I just passed 200 subscribers on here (thanks btw) and I want to reflect a bit on where this is all going..
When I started this blog.. this was the original plan:
State an end goal for myself then closely examine the things I need to overcome and achieve in order to reach it. The end goal being to turn the act of executing my creative vision and purpose into my full time job.
At this point I’ve been publishing a post every week for 24 weeks straight. Good job! Thanks.
However, I’ve been veering off path a bit. Now I basically have to decide if I want to reign it in or rethink what I’m doing here in the first place.
To be honest I’m pretty torn because I don’t want to give up on the original idea. It feels a bit like quitting…
But.. I’ve really been enjoying this whole process so far and it feels like it’s just evolving naturally. The posts and topics just come as they come and it seems to be working.
Writing really is an incredibly useful way to think through things and (unsurprisingly) as I’m writing this I’m realizing that there is a good reason that I’ve been veering off path and it’s because the line between what pertains to my original stated goal and what doesn’t is not only blurry but possibly just an illusion altogether.
Let me explain -
I find that (for the most part) my ideas stem from who I am as a person and what life experiences I’ve had and am striving to have.
Whether it’s music, visual art, social media, or this blog.. I basically look at the existing parts of myself (thoughts, feelings, desires, experiences, struggles etc..) and then pick and chose what to include and accentuate in those mediums.
What I’m basically trying to say is that everything is connected.. sometimes, subtly and sometimes in obvious ways.
because of this.. I end up feeling like I should just write about whatever I fancy.
Realistically though, there are different lenses or guardrails I could put on this and I have a specific lens in mind that I’m leaning towards.
This lens is focused on a growing issue… an issue that, I would argue, is unique to this era of the human timeline.
Change… but not your ordinary run of the mill change. Change that is snowballing and rapidly increasing in speed and size. At this point, the magnitude of this particular snowball is warping the gravity that holds us in place.
…and it’s not slowing down.
Imagine for a minute, a hunter gatherer society. Back when people lived in tribes, wisdom could easily be passed down from one generation to the next. Things still changed.. your village could get raided, there could be natural disasters, famines, sickness etc.. but for the most part, people inherited the same world as their ancestors and in turn.. the same problems.
ENTER THE TECH SNOWBALL (Stage left)
Now, the ability to pass down wisdom about how to exist in the world has been degraded as technology has progressed.
Hey Grandpa, what should I do in the face of this endlessly complex and dysfunctional information landscape that I’m confronted with on a daily basis? What did you do when you were my age?
blank stare
I even run into this problem when I try and give advice to my younger brother. He’s four years younger than me and the reality is that the problem-space he’s navigating would hardly be recognizable to the person I was at his age. Sorry bud.. you’re kinda on your own.
I recently heard Yuval Harari saying how, as a society, we have absolutely no idea what to teach our kids. It seems like yesterday learning to code was some of the best career advice you could give someone and now, here we are with A.I. able to code better and faster everyday and quickly surpassing humans (if it hasn’t already).
All this to say.. I think I’m going to make this issue the core of what I do here on my blog and youtube channel.
I’ve changed the description of my blog to:
‘A public navigation through the complexities of life’
I think this sums it up nicely and leaves me a pretty open runway to write about whatever I find important and interesting as I move through the world.
I’ve also changed the title of this blog to ‘Wonderneath’ (Wondering what’s underneath) I came up with it years ago and have been waiting to use it for the right thing and this is it.
Anyways, I’m guessing that what used to be a lifelong distillation of knowledge from one generation to the next while sitting around a campfire or out hunting in the woods, is turning into a situation where we have to wake up on a daily basis and survey the newly formed landscape to figure out what to do in realtime. It’s like maze runner, where the walls of the maze are continually changing.
I’m basically already in a position where it feels like I have to reevaluate my game plan and world view on a daily basis.
It all sounds overwhelming but, for better or for worse, it’s just like the situation we’re in more and more everyday. I’d like to be helpful if I can and do my part to pay attention and map out some territory.
I’m still hoping to build a community around this blog and my content in general too. While the number of people consuming what I do is growing.. engagement is harder to attract. I’m not sure where I want to build the foundation of the community yet though.. it might be on here, maybe discord, maybe Instagram.. Either way, I’m relatively secluded and I think this whole things is going to need to be a team effort to a certain degree.
Well that’s it for now. I’m expecting this to keep evolving and changing and I’m just gonna go with the flow.
Thank you for being here.
As always, I’m happy to receive feedback, advice or to just have a conversation about any of the topics on this blog! Don’t hesitate to comment or reach out via social media.
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