To Be Okay with Not Knowing...

Right now, nobody can seem to agree on anything. Is MAGA falling apart? Does it matter? Will the new wave of politicians accomplish real change? Will the current regime back down or double down? What are they planning? Are they prepared to bypass our democracy completely and rule by power alone? Will AI superintelligence make all this irrelevant, or is that just doomsday hype?

I don’t know…

For the second or third time in my life, I’m okay with not knowing. I’m staying informed, but I’m not trying to predict anything. I’m not trying to be “right” anymore. If there’s one thing this decade has taught us, you get no points for being right. You earn zero social credit for predicting anything.

John Keats coined the phrase “negative capability” to describe this feeling. It means to embrace mystery, doubt, and uncertainty, even tragedy, without feeling a need to explain anything or answer any questions. Buddhists offer suí yuán, a state of being where you release the need to force outcomes. Germans offer the word gelassenheit, releasing the need to control any given situation.

I’m feeling them all.

You?

So, we continue to live. We organize. We advocate. We pursue our causes. We take care of the ones we love. We suspend our hopes and anticipations. That’s drawing on Stoicism as well as Daoism—we’ve discussed both here.

They’re survival mechanisms.

Both philosophies emerged during times of intense social and political chaos. And while the startup bros have really snapped onto a particular brand of Stoicism, the real thing is what societies have practiced for thousands of years to get them through some of the worst periods in human history.

It’s ironic, in a way. The original version of this newsletter was born through the idea of Cassandra, a prophet cursed to hear the future.

But you know what?

I don’t hear the future anymore. I mean, I don’t hear the future. There’s no such thing as the future anymore. There’s at least five futures, and we have to prepare for all of them the best we can. That’s the hard part.

On that note…

The illustrated survival guide has crossed 300 pages, a major milestone. It’s still not quite done. I’ve got a few more sections to add. I’m going to add more illustrations to really make it something special. But it’s worth stopping for a moment to recognize that exactly 12 months ago, we were at zero pages. In just under a year, we’ve gone from 0 to 300+ pages, and many of you helped.

So, check out the latest version.

Even better news:

You can still sign up to get a print copy, plus everything else in the original Kickstarter. I’ve launched a second campaign here.

What happened?

When we transitioned into Kickstarter’s pledge manager, it shut down the public campaign front. That was an accident. I didn’t know that was going to happen. Some people said they were sad about missing their chance to get this edition. Well, you don’t have to be sad anymore!

To be clear:

If you already backed the guide on Kickstarter, you don’t need to do anything new right now. Just keep an eye out for an email to make sure we have your address to send the guide, etc. You’re all good there.

Meanwhile:

The Brushfire Bag campaign is going well. The soft goods specialist we’re working with is FORMSTUDY, and they are goooood. They looked at our proposal and decided to skip our bag ahead to phase 03. We’re most likely bypassing phases 01 and 02, because the specs we sent them were that detailed. In other words, my little team and I already did $7,000 of work—in one week.

Here’s the details:

We have enough funds to jumpstart phase three, but we’re going to need more support to get all the way to a physical sample. We’re looking at roughly $16,000 total. So, I’m hoping this info lends some gravity to the description. We’re not just talking about it, like that friend of yours who’s been writing a book for ten years. Once we have an actual physical bag, we can launch a true campaign and offer the bag itself as a reward. So if you want the bag to happen, please get on here and back.

This kind of work, whether it’s illustrating a survival guide, designing a survival bag, or doing organizing for local causes, or running a food pantry, or just taking care of someone and raising a family, is the kind of work that keeps us grounded and moving forward no matter what.

If you just want the guide, go here.

As for the rest of the world, everything has changed.

And nothing has changed.

That’s how it goes.