Thursday, February 8, 2024.
This evening I had a wonderfully restorative conversation with my friend Shannon, during which I brought up some of the ideas behind The ColonyThis is the placeholder name for the a community that I'd like to be part of and develop. This is the single goal of this year's Groundhog Day Resolutions, and my current effort is defining it clearly. goals for the year and let the ideas swirl together! One of the many topics we discussed was the conundrum of what The Colony really offers to people, and a theme that resonated was that the main purpose was NOT the value of tools, goods, and partnerships that were on offer.. Instead, it's something that fulfills a particular yearning that I hope will support those benefits of a side effect of something greater. Not quite spiritual, but something that has shared meaning that is rather peculiar to the kind of communities I like. Here are a few of the ideas that came up during our chat:
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When someone stumbles upon The Colony, they bring a pebble to offer to the other colonists. This is something that's precious and unique to them that grows in potential when around other pebbles, which everyone finds very exciting. The kind of person who jibes with this place loves pebbles and loves seeing pebbles interact. In that sense the erstwhile colonist is a nurturer and caretaker of pebbles, and wants to see them grow around others.
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Pebbles are similar to seeds in that they grow in the presence of others who nurture them, shaped by their nature. Finding different methods to nourish seeds so they can become something exciting and empowering is one of the main commitments of colonists!
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Colonists all have their own work and interests, and don't spend all their time talking to other colonists. That said, when they DO have the need to talk, The Colony is the go-to destination as the well-maintained ring of connections that is always available to grab onto, no matter where they are. Each colonist has a vested interest in maintaining their link inthe ring.
My place in all this? It may be to just keep all that energy swirling around, nothing more. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have more specific thoughts when I return to the phrase cloud from yesterday.
References
- Sri Trope: Seeds, Primers, and Kits
- Shared Sentiment: Bring Webrings Back! (many initiatives)
- TikTok: Offering Pebbles
INDEX of GHDR 2024 POSTS
This year's single goal is Building The Colony!
Made a simple "functional area" diagram using Whimsical to help gather my thoughts.
I converted the Whimsical doc from yesterday to Affinity Designer.
Created new subsite at /the-colony/
Wrote stream-of-consciousness "vision statement" for later cleanup
Convert stream-of-consciousness into a "phrase cloud" for further deconstruction
Artifacts of The Colony: Pebbles, Seeds, and Rings
Created a "refined phrase cloud" grouped into five categories, based on boot 05's work.
Extracted "foundational" statements from yesterday, but they didn't leave a strong impression. Punt "why" to tomorrow's post.
Created a "Selfishly Sri" printable assessment to gauge outside interest.
Reducing scope from Colony to Outpost.
Desired results are distilled down to two main ideas, which will cover the next couple of months.
A slow start to the year, as I focused on paying work for most of the month. Set four directives to achieve this mont
The set of analysis notes that I authored with ChatGPT4 to refine my understanding of "prosocial motivation"
New goal is to start connecting with future chatty collaborators, as my brain runs on "prosocial motivation" and meaningful human connections.
Delving further into my "predominantly-prosocially motivated" profile (PPMP), and how to turn this into action given the dilemma of "needing the energy from a group to start a task" being at odds with "needing to start a group so I have energy".
The task of "talking to someone in-person about PPMP-based community" didn't happen. Happily, I had several empowering insights along the lines of wealth, doing what is good, and accepting myself that I think will help with that.
A new approach to "reduce uncertainty" instead of "pushing through" tasks, I take the time to define the mission and audiences more carefully.
Change of emphasis to All The Animals Are Friends as the anchoring concept for communicating my ideas!
Recognizing the seemingly-impossible task of doing tasks that no one else is looking at with me, I recast writing as the primary goal. Without the camaraderie of connection, I just am unable to motivate.
August sucked. I had no energy or drive. Perhaps I need to prioritize my own communications and work needs for once.
September was really low-energy and sluggish again. Rather than worry about sustainable systematic productivity, I should just admit that I'm lonely and let productivity handle itself?
The depression of September faded as I visited family in California. I theorize 6 "rules for surviving loneliness".
An unexpectedly productive month as I applied several of the "rules for surviving loneliness". My outlook for 2025 for personal productivity feels positive.