CULTURE > everything.

we live in a cultural moment obsessed with strategy. plans we make to achieve our long-term goals under conditions of uncertainty. guess what, there is no better strategy than a thoughtfully designed personal culture.

my political education was in hamiltonian politics. the realm of the rational political actor, first cousin to the reasonable person. what a comforting and elusive notion. game theory fell in love with me during my time as an undergraduate at NYU. eventually I returned it's affection. falling in love with it's elegant logic and subtle assumptions about the way we all behave. if you do x, we'll do y, and you'll do z. let's just all do z to begin. zzzzzzzzzzZZZ.

real life turns out to be quite a bit messier, huh? how quaint median voter theorem seems today. a tidy intellectual exercise, mismatched to a chaotic and primal world. what I'm learning is that these principles, built upon the premise that there exists a truly "rational actor," or "reasonable person," are BULLSHIT.

we are irrational and emotional, by design. we are good and bad. wise and foolish. sweet and sour. smart and dumb. but always, reliably unpredictable. so do away with your strategies. they'll frustrate you and have you lose hope in your fellow human-beings. all of whom are just as complicated and deep as you. can your being be summed up in a set of theorems or principles? neither can [ENTER NAME]'s.

what are we supposed to do, then? RELEASE control, and offer up HOPE. telegraph your culture to the world. how you wish the world behaved. how you intend to behave. the meaning you aspire to in this life. create a cultural sphere around yourself. the difference between culture and strategy, is that strategy is prescriptive and culture is aspirational. prescriptions rest upon certainty. aspirations rest upon hope and faith. I choose hope and faith.

term of the day: ikigai (Japanese). meaning "reason for being." the Wikipedia entry is great. click the link.

song of the day: Sunny Duet by noname. every word. so much here. this is what my soul sounds like today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qSVOFVLuMg

also, my schedule for today:

-Technical Development Partner Meetings

-Personal Network Meetings

-Investor Calls

-Writing Time

-Email Follow-Up

-Family Time/Movie Night