💖 Introspection at a Glance

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Introspection at a Glance

Recently, a few people mentioned that I have been self-reflective, writing about connection and inner guidance more frequently. It’s not like I’m all that great at hiding things. Thankfully, I had a chance to talk to some of them about it in person while in Denver a few weeks ago, the importance of introspection and its intersection with community building into the future.

It’s true. I’ve been on this deeply personal, introspective journey and am happy to chat briefly about it this week. There are plenty of reasons to receive this call to (inner)action when pondering how we bring a collective to life, whether online, onchain, or offline.

Boys Club posted a couple of weeks ago that the girlies are microdosing. But this year, I’ve also been on a much deeper quarterly (macro) journey into myself to discover feelings, empty the mind, and truly express my inner nature.

As I’ve stated on multiple occasions, if we are to exponentially accelerate technology over the next 20 years, we must also accelerate human development by exploring the inner workings of the mind and consciousness at the same or greater pace.

If we are each to hold, own, and release multiple copies of ourselves as agents into a new world, a new onchain internet, one must first know thyself.

This is a story of collective unlearning and re-learning through introspection and interreflection. And the web is at the very center of this great unfolding.

A Very Personal Journey

I’ve nearly always felt comfort in solitude as a fairly quiet person, one to immerse myself in learning or some sort of feelings journey. Lately, though, maybe it’s about getting older or perhaps an increased exploration of philosophy that’s done it, probably some combination of the two. Since having a complication with surgery a few years ago, I felt this nudge to take deeper action.

Having discussed my relationship with meditation in earlier issues, I won’t repeat myself here but instead, dive into other aspects of how this exploration affects our continued evolutions as community builders.

The aspects of self-reflection I practiced during therapy sessions for 4+ years (I haven’t been in a while) were pivotal to my growth, especially during the early stages of coming out and coming to terms with certain behaviors.

I believe that even beyond therapy, one must explore which philosophies we resonate with to find aligned communities to engage with. This act will help us build, facilitate, and cultivate spaces where inner and outer growth happens naturally, not necessarily with ease, but through authentic interreflection.

Only when we more deeply understand ourselves can we facilitate more aligned, intuitive communities that move within and beyond our current structures. This facilitation could be called co-reflection, where these interpretations of the self are for the benefit of the collective and not solely for the individual.

Indeed, it isn't easy to provide a script for us to practice since this introspection is an inner journey, and I nor anyone else can be inside the mind of another (yet) at least. However, it may be possible to guide discussions for self-reflection within our communities as we continue our journey toward co-worldbuilding and co-reflection.

Curating Introspective Expression

Over the past couple of weeks, while curating guests for upcoming The State of People shows, one specific concept has come up quite often in these conversations—this idea of authenticity and interweaving a narrative through self-reflection.

I asked guests to think about how they presented themselves publicly and privately. They should consider their identity when speaking to live fully through the words they share with us all. Not some masked, branded character they’ve created for social expectations, but the person they see when looking inward. Lately, when listening to others speak on podcasts, I rarely hear clear, actionable conversations; instead, I hear a glossed-over surface-level view of someone’s expertise. Our goal is to bring truly thoughtful conversations to light so that viewers can connect directly with them to their work, communities, and practices as real, living, breathing humans into this onchain world we’re all co-creating.

In this sense, introspection feels like an intimate experience with the self—a true transformation into explorers of the self rather than simply consumers of others.

When I am feeling introspective, here are a few things I personally feel:

Searching for Truth: I seek understanding in the truest sense of the matter. Rather than simply going with the flow or some wavy, wavering, pre-existing beliefs and opinions, this introspective act is an inward examination of my truth.

Rejecting Self-Deception: The goal of introspection is to analyze and deeply feel inward, taking stock as if a librarian filing away papers in that mind palace we spoke about last week in order to dispel self-deception. It is through this practice alone that acknowledgment of manipulation comes into play and correcting those acts through honest reflection. To let go of the ego.

Responsibility: I’ve talked about responsibility in writing quite a bit, and for good reason. I feel a great deal of responsibility toward action, toward my inner and outer self, and how the world is built around us all. That is quite a fearful, often sickening thing to hold, and it comes at a cost. Not to say I take it all too seriously; it’s simply an acknowledgment of the truth of it all.

Action Items for the Mirror

We aren’t taught introspection. It’s an abstract skill that we work at for a literal lifetime, and I’m only a baby at it. If you are to choose this path of collective co-reflection, this very particular path of interreflection with new onchain, offline, and online communities of true caring nature, it’s never going to be easy.

But together, when we work toward collective action, we gain understanding. We gain truth, clarity, and values that help guide others. And for me, that is worth it.

Take action today with these practices:

Mindfulness (meditation): Meditation isn't always sitting in silence, chanting, or even quieting the mind. Similarly, mindfulness is a personal pursuit guided by seeking self-actuation. I have used workbooks like the one recommended for DBT therapy.

Values Alignment: When seeking values, rather than typing into a search box “what are good values to hold,” try searching inward to truly discover where your values are most deeply aligned. This will guide who you work with, where you interact, and how you show up in those spaces.

Seeking Feedback and Understanding: Feedback does not always come externally, but it often finds itself useful when sought with intention. Diversify your feedback received, taking into account your values found above.

I say all this not to be some spiritual or philosophical guide but to genuinely serve as simply one part of our collective togetherness as we move into increasingly challenging, uncertain times.

I am a constant source of my own failure in this practice of introspection. It's not an easy practice at all. However, we can indeed afford ourselves optimism amongst chaos.

Stay curious, stay reflective, steady, and clear.

Hunting and Gathering 🔗 

Watch This

• On a channel I occasionally watch, Dr. Justin Sledge from Esoterica, actually re-created and tried a 17th-century alchemical potion for melancholy and subsequently got memed (don’t try this at home, folks)

• Here’s another hint for The State of People…

Read This

• The State of Culture in 2024 by Ted Gioia is a great read on dopamine and its troubled relationship to creativity.

• Vitalik dropped an essay on Degen Communism on April Fools Day. Despite the date, he makes some solid points on internet chaos.