Recalibrating 🧭 ✨
Change is the only constant in life, making Recalibrating one of the greatest skills to learn 📚
As my first Paragraph post, I thought I’d give some context on who I am, why I’m here, and what I’m building in web3.
Hi! My name is Callum, AKA wanderloots
Welcome to Recalibrating 🧭✨
Who Am I?
I am an IP lawyer, patent agent, artist (photographer, animator, videographer) and I studied engineering in my undergrad.
In June 2023, I quit my IP job and began creating full-time. I was burnt out and knew that I needed to make a change in my life. I began this journey by starting a newsletter: Recalibrating.
The goal of my newsletter is to track my progress as I learn and grow each week, recalibrating my process along the way.
I believe that building in public allows for shared learning in public, which synergistically boosts us all ✨
Why Web3?
You may recognize the ASCII art from my Manifold Tutorials on YouTube.
Self-sovereign smart contracts are what brought me back to this ecosystem after a few years away.
I found that many people were confused about the benefit of sovereignty and a truly web3-based digital identity. As someone who has been looking into blockchain, digital identity, and sovereign IP for years, I wanted to create a resource that helped open the door for others.
A bit of history...
2018 was when I first truly dove into blockchain. I was researching solutions to fake news in law school, inspired by the Facebook & Cambridge Analytica debacle in the 2016 election.
My mind was opened to the possibility of a decentralized media network that enabled people to verify their identities online while creating permanent digital assets on-chain. I later learned that what I was researching had become known as NFTs.
Unfortunately, the world was not ready for this system.
In 2021, I heard about the concept of selling digital assets on blockchain. A lightbulb went off 💡 This was the same system I had been looking into years earlier!
I fell down the rabbit hole with punk6529's megathread and began talking to everyone I could about blockchain and NFTs.
Most of my friends didn't get it (they still don't) but I believe that the Farcaster protocol has the potential to open the door to everyone ✨
I dove into the art side of web3, made new friends in the web3 space, and ended up minting and selling my first NFT "Awe" to Synyster Gates 🤯. This piece is a breathing guide to reduce anxiety and improve mindfulness 😌
Awe | Foundation
Awe is the first piece in the Wanderloots Genesis Collection: Begin, Again. Awe is a unique emotion; one that immerses me so fully into the present moment tha...
What a wild and humbling experience ✨
Now, back to the present.
For the first time in years, I feel inspired by social media thanks to Farcaster, and I'm excited to share more of my writing and art as we learn in public by building in public.
Why Recalibrating?
For the last 34 weeks, I have published a long-form newsletter each week. The first 28 entries are based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which corresponds to the burnout recovery pyramid.
I figured that to move forward, it's best to look backwards to how humanity thrived as a species, towards self-actualization.
I have been researching each of the core needs of what it means to be human, moving my way up the hierarchy (physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, cognitive/aesthetic, self-actualization).
I wrote 4-5 entries for each core need, allowing myself to explore as deeply as I needed to truly understand how I could build a sustainable creation system for myself while educating others along the way.
I did not want to burnout again and I wanted to help as many people as I could to also avoid burnout/recover from it.
I began making YouTube videos that are a mix of mindfulness and emerging technology education that I hope will help others learn in public.
Paragraph & The Future
My Recalibrating Newsletter is currently on Substack & my website, where I will continue posting my long-form writing for the time being.
With the incredible invention of frames and the ability to read in-line, I wanted to create a medium-form content system that allowed me to connect with people on the Farcaster Protocol.
Paragraph feels like a perfect fit ✍
I will distill the core concepts from my long-form Recalibrating newsletter and share my thoughts here on Paragraph. I will also provide short tutorials and explanations on how to leverage emerging technologies to build your own sustainable system. I call this Worldbuilding 🌍
I hope that this will allow for a more streamlined reading experience for those that wish to stay within the app, while making it easy to find my long-form writing elsewhere.
I view Paragraph as the first portion of my web3 digital garden, connected to the social graph on Farcaster. I will continue planting seeds and cultivating them as I explore my interests in public, helping you learn along the way ✨
If you're interested in following along with my journey, please consider subscribing to my Paragraph 🧭✨
If you would like to dive deeper into Recalibrating, please check out the first entry here 👇
#1 What Recalibrating Means To Me - Wanderloots
Welcome to Recalibrating, a newsletter by Wanderloots. This is the first in the recalibrating series, providing context for the newsletter.
I look forward to connecting and learning more about your journeys 🫡
Thanks for reading ✨
Callum
P.S. I am still working on the tokenomics of my system, so stay tuned for how I plan to leverage minting on Paragraph 👀
Subscribe to Recalibrating🧭 to receive new posts directly to your inbox.
I had a pleasant surprising seeing that @andrewzav.eth wrote a "Recalibrating" Newsletter 🧭 ✨ I first published "What Recalibrating Means To me" in April 2023, almost exactly 2 years ago. It's amazing to me that someone can stumble across the concept of Recalibrating, something I've put so much time and energy into, and we can continue the conversation as if it were yesterday. Burnout is a sneaky sensation, one that I wish more people were aware of. It's this awareness that helps us define the sensation and its symptoms, which is the first step towards Recalibrating a lifestyle that moves us out of burnout. Thanks so much for reflecting so deeply on my newsletter & YouTube videos Andrew 😊 I'm looking forward to seeing how your journey progresses! PS, will include my Original Recalibrating article below, along with the corresponding @paragraph Update https://paragraph.xyz/@writerswithoutwalls.com/recalibrating?referrer=0x316822580ee3725209fD96b1208ef53b73825E56
Here is the original article: https://wanderloots.com/recalibrating-1/
I thoroughly recommend this. Even if you’re not experiencing it, burn out is something you need to know the look of.
Thanks! I completely agree. Awareness is underrated
Here's the updated version I wrote when shifting to @paragraph https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating?referrer=0x316822580ee3725209fD96b1208ef53b73825E56
Here's the youtube series "Recalibrating - My Philosophy" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWhMzDKA7vJ4SLS2e6KiPmu9mku81B__Y
And here's the @pods episode: https://pods.media/recalibrating/1-what-recalibrating-means-to-me?referrer=0x316822580ee3725209fD96b1208ef53b73825E56
this is one of the biggest questions we should be asking ourselves https://patrickcollison.com/questions
related
still waiting
I call it “Recalibrating” - increasing awareness of the self across time to build continuity and become comfortable with taking major steps as needed https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating
any case studies / anecdotes of people significantly upping their agency in their 20's? feel like i had a huge jump when i was 18 and a slow climb but just been.. doing life recently
i've see a few on twitter that are like "i just woke up one day and decided to" but that doesn't seem to work maybe need to re-read thsi
arguably not having had a job since 2022 and floating around, moving to france, doing projects, feels high agency but struggling to get to the next step of doing dope shit with dope people
just gotta do it. pick project. form team. grind each day. no different than what you’ve been doing tbh, just gotta accept that walls will be hit and that you have the capability to break through them
This book convinced me to very aggressively do my 20s so I wouldn't lose optionality in my 30s+ But I'm also not a chill person https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40603783-the-defining-decade?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=VBm75V92Wh&rank=1
I remember reading this at 19 and thinking it was dumb and I had everything figured out Then had a crisis about all the topics in the book at 22 But haven’t re read I’ll check this out!
https://paulgraham.com/greatwork.html maybe also relevant because I think it's too easy in your 20s to work really hard on stuff you dont care about and then burn out
i do believe that starting small on something you truly enjoy >>> dreaming big on something artificial i think it comes from starting to pursue what resonates most in life, sometimes a difficult thread to find cause we're all so distracted and told so many stories about what to do. but there's a path in between. then slowly pour your heart into this thread. intrinsic motivation should be palpable. then allow yourself to dream bigger and bigger its abstract and easier said than done. keep going
anecdotally ive met a lot of people who experienced dramatic shifts - an epiphany, moment of clarity, or transformation event in their mid/late 20s and never looked back. myself included. and it seems if it happens to you, there is some gravitational or attraction force toward others who've been through the same.
what triggered yours if you don't mind me asking?
nothing i can really share in this format. probably warrants deeper-form someday. what is really strange is that it seemingly came out of nowhere and yet was so utterly evident that ive never really questioned it.
doing life is important too. enjoy that shit. it all comes in waves, in my experience at least
agreed I think sometimes lack of agency seems into normal life stuff too, just get tired or stuck in routine Want to get a pet or fix stuff around the house but sometimes just gets pushed back
do ittttt i was a few beers in when i adopted my last dog lol. i prolly wouldn't have done it otherwise because there's always a reason not to. but it was the best decision i ever made.
start a startup, have kids, do things that could kill you. take more and bigger risks. its your birthright and the reason you were put on this earth
how do you think about taking the leap into a new risk (kids, startup)? is it just "do it scared"?
yes. think less. i wasted too much of my life in 'analysis paralysis'. kinda like dropping into a half pipe: you gotta just do it. too easy to think your way out of risk-taking example: i knew within 6 weeks i should've quite google (bad fit) but stayed for 6 years. i waited until i was in my late 30s to have kids and start a company. wish i would've done both 10 years earlier. advice to my younger self: do more, think less
Based 1000 $DEGEN
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Agree with this. I'd just stick a caveat on that having kids/getting married adds dependencies so risk tolerance might change after the fact. If you have no dependencies, go for gold.
Do things that could kill you, *then* have kids.
Hmm what about 30? I quit my job as an intellectual property lawyer & patent agent at 30 to be a creator/artist/educator I write, make YouTube videos, and am a photographer ✨ I started a newsletter called “Recalibrating” for this exact purpose: to help others find agency as I continue to change up my own life https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating
idk if it’s a case study but everything changed for me when I read the permissionless apprentice by @jack
For me, the major shift came from nearly dying, several times, in the span of about four years. First: fix your life Second: fix your spirit Third: fix your meaning Some people do all three from a singular profound moment, some people have to learn it the hard way like I did. Every second counts. Memento mori.
just tell him to not center life on memecoins damn
I'm excited to announce my first /zora mint: the cover art of my first @paragraph entry 🧭✨ Paragraph Paid = 100 @ 0.001 ETH Zora Free = Infinite & Free cont👇 https://zora.co/collect/base:0x6555aa67c659d9ea2242bfb324dcb70597951c5b/1 https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating?referrer=wanderloots.eth
This token is a breathing guide: each rotation = 1 inhale or 1 exhale, leading to 5 breaths per minute 😌 This rate is ~the ideal rate for /mindfulness & reducing anxiety ✨ Consider collecting the free token to support my overall Recalibrating journey, or the paid token if you resonate with the writing ✍️
I am excited to have my first Recalibrating post collected by theplugcrypto.eth 🧭✨ This is my first ever writing nft collected, and it’s incredibly motivating/inspiring 🎨😌 Excited to write more! Onchain words ftw ✍️✨ https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating?referrer=wanderloots.eth
I am excited to release the 1st episode of the Recalibrating Podcast 🧭✨ This episode complements my 1st paragraph entry "Welcome to Recalibrating"👇 The podcast and @paragraph are my first "recalibration" of Recalibrating, 36 weeks in ✨ https://wanderloots.substack.com/p/1-what-recalibrating-means-to-me-ee7
To complement my long-form newsletter (currently Substack, the latest one is replied 👇), I have started writing medium-form extracts on @paragraph Many topics I weave together each week are complicated; I hope this medium form helps ✨ https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating?referrer=wanderloots.eth
BUILDING SOCIAL FABRIC OF THE CREATOR ECONOMY 🟣 My understanding of the creator economy, February 2024 This entry is a mix with Worldbuilding 🌎 (practical recalibrating) fc is helping open my mind to new possibilities ✨, along with @paragraph and /fabric (@hypersub) https://wanderloots.com/recalibrating-36/
Thanks @samgad for sharing my first Drone NFT ✨ 🌊 MOMENTUM ⛰️ There are moments in our lives when we feel lost, uncertain of the direction we are going. It can feel as though we are in a free fall, unable to control where we are headed next... cont 👇 https://foundation.app/@_wanderloots/soar/1
... Sometimes, all it takes is a shift in perspective to realize that we are not falling aimlessly. We are instead building momentum so we can soar higher than before. Related to my first writing NFT on @paragraph 🧭 ✨ https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating
I quit my job as an IP lawyer & patent agent to explore the creator economy ✨ I am a photographer, animator, & videographer 📸 I make YouTube videos explaining /mindfulness & emerging technologies 🧠 I also have a newsletter called Recalibrating 🧭 ✨ https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating
Well, I think that’s up to the creator 👀 I think visual art is an incredible non verbal tool we use in /story that helps spread the message of the storyteller I like to mix the two personally 😊 eg 👇 https://paragraph.xyz/@wanderloots.eth/recalibrating
there's def a product in storytelling frames. make it instagram-easy to create a multi pic frame, boom.
i think the unique unlock is in the ability include onchain txns with buttons to link out to them. makes crypto native stories immediately truthful. would be able to recreate this say on instagram using screenshots, but UX would be less intuitive.