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This AI transcription/summary was created on @November 17, 2023. Listen to the original recording here.

Summary
Transcript
Additional Info
Main Points
Stories and Examples
References and Citations
Potential Action Items
Follow-Up Questions
Arguments and Areas for Improvement
Related Topics
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Summary

The speaker reflects on their approach to content creation for three projects: WSC.FYI, WeSeeClearly.com, and WDIM.org. They emphasize a commitment to integrity, opting for substance over narrative and rejecting manipulative tactics in media. The log, WSC.FYI, serves as an open journal, documenting a raw and direct account of thoughts and processes without the need to compel or sell itself. This approach springs from a personal journey of overcoming challenges related to social intelligence, skill-building, and self-improvement.

By maintaining authenticity, the speaker hopes to build a foundation that benefits others without succumbing to the anxiety of content virality.

Transcript

I would like to reiterate something that I think is incredibly important for me to hear from myself, and also as a structuring principle within the three projects that I have going, which are WSC.FYI, WeSeeClearly.com, and WDIM.org. This blog, which is really more of a log, or as I call it, a changelog, WSC.FYI, does not have to be interesting at all. It doesn't have to be compelling. It doesn't have to sell itself.

It is free from any of the manipulative tactics that blogs or media or any kind of content usually employs. And the reason for that is because I personally am not supportive of, I do not condone content selling itself, because if that is the goal of the content, then it is all narrative and it is no substance. I think that it is the opposite of integrity to sell a story. I think that the story becomes interesting when the results are worthwhile.

And because I have lived my life much more on the story side of things, it has taught me a lot about how much distance there can be between what is said and what is done. And I am definitely guilty of that. I think that is why I am able and willing and maybe predisposed even to take such distance from manipulative narrative tactics and present my thoughts in the most direct and unedited way so that it becomes a resource if what I do carries its own weight. If these projects, WDIM and WeSeeClearly, are interesting, if they do something, if they create some movement or transformation, then WSC.FYI will be a repository for all of the thoughts and work and processes that went into making that happen.

And therefore, people who are interested in understanding the full picture will then take the time to process through the material on this site. And that is exactly the kind of setup that I want to create here. It is more of a log, a open journal, a systematic plotting through words and also through as much quantitative mapping as I can possibly do given the limitations of the interface. I want it to be something that is objective from the standpoint of showing the realness of the time it took, the thoughts that are going into it and the way that I show up every day.

So that as a reference, it will actually be useful. It won't be selling something that isn't true, which I find can happen if you... Let's say you do have something successful. Let's say that you are known for, I don't know, whatever it is, creating amazing music or being an amazing developer.

And unless you've actually in real time plotted your journey, you're always going to selectively focus on the things that make the story more compelling, which also can make the story farther from or detached from reality. And that is what creates this rift within people to think, oh, I could never do that. And the last thing that I want to do is create that rift because I've lived under the pressure of first in early life feeling super special because I was a gifted child. I had a high intelligence, but I was also very imbalanced in that sense.

Very low social intelligence, very high meant cognitive and also visual intelligence and also most likely autistic, which I'm grappling with right now. And so in my early life, I felt... I got used to the feeling that everything was easy. But then when I was unable to do things that other people could do very naturally, I felt ashamed and I avoided those activities completely.

So I never worked on what I was bad at. I just kind of kept hitting a wall and having people tell me like, oh, you're so good at everything, just do it. And I didn't really have to work on what I was good at. And so I ended up kind of always feeling at odds with, I don't understand how this works.

Like everything feels like it's an accident or by chance. And there's no way to really feel grounded in myself or in this world. And that set me up for a very long period up until I would say my late 20s when I was so destabilized. I didn't understand how to approach something that I wasn't good.

I didn't understand how to approach skill building or how to approach challenges. And in certain ways, I mean, in certain capacities, I was very good at challenging myself, but it was to compensate for the other areas that I didn't even touch. And I specifically remember looking at like, I think it's 2016. And this was when I began to push myself out of what I thought I knew and just kind of assume a new standpoint that was maybe I'm completely wrong.

Like maybe everything I think that I knew that I feel so objective with is actually purely cognitive bias. So I would say things started to shift for me around that time when I took a job, I took my first job in adulthood basically, which was a very high stress, very, oh my gosh. Yeah, it was a very intense job and it broke me. And then from being broken by that job, I just threw myself into everything else that was fearful.

And I would actually say one of my first experiences of transformation of meeting my own biases was in 2013 when I overcame a massive fear by basically doing something, thinking that I totally fucked it up and then getting called back with an offer to do it professionally. And that totally, it totally rearranged something in my brain to where I was like, oh my God, I'm actually good at this. And to have that experience of meeting the part of yourself when you've grown up being told that you're good at everything, but your experience has been that you just don't know how to do anything because it seems like everything is handed down by another force and it means that you're completely at the mercy of that other force. When I saw that I, by pushing myself, could overcome one of those blocks, it began a process in me where my identity started to unravel and it took a very long time.

It's 2024 now. This big experience was 2013. 2016 was when I took the job. And then from there it was just year upon year of throwing myself into things that I look back on and I'm still embarrassed.

I'm still amazed that I did it because I must have been in a really bad place to shred myself in those ways. Absolutely shred. A combination of, I mean, I did improv theater groups, dance groups that were all performing in professional capacities. I felt like I was LARPing.

I don't know how I got into these things, but I was hired and I was doing it and I sucked at it. I felt so miserable every day, honestly. I hated it. I micro-dosed for a year.

I did seven ayahuasca trips, or ceremonies, I should say. I did another vipassana meditation, but I found that those things were too internal and actually it's people that forced me to reckon with my own underdeveloped-ness. Yeah, I guess what I'm trying to say, I don't need to go too deep down the biography rabbit hole. What I'm trying to say is I have come from the opposite end of where I am now, which is relying on the kind of chance encounters without building a foundation that could stabilize whatever comes from them.

So, chance encounters happen. Life is a miracle. It becomes really stressful if you're never able to capitalize on them. If they kind of come and then it's like, and then you're basically waiting, waiting, waiting for another chance encounter.

That is the most stressful life because most of the time that we have is actually, I believe, here for building ourselves, building structure, and practicing so that when something other comes in and there's a chance to really flirt with it or dance with it, then we actually can show up in the fullness of being and offer something and not just take it and feel almost greedy for that moment because we've been waiting for it, waiting for it, waiting for it. We have to feel like there's some reason to continue regardless of what comes and what doesn't. And so, for me to have this repository of WSC.FYI is not waiting for someone to recognize anything inside of those words and therefore releases me from the pressure of having to curate it or make it punchy. In fact, it is almost like a dry backlog process of accountability to myself first and foremost that is written in the most natural language so that if there's a time when this material is worth referencing, again, conditional on whether my projects are actually interesting or not, then it will be there.

And I love that calming sense that I can show up regardless of who else shows up. This is for me, first and foremost. And because it's for me, it can become something that is truly generous for someone else because it is an integral practice. Whereas the energy around content curation and virality and trying to get attention is so anxious, it's so stressful, it's so fight or flight.

And my system can't handle that anymore. That was my life for the first 30 years. So much tension, so much fear, so much angst, anxiety. It's all about calmness now.

It's all about reliability, relatability. And if that comes across as dry, I don't really care because I have already created other outlets for that creative spark and for that creative expression, which is exactly the strategy here to separate those out so that I can be a whole being across all different walks of life while not diminishing the importance of having an honest relationship to myself and to others.

Additional Info

Main Points

The speaker intends for their work on WSC.FYI to be uninteresting and free of manipulative tactics.
WSC.FYI functions as a changelog, documenting the speaker's authentic experiences and processes.
The three projects—WSC.FYI, WeSeeClearly.com, and WDIM.org—are rooted in integrity, preferring substance over compelling narratives.
The speaker has a personal history of being labeled gifted but also faced challenges with social skills and possibly autism.
After avoiding weaknesses, a job in 2016 and various self-challenging activities led to personal growth and self-reckoning.
The speaker's philosophy is influenced by past experiences where achievements felt more like accidents than results of effort.
The existence of WSC.FYI is to serve as an honest and integral resource, separate from the pressures of content virality.
Projects' success will make WSC.FYI a valuable repository without the need to curate or make content compelling.
The speaker's journey emphasizes the importance of building a stable foundation and being prepared for chance encounters.
Authenticity and a systematic, calm approach to documentation are central to the speaker's current practices.

Stories and Examples

The speaker narrates how their perspective began to transform in 2013 after accidentally stumbling into a professional opportunity.
In 2016, the speaker took a high-stress job that broke them, prompting a journey of self-reckoning and pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone.
The speaker discusses their personal struggle with being perceived as 'good at everything' while concurrently dealing with a lack of real-world skills, resulting in a sense of groundlessness.
Transformation through various self-imposed challenges is highlighted, such as performing improv, dance, and enduring micro-dosing and ayahuasca ceremonies.
A pivotal moment narrated by the speaker is their experience with improv theatre, which helped them recognize their abilities and start a process of identity unravelment.

References and Citations

Nothing found for this summary list type.

Potential Action Items

Continue to update WSC.FYI with direct and unedited thoughts (2023-11-18).

Assess the impact of WSC.FYI, WeSeeClearly.com, and WDIM.org to determine if they create meaningful movement or transformation.

Maintain a separation between the systematic documentation of WSC.FYI and the creative expression elements in other projects.

Follow an authentic content strategy across all projects to avoid the stress associated with content curation and virality.

Follow-Up Questions

How does the speaker's view of their gifted childhood relate to their current approach to content creation?
What specific systems or practices does the speaker use to ensure their content remains unmanipulative?
In what ways do the speaker's principles manifest in their other projects, WeSeeClearly.com and WDIM.org?
How does the speaker reconcile the need for authentic expression with the need for their projects to be recognized and successful?
Can the speaker provide an update on the development and impact of their projects since this reflection?

Arguments and Areas for Improvement

⚠️

These are potential arguments and rebuttals that other people may bring up in response to the transcript. Like every other part of this summary document, factual accuracy is not guaranteed.

WSC.FYI's approach to content creation may not engage a broader audience if it lacks compelling elements.
By not employing strategic content curation, the projects may miss opportunities for greater exposure and impact.
The emphasis on integrity and substance over narrative might slow down the growth or outreach of the projects.
The lack of manipulative tactics might be seen as a disadvantage in a competitive content market landscape.
If the projects fail to create movement or transformation, WSC.FYI may remain an unrecognized repository.

The Philosophy of Authentic Content Creation