Quiet Creative

E84: Rest & Recap 12 - Friends & Family IRL 1, YYZ and Barcelona

and

Apr 21, 2023

Announcement: Friends&Family IRL is my primary focus from April-July 2023 (it means In Real Life, Mum). I will be traveling this entire quarter 2023Q2. The start of April has been a whirlwind of entertaining and celebrating with family.

Depending on when you read this, I am either heading to the airport, crossing the Atlantic, or already in Barcelona. There, I will meet some authors I’ve grown to love from Writing in Community. None of us knew each other on June 1, 2020. Now we are family.

I have set the next cycle of seven editions of this newsletter to auto-publish while I travel. Since Covid, we have a renewed respect for in-person interactions, so I may not check messages frequently. While I am away, I hope Tribe Tilt will support each other in the comment section.

See you again next week, Tribe Tilt. Till then, stay safe and healthy. From there all else becomes possible.
Karena

What is a “Rest” edition?

So, this is the bumper edition recap you send to a friend.

I publish in cycles of seven. (Why seven?)

In Tribe Tilt, we talk about intentionally scheduling rest and recovery so that we do not burn out. Every seventh edition of this newsletter is a moment to rest and reflect.

Rest: We explore different benefits of rest each time - e.g. sustainable writing practices E70, the value of sleep E63, gratitude as rest E14. This week we talk about finding our creativity in moments of quiet.

Reflect: In the 21st-century-skills tradition of “Always be Learning” we look back through this past cycle of essays. Are there patterns? Did the comments open up new areas of discussion?

Rest idea 12: Boredom leads to Quiet creativity

Embrace boredom. Step into stillness. Enjoy the quiet. Allow the various ideas you have been consuming to marinate and pickle together. Let the flavors support and infuse each other. So that you can re-package them, condense and connect them. And create fresh perspectives.

Remember: The best idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Let’s create the conditions for that to happen.

This rest break was inspired by this LinkedIn video from Sahil Bloom:

“The modern world does not allow you to be bored”

[https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sahilbloom_the-modern-world-does-not-allow-you-to-be-activity-7038908954751455232-oMqK?]

Want to learn more about rest? Explore any one of the previous rest editions (every 7th). Please use the comments, Notes and DMs to explore this idea further, particularly if you also wish to normalize rest in this “always-on” world.

Reflect: Digest of the past few issues

Reviewing editions 71-83, these are my reflections. I wonder what memories and connections you made?

This came up as a funny aha - Curation and Algorithms end up as 21st-century issues,
and learning how to manage them is a 21st-century skill.
I wonder - do the digital generations intuitively know how to manage these problems?
As an analog-ian, am I creating an issue where there isn’t one?
So many Tribe Tilt members are willing to engage and wrestle with big obtuse ideas.
I’m inspired to write by memories triggered when I read other people’s essays.

FUTURE OF WORK (FoW) and 21st-century skills life strategies:

E78: Mind the Gap - “The Future of Work essay you didn’t know you needed.” The core idea is that there is much change ahead. There is a knock-on effect as new technology changes work, work changes law and politics and education, which in turn will change society and politics.

Thank you, Tribe Tilt. Thank you for entertaining an idea and concept about the Future of Work that has might have made you uneasy at first. It is one of my more important essays as it alerts us to the changes on the horizon, and offers ways to prepare. It connects a few thoughts including the popular “History smooshes stuff”. Here is feedback from Tilters who made it all the way through:

I hadn’t even considered how we’re straddling two different eras but this is making me think differently about how to skill-build and plan for the future.
Michelle Varghoose

How do we evaluate what is timeless wisdom that will help us anchor our actions and what’s timely ideas we have to let go?
Vicky Zhao

To think we’re only at the tip of the iceberg is humbling, scary, and exciting.
Charlie Becker

Margaret O'Brien

picked up on the phrase heirloom skills for the EQ skills:

I love the term ‘heirloom skills’ and that they will be the constant, passing on values that matter which will inform how we live and care for each other and the planet.
Margaret O'Brien

Thank you, Mak of

Thinking Loudly

and Randy of

chasing answers

for recommending this particular essay to your readers, and Aloni was inspired to write their own essay on Medium (and became a subscriber!). This is the ultimate WOM (word of mouth) endorsement.

21ST CENTURY SKILLS and ALGORITHMS (aka 21st century problems)

E80 and E81 are linked. It started as a conversation on curating content and ensuring we always have access to our (digital) intellectual and creative property. And led to the realization that a lot happens in some years, but learning happens when we have time to absorb and reflect.

E80: Containers, Curation, Cleaving. Continue? Are there any Tribe Tilt members willing to explore digital curation? Because this essay - inspired by a phrase in
Melissa Menke
's Digital hygiene essay - is the most popular in this cycle. 27 comments on substack alone, and more coming in! Most are on the touchy topic of curation. Particularly around archiving physical treasures, and safe-guarding digital memories and our “e-written” work.
Wild-life photographers to the rescue. Check out
Scott Gilbertson
comment with a detailed list (algorithm?) of what he archives, why, where and how. And the suggestion from Kathy Karn to backup frequently with a cloud and physical copy. She recommends platform agnostic backblaze.com.
E81: Living Life Fast and Slow: raises the idea that we have divergent and convergent years; years of learning and years of consolidation.
The theme of Divergence and Convergence also dovetails interestingly with this edition’s idea of resting to converge the information we receive.
Most comments were variations on
Rick Lewis
's
”The shoe box review is hands down my favorite gem in this issue.”

Another pairing, E82 and E83 started as one essay.

Charlie Becker

challenged us to write a "noob" essay a la Paul Graeme. In

Earthly Fortunes

, Helen's delicate recount of being coached through Wagner's Parsifal reminded me of a similar Wagnerian moment, when I felt so totally out of my depth.

E83: The Education of Miss Karena: My noob experience, learning Wagner’s Ring Cycle as a young import to Manhattan.
E82: Sound metaphors Leitmotifs I: The learning from the Ring Cycle, however, has been invaluable. I discovered leitmotifs. And now pay closer attention to how humans are/have been manipulated by algorithms (bells, alarms). When we know the algorithms shaping us, we gain agency on whether we want to play into (Spotify/Meta/banking apps) algorithm … this time.

We should all understand how algorithms collect and use the information that is guiding our behaviours. (h/t to

Chris Wong

for that insight)

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