what makes a meaningful life?
Boulder Valley Ranch, CO written in response to Savannah’s wonderful prompt
I’d like to start by trying on “makes” in that prompt instead of “is”. A meaningful life is dynamic, a state to exist in; it is not “achieved” or “found” to be held on to, nor can it be compared or measured – it is practiced and nurtured and welcomed. Day after day, year after year, decade after decade.
stranded in Villa Cerro Castillo
A post from the archives, capturing the moment I realized I was ready for a more stable & calm existence, prompting me to start making my way up north to Boulder, CO where I reside now. We are still in negotiation with the insurance company. Lightly edited in the time since.
the entire town, as seen from a popular climbing spot Cerro Castillo is a small town sitting on Route 7 in Chile.
a trip in the trees
Sanitas Valley, Boulder, CO It’s been 19 months since I last took mushrooms on a hike with a friend in San Diego, CA. Apart from an acid trip, I haven’t returned to that space in the time since. Now that I’m settled in Boulder I feel I’m in a place where I can explore them again safely and comfortably.
In a recent Lex Friedman interview, John Vervake proposes an addition to the age-old “set and setting”: he adds “sacred”.
a taste of nomad life again
📍 writing from Boulder, CO
Marfa, TX So I don’t know. Where are we now. My mind has been blown. The world has a greater capacity to surprise me than I have the capacity to predict its surprises. That much has been true for a while but just seems to become more and more true as time goes on.
Mere days after writing about how nice it’s been settling into my nest and taking my daily walks, I set off on a 2,500 mile adventure through San Diego, Austin, and Marfa, TX.
settled life: 100 days in
📍 writing from Boulder, CO
Dakota Ridge Trail, Sanitas Valley, Boulder, CO In the mornings I like to get outside as soon as possible, to walk the 17 minutes to the second-nearest cafe for a coffee and a croissant. Some mornings I take the long way home and sit on the bench a while. I’ve been biking more, relishing in the freedom of mobility provided by my own two feet (and sometimes a battery).
offline spaces
the Cloud. it's located in boulder, co Parts of my self are stored in the cloud, some in my squishy meat computer, and the rest are on my friends’ squishy meat computers. Friends who might be anyhwere on the planet and servers under my feet. Written journals, stored photos, parts of life I can download again; rewind in time. I can be reached, I’m safe.
This connection requires much to go right: cell towers and undersea cables, international standards, batteries, satellites, signal, and information translation.
socially- and ai-augmented squad building
For the past 18 months I’ve been building as part of a squad we call buzzard. I first wrote a reflection on the experience six months ago. Another half year has uncovered new practices, questions, and potential directions of exploration.
One shape of this collaboration is a live, recorded zoom call with one person driving and everyone else participating in various ways. Sometimes that’s mocking up a component in Figma, looking through documentation of a library, pasting a code snippet, scribing notes, or offering feedback and questions.
I went to nyc again
An experimental post. Might feel similar to patch notes but want to play with the form. Probably post through blot first for a publish loop.
I visited about a month ago and wasn’t planning on being back so soon. A few weeks prior my friend Cody and I got to scheming and came up with the shape of something to demo in-person for a discord we’re in; called DEF. It would also be NFT NYC week which means people descending from all over to attend talks, parties, and events; from the ridiculous to the banal.
furnishing a nest
Dakota Ridge Trail, Sanitas Valley, Boulder, CO 📍 writing from Boulder, CO
Almost two months since arriving to Boulder: a newfound stillness, structure to my day, a consistent place to sleep. A few months ago a friend and I caught up. He lovingly advised I slow down in life, for my own good and health. I think I finally have.
I’ve started meeting friends. Meetups, uber drivers, parties, film festivals.
making friends on the internet
There are almost eight billion of us on this planet, ten thousand likely very similar to yourself. The Internet is a typical person’s best hope for finding and connecting with them.
Mount Sanitas Summit west, Boulder, CO I enjoy life in large part thanks to friends I made on the internet. These friendships have led to jobs, romantic adventures, stays in dreamy oceanside villas, global hackathons, and countless transformative and wonderful experiences.