. The last few days, that was marathoning a Chinese romance series as I'm diving back into intensive language study.
Today I've shifted into the expansive moved. Moving from topic to topic, interesting to interesting, slowly wandering my way to the next intensive interest dive.
There's no rush in either mode.
Everything connects one way or another to everything else.
During intensive periods, I'm hyperfocused on one subject or project. The last few days, that was marathoning a Chinese romance series as I'm diving back into intensive language study.
Today I've shifted into the expansive moved. Moving from topic to topic, interesting to interesting, slowly wandering my way to the next intensive interest dive.
There's no rush in either mode.
Everything connects one way or another to everything else.
It’s fall in the Midwest and that means soup! Can you guess what’s in the instapot?
It’s fall in the Midwest and that means soup! Can you guess what’s in the instapot?
After a 47 days posting here consistently, I lost my streak here in the channel. 🥲
My husband's fighting covid since last week and between taking care of him, walking our dogs alone and going to the drugstore for extra supplies, I simply didn’t even remember Farcaster was a thing.
It's silly, it's just a number but... it also made me a little sad. 🤷♀️
Today I'm trying not to get too attached to that and I'll be back on my (slow) game once covid is out of the picture!
My husband's fighting covid since last week and between taking care of him, walking our dogs alone and going to the drugstore for extra supplies, I simply didn’t even remember Farcaster was a thing.
It's silly, it's just a number but... it also made me a little sad. 🤷♀️
Today I'm trying not to get too attached to that and I'll be back on my (slow) game once covid is out of the picture!