The not so subtle art of giving a f*ck
Living in relation to what we really care about
Mark Manson’s, ‘The subtle are of not giving a f*ck’ was a huge success. Spoiler alert, the title is a little misleading. The underlying message is about finding what it is you really care about, then directing your attention and action to that. It’s not a foray into nihilistic thinking. Quite the opposite.
Given where we are today, something that can be briefly captured in many framings of the meta or polycrisis, I’m here to suggest we need to start giving a fuck. We need to embody relationality, love and an action oriented existential hopefulness. And we need to do so with less subtlety.
To ground this, I’ll refer you to some effin brilliant work from the folks at the Giffith University Centre for Systems Innovation.
This work is visually centred around a version of Three Horizons framework developed by Bill Sharpe and the International Futures Forum in 2016.
Through ‘five core rhythms’ referred to in the paper, I’d like to highlight ways I attempt to participate in the macro, meso and micro transitions / transformations we undoubtedly need to make as a species and civilisation. What all of this means to you will be very different to what it means to me. So, instead of trying to suggest what you / we ought to do, I’ll frame this personally (the TL;DR version), hoping it’s still interesting / useful.
Learning the territory
This is about attempting to understand the histories of ideas, origins, traditions and lessons learnt.
For most of my early life I thought I was going to be a sporting superstar. Recurring injury ended that. At 19, after years of chronic pain that left me barely able to walk, I flew back home from the U.S. and faced my first acknowledged existential crises. From this motivational backdrop I dove into impact entrepreneurship in my attempt to build a predictive analytics company targeting preventable injury in elite sport. The process of building this company, raising venture capital and dealing with the unhealthy relational dynamics between athletes, sporting teams and the incentives structures of that ‘system’ led me to fall in love with the process of wisdom seeking (little ‘p’ philosophy). This encouraged a deep autodidactic connection to theory and practice in my attempt to do more good with the time and affordances I had.
I’ve spent most days since then deep in the rabbit holes of wonderland, eroding my ignorance and developing a more useful and actionable understanding of where we’ve come from, where we are and where we seem to be going.
There are soooooo many people I am deeply grateful to / for. This hasn’t been a journey I’ve gone alone, but rather one of living and learning in relation.
Making visible existing seeds + saplings
This is about finding what is already planted, and nurturing these, creating conditions for these to flourish.
The core of my contribution - something that is, and has always been, in process - is my work on practical ethics and organisational trustworthiness. In doing this work I’ve attempted - and still attempt - to make visible the seeds and saplings that seem like they might well support more preferable futures. I try to make these salient so they’re harder to ignore (a big part of overcoming really shitty anxiety in relation to collapse scenarios has been a shift in focus away from all the doom and gloom towards the seeds and saplings). I try to show how they can help support purposeful transitions that actually work given biophysical realities. I spend a good chunk of my time, in ‘work’ and other parts of my life, right here.
Seeding collective imaginations towards transitions
This is about working with diverse peoples to create participatory processes in imagining HOW positive futures might be created.
This is the core of what we proposed to the Australian Government (something we practically defined as Collective Futurecrafting for the time being), but is also an absolutely MASSIVE part of how I contribute across all of my ‘contexts’. Earlier in my career this was a less nuanced activity on more of a micro - meso scale. Now it’s taken new and bigger forms (to the extent that I literally work on what you might think of as planetary security stuff. Not exclusively, but as part of a mycorrhizal strategy. I’ll explain that another time).
The way I’d perhaps describe this is that I seek to connect with and positively / purposefully relate to individuals and communities around the world that are working together to collectively imagine what a just and biophysically literate transition might look / feel like.
From this basis we experiment (see Rhythm 5) together.
Biodegrading incumbent systems
This is making space for the new by finding ways to biodegrade what is no longer fit for purpose.
I’m hands deep in worms every day in a very literal sense, but slightly less literally, biodegrading unhealthy systems, patterns, ideas etc. is one I struggle with. I just don’t really see much of the status quo / BAU on board with this. So it’s bloody hard to say the least.
Right now I’m seeking ways through which this can be done more healthily, more relationally and more actively. We know this needs to happen, but it’s clearly not happening fast enough.
Seeding possibilities + creating conditions for possible futures
This is about planting seeds now, and supporting the conditions for them to grow, so that there is realistic hope for generating forests of future possibilities.
This takes it’s form in what I do with clients. It is a huge part of what we’re doing at Tethix. And it pretty much forms my practical contribution on the daily.
A simple way to think about this is being something like a ‘philosopher maker’. I don’t call myself that, but it makes reasonable sense. I live in relation. I’m in love with the process of wisdom seeking. I seek to contribute to wise, tangible action that has some normative teleology (morally good purpose if you will). I don’t wanna just talk, I help build tools and infrastructure and practices. Stuff that can really, grounded in right story, bring about ‘good’ change.
But what does this mean practically?
Here’s some dot points from my life:
In my client work, I help organisations make more systems literate ethical decisions. Although the starting point differs by organisation, we are collectively working towards organisations, if this is indeed possible, that seek to net positively contribute to society overall. This means we massively broaden and deeper the circumference of care. The variables that explicitly feature in our ethical decision making differ from the narrow value orientation of most modern organisations today. We also make these processes far more diverse and inclusive through embedding ethics into everyday tools, workflows and rituals. We also engage in participatory ethics, helping us get out of the building and actively include the people that may be impacted by what we proposed in the process itself.
In my work with Tethix, we are literally seeking to create some type of movement that transforms the way we collectively imagine and then develop / use technology (noting we have practical starting points). This is big picture shit, but it’s soooooo needed.
In my work with Colabs and other collaborators, we’re attempting to accelerate the transition to something like a circular bioeconomy, a care economy, a wellbeing economy, a doughnut economy of whatever else you want to call some type of future where we live healthy and dignified lives within the constraints of the biosphere.
In my parenting I seek to support the bio-psycho-social development of my daughter as best I can. I try my best to create healthful conditions that help her learn about her relation to the rest of life, amplify the genuine love and excitement she has for all that she finds joy in, and really feel into who she is and who she might become. For everyone else that has raised children, you know how challenging, yet beautiful this process is. There’s nothing like the genuine joy of real quality time with your kids. My little one and I are practical jokers, and must honestly piss ourselves laughing at least 30 times a day. This is my clearest priority and the thing I spend by far the most time on.
In my community, I support all kinds of conversations (perhaps my most important community role in that I help folks lean into learning, be with the dissatisfaction, anger and dismay, and eventually come out the other side motivated to make things work), get my hands in the dirt by supporting guerrilla and everyday gardening efforts (rewilding / greening), help folks learn how to craft tasty and nutrient dense meals that are more local / plant based, share my library of books, chat to local business owners etc. This is me citizening. It’s an active, relational process.
In conclusion (for today), I give lots of fucks. All the fucks. This isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s hard as fuck. Sometimes it bloody hurts.
But, I’m convinced that the only way beyond the metacrisis is in and through. So I’m not hiding away. I’m here willing AF to participate. I want to learn. I want to connect. I want to listen. I want to get my hands dirty (literally).
I’m sharing this in the hope that you give plenty of fucks too.
With love as always.
Oh, and feel free to…
Your laptop is positioned almost as precariously in your office as the global civilizational systems overdue for biodegradation!