Skip to content

What have I been up to? And what I'm thinking about

David Sherry
4 min read

Hey everyone. In this letter, I wanted to share a bit about what I’ve been up to, what I’ve been thinking about etc.

What have I been up to?

  • Travel + Workshops
    I have traveled more this year than any year prior. This travel continues as I head to Nicaragua on December 1st for a retreat with about 15 other entrepreneurs and creators. I’ll be hosting a workshop on how to communicate your value as a service provider and connect with clients. This is a continuation of a program and book I’m creating with a mentor, James, on selling unique your value and connecting with great clients.
  • In Person Retreats
    A theme at the moment is in-person time over digital. Next year I’m shifting from purely online work with clients to adding in-person time. I aim to spend 1-3 days with clients outside of our typical schedule, possibly once per quarter. I may fly to clients in Europe and New York, or possibly have them fly to me.
  • Moving to Austin
    I’m moving from Santa Monica (where I’ve spent the last 7 years) to Austin in the year ahead as well. I’m picky about where I move, and I’m getting extremely sensitive about my environment. LA has been amazing, especially for the beach and the beauty of all of California.

My intention for Austin is more in-person community. I hosted an event there a few months back with Paul Millerd and loved the vibe of everyone. I will look for a home where I can host people.

What’s on my mind?

“When do you feel most proud of yourself?”

Our life experiences train our nervous system and attune it to what we love and enjoy most. Sometimes it can be difficult to have clarity about the question “What do you want?” Much easier, is being present to your current likes and dislikes, what feels good for you.

There is almost no stronger feeling than the moments you feel most proud of yourself, especially when you are alone and there is nobody else around.

I’ve had a few such cases with clients where what was said, shared, or offered to me felt more gratifying than most other types of external rewards. The feeling wasn’t elation, but personal pride in knowing the journey that I took to get here and a connection to the wonder and excitement of my younger self discovering that what I am experiencing is not only possible, but the reality of my own life.

Social Media is entering its “Machine Era.”

If you’ve been feeling less than enthusiastic about social media lately (I have) it might because we’re leaving the era where social media was a place for connection. It’s now about performance and controversy.

I tend to leave social media platforms early. I quit Facebook in 2012. Twitter is giving me that similar feeling now. Whereas Facebook I was leaving connections behind, Twitter I will be leaving the learning behind. It has been incredibly educational for me. I now feel like the trade-off of the negative experience I have when I scroll is outweighing the learning. Not to mention the learning is no longer as organic, it’s more performative.

I may still post, and I may still occasionally scroll an extremely select List or two, however, I find it difficult to not get sucked in.

While I admire what Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk create, I don’t admire them. That is, I don’t want to be them. The algorithms they control start with a point of view about the world, and a business incentive that doesn’t align with my more human experience preferences.

This isn’t being judgmental, rather it’s knowing which games I prefer to play.

As they say, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

Each of us gets to define for ourselves which games we find worthwhile.

My Love and Fascination for Bitcoin/Crypto continues

In the “Machine Era” of the Internet AI’s surf the web for us so that we don’t have to get caught in the social media controversy web. Speaking with machines that are attuned to ourselves, we will have conversations that don’t allow for so many other external inputs of people we’ve never met saying things they wouldn’t say to us in person.

We will pay these machines in machine-currency – which is crypto.

Since 2017 my fascination with Bitcoin and crypto has kept purity despite the bad actors and scams in the space. I continue to buy these assets because I think they are fundamentally novel and useful. While the people around the technologies have been corrupted, the technologies themselves are transparent and useful public goods that will continue to reshape our world.

I believe there will be more impact from crypto over the next few years despite any waning hype. These technologies will normalize. Millions and billions of NFT’s will be used. “Wallets” will be commonplace (*hint, PayPal is already starting to call there accounts ‘wallets’).

Maybe most importantly for those experiencing challenging political environments, war, inflation and cross-border migration, all of which are happening TODAY, can face those challenges with an improved set of tools that allows for less of every day life to be disrupted by things they can’t control.

Digital Sovereignty is about actually owning your own property in the digital world. As I leave Twitter, I can’t migrate my name anywhere else, my audience anywhere else, I can’t even save my tweets if they were ever to be deleted.

If property rights were good for our physical existence, for example, your right to own a home or a car or a baseball card, digital property rights will be equally impactful and important.

Circadian Biology

The most thought provoking podcast I’ve listened to in the last 2-3 years was Rick Rubin hosting Jack Kruse.

Imagine the sun as a giant clock in the sky which our bodies are synchronized to through light and dark, heat and cold.

When we’re synced up to that clock (waking with the sun, winding down with the sunset) and our bodies cool to the temperature of the night, our bodies biology is able to function properly.

Due to blue light in the evenings, time inside, sleeping in past the sun, we are all out of whack from our natural biological rhythms. Jack poses that this in-door, blue-light lifestyle fundamentally sets us up for disease and poses that light is the cornerstone of good health.

I’m making it point to get outside in the mornings and using red lights inside int he evening. I’ll also be picking up some Ra Red Light Glasses for their sale on Black Friday.

————

I enjoy writing and publishing and want to rediscover what the right cadence is for that. I'm also looking at Beehiv as a newsletter option to make it easier.

As always, have an amazing week,

xx David

Links:

David Sherry