Justin Smith

The stories are downstream of the cortisol

@TVachaW So nice, thank you

There’s no such thing as negative emotions. Seemingly negative emotions are just beautiful energies that have lost their way. We can transform apparently negative emotions back into beautiful energies simply by welcoming them fully back into consciousness. Unconsciousness is like darkness for emotions. They cannot see where they’re going. Consciousness is the light of the emotional world. When an emotion comes into full consciousness, it can once again see where it’s going. When it can see where it’s going, it transforms effortlessly into its beautiful form on its own. All we need to do is give it light and space. In many ways, emotions are like plants. If we leave them in the dark, they will shrivel up and die. If we give them light, they will flourish and bloom into beautiful flowers. The art of creating a beautiful mind does not lie in painting over ugly emotions with beautiful ones. It lies in creating the conditions for everything that superficially appears ugly to unravel into its full beauty.

"The lesson will be repeated until it is learned"

“The end is to begin”

The trigger is the gift

Sometimes, the detour is the shortcut

@patriciamou_ lovely piece, thank you for sharing

40(ish) pieces of "advice" from 2025 ✍️ a constellation of insights, provocations, and downloads

Working on repatterning my subconsciously “embodied fundamentalism”

"Culture is downstream of technology"

“Policies are downstream of memes”

Quasi-nationalization in ramping up in the US quickly… would not be shocked to see the US government find a way to “invest” in all of the major companies in the domestic (and to the extent it can global) AI supply chain.

In the long run, there are two types of solutions: open source, and de-facto nationalized.

Maybe the institutions are collapsing because they just have real weaknesses.

Everything we think we know and all the stories we believe about the past have been filtered through an exceptionally small number of people/sources… we have such minuscule visibility into it all.

It’s never been easier to rewrite history

If history is written by the victors, how do you ever get an accurate view of history?

“Alcohol is the McDonald’s of mind-altering substances.”

Saying pirates but pronouncing it like pilates

The priests need the kings and the kings need the priests

“If you stay at the beginning, it doesn’t have to end.”

More often than not, the call is coming from inside the house

Is it OCD or is it caring? :)

@TimmerFidelity Any "exercise in de-labeling" is interesting to me

Every year around this time, freshly back from Burning Man and somewhat decompressed, I sit down at my computer to write my post-burn WAAR and I think “where do I start?” In summary, it was a great burn this year, the smoothest one in some time. Yes, there was weather, including a 3-hour dust storm producing whiteout conditions, not to mention more rain. The dust storm was so severe that it threatened to blow away our camp’s shade structure that we had just finished setting up. Fortunately, our setup team did a great job securing the camp with lag bolts and rachet straps, but many other camps didn’t fare as well. Weather aside, our camp “Feed the Artists” (FtA) delivered on its mission of providing nourishment to the artists and community who bring burning man to life. Burning Man is an annual ritual of temporary community in the Nevada desert, 110 miles from the nearest city (Reno). It has evolved over the years and these days is comprised of counter-culturists, Silicon Valley tech folks, artists, musicians, festival goers, and regular “left brain” folks like me who make the pilgrimage in search of grounding, immediacy, and community. It’s supposed to be fun, but it’s not always easy, nor is it intended to be. It’s in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, plagued by 100 degree heat, dust storms, and in recent years increasingly rain. I think of Burning Man as an exercise in de-labeling. Labeling everything and everyone is so prevalent in what we burners call the default world, and while it is often necessary for us to function, it can also detract us from experiencing immediacy in both people and things. In some ways, the playa with all its eclectic quirks brings us back to a more primal and non-linear experience. It centers us, and if we do it right, we carry the Burning Man principles back to the default world, allowing us to operate inside the overlapping center of life’s Venn diagram. For me at least, my annual ritual of resilience provides the reboot that helps me become the most authentic person I can be. Yes, it’s loud and hot, systems break down, there can be drama, and the process of cat-herding 90 totally different people within Feed the Artists is exhausting. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming… linkedin.com/posts/jurrien-…

I enjoy connecting with people who have gone through at least one existential crisis as an adult.