What's next and the secret of Trunyan village.
Last time I wrote, I was in need of some time off to rethink where I was going with this newsletter. Taking time without fixed length or constraints was something I much needed after a whole year of regular writing. I learned that:
Writing each week is not for me.
I want to move beyond agility.
Let me explain.
“Hard work trumps luck”
I started this newsletter on Nov 3rd, 2022. At that time, I was already writing for 15 days streight every day. I got to 30 days in a row (missing only two days) and then switched to doing it once a week (with few exceptions) for a year. That streak ended on Nov 21st, 2023. I never thought I could make this happen.
That said, I don’t want to fight algorithms or push myself to create something just for the sake of consistency. I noticed this decreases quality of my work. Some of you emphasised that quality of writing is what you value in this space. I want to uphold and further evolve that. Henrik Karlsson described well some of my feelings in that regard.
I don’t know what the new cadence will look like. I want to hit the sweet spot of feeling confident vs. good enough before hitting “send”. I’m also thinking about writing shorter pieces that will help the free-flow of ideas in my head.
There is no such thing as the unknown
I’m not sure as well on what exactly it will mean moving beyond agility. I surely don’t want to throw out my experience out the door. You can expect some case studies, discoveries, maybe some techniques yet without overly focusing on keeping it within the confines of agility. I will know where this goes through experimentation, noticing what draws my attention and what gives me pleasure. It is not an easy route, yet I believe it will be rewarding for myself and you dear reader. As some say:
“There is no such thing as the unknown, only things temporarily hidden.” - James T. Kirk
The secret of the people of Trunyan
I visited the remote village of Trunyan in Indonesia in 2022. This place is said to be the birthplace of Balinese culture. It existed long before hinduism came to the island. One of the most renown rituals is the burial. You can read more on it in my short reportage. Long story short, the bodies are left on a special cementary and never visited again. The people believe that once a person dies they are immediately reincarnated into another being. In that scenario, the body is just a vessel that has reached its point of expiration.
Using this as a metaphor, I leave the initial idea of this newsletter and trust the energy to pass to something new and fresh. Yet, instead of thinking and working on it for weeks or months on end, I want to do it one post at a time. Iteratively. Same as with reincarnation, I do not know what is the new place that awaits me. What I know is that I already started the journey towards it.