Real Artists Ship
Tomorrow’s event:
Collective Journaling w/ Peter Limberg and Co-Hosts. Daily @ 8:00 AM ET. Patreon event. 90 mins.
An event to maybe get excited about:
Doing Philosophy w/ Gerald Rochelle. October 13th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
We will continue our exploration of the “practical philosophy movement” with Gerald Rochelle doing a presentation on his book, Doing Philosophy. Watch the first 20 minutes of Ran Lahav’s recent talk at The Stoa to learn more about the practical philosophy movement.
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October 9th, 2021
A regular at the Collective Journalling sessions emailed me the following yesterday:
Your journals have definitely shown that the more you write, the better you get. That is apparent when looking at your first entry up to now. Same person, same vibe, but the writing packs way more of a punch. You know what you want to say. What is admirable is that you are still you, throughout the ebb and flow of The Stoa and its punk-like messiness and beauty. Again, this is apparent in the history of your journals.
I am embarrassed to read my early entries; there are moments I want to delete them all. The thought that these journals are displaying progress makes me less embarrassed. I never thought of myself as a good writer, or believed in my writing abilities, but journaling each day, many days in front of you, does feel like I am getting better at something.
He ended his email with:
Also, you show how to not give a fuck what others think in writing. Just put the words on the damn paper. I overthink all of my writing. Reading yours helps.
It is so cool knowing that these journals are helping people in some way. When doubts creep in for me and I think: Okay that’s it, I am fucking done here, I am too cringe, I usually receive an email from a reader after saying how my writing influences their life for the better. I then think: Whoa, this is just not about me. I get inspired to continue to write.
To respond to his comment on the zero fucks element of my writing: Do I really give zero fucks here? I was invited to a Clubhouse event last week to discuss my The Stoa's Zero Fucks Social Media Strategy entry, and the who’s who of Clubhouse influencers were there, as this entry was being shared within their circle. Eric Weinstein came in and started criticizing the “zero fucks” phrase, saying we need to care.
Well, of course. I do not think he read the piece, as the “zero fucks” phrase was clearly being playfully provocative. I want to give full fucks, not zero fucks, about what matters most. And I want to give zero fucks about what does not matter at all. This is Stoicism 101, the “dichotomy of control”: wrap your focus around what is in your control, not around what you have no control over. To quote Epictetus:
Some things are within our power, while others are not. Within our power are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever is of our own doing. Not within our power are our body, our property, reputation, office, and, in a word, whatever is not of our own doing.
It is so anxiety-inducing to extend beyond our realm of control; reality will just slap us with suffering if we attempt to do this. Journaling helps me embody this Stoic principle, as do psychotherapies that derive from Stoicism: REBT and CBT, via their “thought record” techniques. They do work pretty well.
Journaling is indeed a Stoic practice, evidenced by the likes of Marcus Aurelius, and the nature of the practice is designed to cultivate a Stoic dichotomy of control. My focus here is pretty narrow, I am writing to myself, about what is most alive (mapping words to the daemon), or said in a different way, being truthful with my words in a way so the spirit of truth can flow through me.
When this focus slips, and I start writing beyond what is in my control, my body revolts - I start to feel the cringe. It is almost like I am attuning myself here, to be aligned toward what is good, true, and beautiful.
The other element here, which is different from a standard Stoic journaling practice, is that I am publicly posting these entries. Stoic journaling is a private affair; Aurelius had no intention to publish his journals, but something about public posting has been very helpful to me. I sense three reasons why...
The first reason is teasing out what to give full fucks about and what to give zero fucks about. I am less interested in becoming a better writer here, and much more interested in becoming better at attuning myself towards an embodied full fucks.
The second reason is offering value to others, oftentimes an unexpected value. Attempting to be radically me here, in front of you, usually results in me experiencing myself as a mystery. I sense this helps you to experience the mystery that you are.
The last reason has to do with the part of the email that prompted this entry for me: Just put the words on the damn paper. This reminds me of the famous Steve Job’s line:
Real artists ship.
There is something about shipping that is really beautiful. Every morning I write, and many mornings, whatever gets written gets shipped. There is a rewarding feeling to finishing an entry in the morning, then pressing that “publish” button on Substack before I go to bed. An artifact has been created, arriving in thousands of people’s inboxes. Many probably do not even open this, or fully read this; that does not matter, as the important thing here is the shipping.
A lot of the spiritual fancy live-in-the-moment types dunk on having goals, and I agree that the goalification of life is a problem; when a goal is daemonically aligned though, filling one up with excitement, it is a life-affirming experience. When I am writing a journal entry, hosting a session at The Stoa, or offering an experience like Beyond Self-Discipline, I feel fucking wonderful when I achieve the goal of just fucking shipping it. Shipping is the thing that makes it feel real.
This shipping thing makes me think of Eric Kim. I love Eric Kim’s vibe. He is my kind of person, as he is obviously plugged into the daemon. He is a street photographer who has a minimalist approach, producing slick black-and-white photos, and he is also big on Stoicism. His philosophy of happiness is very simple: create. Create new stuff. Creating new stuff makes one come alive. Creating new stuff is aligned with the thing that encourages one to keep living.
A part of me does not want to ship this entry. Like, does the world need another meta journal entry where weird meta Pete journals about journaling? I want to be more interesting than this, and offer perspectives that you have not seen before, something more like the most hellish aspect of the meta-crisis or being a missionary on Pornhub.
This is what is alive today though. I do not know why it is alive. I do trust this aliveness, as it is the thing that makes me like living. And yeah, shipping the thing that makes me like living feels like the beautiful thing to do.
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