The ever-expanding focused life

Hello friends new and old —

It’s been a minute since we last talked, so I felt like saying hi. Everything mostly okay with you, I hope? Here’s what’s been going on with me:

An expanding, focused life — In many ways my life has never been simpler. I spend most of it with my wife and son in our family bubble. I work obsessively and joyfully on a handful of projects that call me. I talk to and support friends and collaborators around the world and vice versa. If I were to write out my days in terms of where I physically go, they would look monotonous. But when I live them, they are deep, expansive, and constantly connecting me more deeply with myself and others. A different version of less is more.

The power of the scroll — A few years ago I adopted a new way of working I learned from my friend and partner Rob Kalin: using a giant roll of butcher paper as your working material when you start a new project. The butcher paper then becomes a scroll that you slowly unravel and fill as the project progresses. The benefits are twofold: 1) it creates a chronological record of the project, and 2) writing and sketching in such a way is liberating and constantly generates new insights.

When I started working on Metalabel more than three years ago, I adopted Rob’s technique and started a scroll. The very first panel shows my initial thoughts about the project. In the years since I’ve used it to sketch out many ideas and make many realizations about where the project should go. I regularly put “scroll time” on my calendar — set periods where I sit at the big block of paper with no clear intention, and always something unexpected happens.

Two weeks ago the scroll I began when starting Metalabel was finally filled and completed. Three-plus years of thinking captured in one 60 feet by 3 feet unbroken piece of paper. It feels amazing to look back over all that’s gone into it. I celebrated by putting a little inscription at the end documenting where all the scroll was made: 

We captured and documented the entire contents in one long video that I’ll share once some as-yet-to-be-announced projects come out. And yes, Metalabel scroll #002 has already begun.

For more on scrolling, the publication Every interviewed me about my working style recently, where I discussed the scrolling process.

New Creative Era podcast — Last month the artist and my friend Josh Citarella and I started a new podcast. It’s called New Creative Era, and it explores how we as creative people release and approach our work. Each thirty-minute weekly episode is devoted to a single theme. So far we’ve covered context-setting (01), finding your hook (02), collaboration (03), and platforms (04). Worth a listen!

I’ve been on some other great podcasts recently, too, including with music producer Jon Tanners, the University of Colorado Boulder Media Economies Design Lab, and Mixcloud founder Nico Perez.

Interviews in Dazed on the future of art and what’s after social — Two excellent deep dives in Dazed recently featured my words and ideas. There was this piece about what’s after social media, which includes an in-depth exploration of the Dark Forest and post-individualism. Then this week Dazed published a piece about how we create a better art world, which includes an interview with myself and Mat Dryhurst pointing to reasons for encouragement among the doom.

Great music — This album by Time Wharp is a perfect accompaniment to any moment. I still listen to the Cindy Lee album nonstop, as well as this playlist I made of Kurt Vile jams that stick in 3rd gear and groove it out endlessly. The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Their Satanic Majesties’s Second Request is perfect.

Economics of self-publishing a book — I wrote a detailed piece unpacking all the costs and economics of making the Dark Forest book. A useful guide for how to make a profit (and how not to) when it comes to independent small-press publishing. Related: Metalabel made a guide on where and how to print your book. 

Metalabel — My focus continues to be Metalabel, which is finding its stride. Releases and activity are growing, with increased interest and energy from all directions. Within the squad, we’re a dozen aligned, creative individuals bringing their talents together to make something bigger than any of us on our own, continuing to mirror the exact structure we exist to establish. There’s a deeper synchronicity to this project I continue to trust. The hardest parts are how to make it simple enough to understand. Still loving every second of it.

Speaking at TED — Last but not least on the life front, I’ve been invited to speak at TED in Vancouver. In just three weeks I’ll be standing on that stage for the first time, sharing a new idea. 

The experience of being invited was more emotional than I expected. When TED’s amazing curator Helen Walters gave me the news, I broke down in tears, overwhelmed in the moment.

For years I’d desperately wanted something like speaking at TED. A lot of it (being really honest) as a way to satisfy my ego. I wished to be recognized. It seemed like the ultimate way to do it. Yet all those years the invite never came. 

Now I find myself with a much quieter ego and an idea much larger than me. A project truly in service to others. This is when the universe presents this opportunity. 

I cried in that moment (and in several moments since), because whatever trials I’ve gone through, whatever doubts I have about myself, the universe was showing me confidence and grace. It was telling me I was ready. The realization literally brought me to my knees.

I’m saying all this and the event hasn’t even happened yet. What an emotional wreck this whole process is going to make me. I’ll report back with a full recap in my next message.

Peace and love,
Yancey