No. 8: Turtle power 🐢
Hello, Internet friends,
In the category of “all my favorite work is procrasti-work,” I published an essay today. If I’m honest, this is the main reason I’m writing to you. I would dearly love your thoughts on it.
It’s the first in a series on how to build a fractal, nourishing “system of practice.” Slow growth vs. high productivity, that sort of thing. (Turtle power!)
I’m being silly, but it’s probably because I’m proud of it. And because I’ve been working on it for three and a half weeks, so my real instinct is to bring out the trumpets. 🎺 Instead I am a barely-millennial who is more comfortable making jokes and acting like it’s no big deal. Anyway.
If you identify as a current or recovering productivity/personal growth junkie, I think it will be good for you.
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🎧 One more for the podcast stack
I recently did an interview with Andrew Skotzo for Make Things That Matter (thanks, Natalie Nagele, for recommending me). It’s called “What is people-first growth?” We talked about that, and quite a lot of other things (like how to close a revenue gap and the value of staring down into the depths of our souls).
If you’re into conversations on the intersection of leadership, selfhood, and spirituality, you’ll probably enjoy this one.
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📚 Counterproductive by Melissa Gregg
“The notion of freedom the productive lifestyle celebrates is, perversely, the freedom to work.” —Melissa Gregg
One of the reasons I finally decided to write this series of essays (besides it being a good way to get a head start on my next couple of chapters in People-First Growth) is because I’d just finished Counterproductive by Melissa Gregg. It’s pretty fantastic (if a little academic). It’s also a great example of writing that falls into the “Things Are Bad And Here’s Why” category.
We need books in this category, and I’ve read some of them. I’ve also enjoyed reading books in the “Here’s How Things Could and Should Be” category. But there’s not enough in the “Here’s How We Might Make the Bad Things Better” category.
So I’m doing my bit to contribute to that body of practical knowledge. Granted, to get there, we have to establish some philosophical underpinnings. But what I’m really hoping for is to share, in practice, how we can actually get from where we are now to where we want to be.
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🤪 Meet some weirdos
At &yet, we’ve been continuing our season of the weirdo by introducing some of our weirdos. These are folks we’ve met in our travels, who share our values and who are doing interesting, sometimes-weird things on the Internet.
This week’s weirdo is Kai Brach, whose work we’ve enjoyed for years. If you haven’t met him yet, he publishes Offscreen Magazine and the Dense Discovery newsletter. Both are 👌. (Though I’m a little biased; I was on Offscreen’s cover once 💁♀️)
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Thank you, as always, for reading. I’m glad our paths have crossed.
<3, Sarah