guide.notes 30 | visions of your digital world
dear wayfaring friends,
hello there. how is your new year unfolding?
I took a little long winter break, where I traveled, over-socialized with friends, and spent (an awkward length of) time with my family. now I'm back in my istanbul life, comfortably hermiting.
since sending my last artist digest, I've been thinking about the form of a digital letter. this season, I'll be playing around and experimenting. I'm always open to suggestions, so please don't write me back anytime, and let me know what you think.
~~~
🗺️ 6 guides: on digital world-building
for the past two weeks, I've been challenging myself to flow-write one idea a day - from start to hitting publish. I start by drawing the visual (which helps me distill down my ideas), then I write the text. so far, I went down the rabbit hole of my philosophy and thinking around digital world-building.
6 visions for your digital world — kening zhu
the functions of a digital world for nourishing your soul, creativity, community, and business life
why world building is wealth building — kening zhu
why world-building is the bridge between immaterial and material flow.
who is digital world-building best for? — kening zhu
how digital world-building is similar to art and business — and how to know if it’s the right practice for you.
digital world-building: a map of creative possibilities — kening zhu
an exploration of 6 types of things to create for your digital world.
content marketing vs world-building — kening zhu
how a difference in mindset changes everything
how to build a world: a cyclical guide — kening zhu
a 3 step process for growing your digital world
📝 notes: what's rolling around my mind
1 | conditionality blocks energy. I realized that I procrastinate from finishing projects because I say to myself, "I can't do X until Y happens."
(for example: I can't send a newsletter until I finish this project. I can't have [this thing I want] until [this other thing happens]). it gives me a seemingly good excuse to wait -- when really, maybe, it's a form of perfectionism / scarcity mindset, under a different disguise.
I give myself hoops to jump through before feeling "ready." It's another way of saying, "what if I'm not enough, yet?" but what if I am? what are your conditional beliefs? what would it be like if you let them go?
2 | clarity is power: it's okay and beautiful to be nebulous, but whenever I feel like something isn't working in my world and business, it's because I'm unclear about what I want. what is the deeper desire, intention, or goal behind this [project or creation]? what is the feeling I'm seeking? what are my real priorities?
3 | is this a problem with my name on it? or is it really not my job / problem / concern, and I'm just taking too much responsibility for it - because I can, because I want to fix things?
4 | don't obsess over "how," practice it. I'm a total process and systems obsessed nerd, but being in the mental space of "figuring out the how" is a great way of paralysis-procrastination, and wildly different than actually living / doing / being / practicing the how. when I feel stuck, I try to set a 25 minute timer and just do the damn thing.
5 | the oppressive linearity of to-do lists. I've rarely been able to follow a to-do list or time-blocked Google Calendar (for longer than half a day), because the static linearity of it really stressed me out.
recently I've been thinking: what if my day / week / projects list was more like a map? what if, looking at it made me feel excited and inspired and delighted, instead of overwhelmed, time-scarce, and gridlocked?
🎨 a paper thing I made: colorable to-do list
in response to note #5: I made this colorable to-do list. I drew icons, cut them, arranged them, glued them -- and it made me feel like a happy child. I see more zine-y paper-y stuff in my future. the sticky note is what I'm doing right now.
🌕 inspiration log
nerding out on: the matrix of destiny | this website is not originally in english so it reads a bit weird -- but the matrix of destiny is a numerology x tarot rabbit hole I've bookmarked for future obsession.
listening to: the paris review podcast | I only just discovered this and was really impressed with their poetic, immersive sense of sound and place, via this interview with olga tokarczuk.
listening to: the sweeney todd broadway soundtrack (2023) -- after discovering on this NPR fresh air podcast that josh groban (who I spent my awkward asian girl in suburban america teenage years listening to) played sweeney todd this past year, and I almost cried when I realized I missed it.
watched: murder on the orient express (2017) | a fun, light-hearted, whodunnit mystery (I'd rate it 7/10). since watching this, I was really curious about the genre of detective fiction, and inspired to read Agatha Christie and analyze her plot structures.
reading: sister outsider by audre lorde (1976) | bought this book in a eccentric london bookshop in 2020 and only read the most famous essays "the erotic as power" and "poetry is not a luxury," but I'm starting now from the beginning, and it feels both powerful, intimate, and nourishing.
a poem I'm savoring slowly
interview, by jordan kapono nakamura, found from poem a day.
💌 write me / ask me / tell me anything
one of my favorite digital signals is reading your notes from the guide.notes sign up form. hence, I'm resuming dear kening -- write me anything here, and I'll reply. or, just hit reply on this email.
❤️ until next week,
thank you for reading, creative friends. happy full moon, and I'm sending juicy winter mandarins, and tarot star energy (that was my pull for today).
~kening
🌱 PS. a glimpse of upcoming seeds:
I'm still planning to speak to you via my podcast -- botanical studies of internet magic -- urgently, like this month. hopefully before I fall into this cycle's PMS existential depression.
I'm inspired to start writing a weekly "tarot for work" diary, where I think deeply about the cards as they relate to being an artist/entrepreneur.
micro.gardens -- my yearlong creative community - is also coming! very soon, probably officially this spring. it's been incubating in me for a really long time.
🪷 this is guide.notes 30, a weekly letter on nourishing an embodied, rich creative life in psychic, digital, and material worlds.