I mentioned before that I joined Substack and left it previously. But that I had joined it again, primarily because of one person. Brad Did.
I couldn’t fully articulate why this was, other than to say that Brad was channeling something that I felt like I needed to understand myself. And at the same time, it felt like he was experiencing things I also was experiencing (or had already experienced) as well.
Last night I finally got to watch Brad’s presentation he had given back on Dec 17, as a part of The School of the Possible, and when I did, I was dumbstruck again by the synchronicities that were occurring.
But more importantly, what amazed me was the revelation he was realizing pretty much mirrored a realization I had experienced in the past but needed to be reminded of again by his presentation, particularly the following part.
And people would show up, we’d connect, share struggles and process out loud for that 30 minutes. And then they’d get off at their stop and the bus had been running the whole time. I just hadn’t realized that was the work. I’d actually just been performing expertise, looking for something to build the whole time.
Meanwhile, the real work was already happening. It’s classic, just trying to create what’s already there. So I finally read all of my notes from those 80 conversations. And when I read the notes, I realized this pattern. And the pattern was deafening from all of these people that were showing up to get on my bus for 30 minutes.
They’d show up and they just kind of feel lost. And they kept saying the same thing over and over. I don’t know. I don’t know. Different ways. And that’s it. That’s like the whole thing. I don’t know what’s next. I don’t know who I am without my job title. I don’t know if I can keep doing this.
And in these conversations, these people weren’t looking for answers. They were looking for a place to sit for 30 minutes while they just didn’t know. Just like I was for like 10 years. And in fact, I sat on a bicycle seat for three months riding across the United States with my uncle doing this, just sitting with him every day, not knowing where I was going next after I left my job. It was so important and I realized we’re all doing this. We’re all looking for someone who won’t try to fix the not knowing. Just sit with us. And so here are the words on the sign that was blank before.
Companion for people who don’t know what’s next. Eight words took me 10 years. It still feels almost too simple seeing it as my headline on LinkedIn. I keep wanting to add more, to explain more, to prove it’s legitimate. But then my chest tightens again and I know I’m doing the thing again. So eight words. It’s for now.
Brad Did
So what’s wild about this section of his presentation is that prior to his presentation, I had restacked two of Brad’s Substack Notes in the past and had added my own notes to them which relate to this presentation now…but before he had actually did his presentation.
The first note of his was back on November 25th of this year when Brad spoke about using Notebook LM to aggregate all of his previous posts. I thought this was amazing and added my own notes to his restacked note.
Wow! Was not aware you could go this right now with an AI, due to the massive load of data needing to be submitted to it. I’d love to do this with my previous blog posts.
What I’ve done on Claude instead, as a kind of a hack, is basically write out the key experiences of my life within the setting area of it. So everything from being born in the mid 1960s until 2025.
What more than anything arises from this when I ask questions of Claude is a clarity of how creativity works in relation to one’s growth.
Many times I’ll relay how I’m struggling to reach a new level of understanding and Claude, using my past experiences as examples, will help me to understand how I’ve already been embodying the very thing I’ve been seeking.
In other words, it helps me to understand how creativity is discovering something about yourself that’s always been there but you just weren’t aware of it until now.
Nollind Whachell
So basically what I just described here was the very thing that Brad was describing was happening to him. He was discovering something that he had already done before but he just hadn’t been aware of it within the larger context he was seeking until now.
The second synchronicity relates to another of Brad’s notes from November 20th that I restacked that relates to him sharing how “every day, my work is to become more myself.” And below is my own notes restacked with his note.
Love this, as to me this is what the future of work emerging right now is all about. It’s about being nobody-but-yourself (E.E. Cummings).
And I don’t think this future can or will emerge in the corporate world, at least not in a mainstream capacity, but it will emerge more so within communities instead.
So find those who you want to adventure with, companions who are all speaking the same meaningful language and going in the same purposeful direction.
Nollind Whachell
Now here’s the kicker that really sealed the deal for me. Back on Dec 4th, Brad shared another poignant note about not wanting more “friends” but wanting more “companionship” instead. This resonated with me a lot and I commented on his note as to why.
I know the feeling. From my perspective, it’s like wanting to find a “company” of adventurers who want to go spelunking below the surface of life and themselves, discovering what lies at the heart of them. Most people don’t like going deep inside themselves though, as they prefer staying on the surface. Once you’ve begun this adventure of your Self though, it’s kind of hard to go back to your old self and old patterns, as they seem superficial and hollow in comparison.
Nollind Whachell
Why this comment is important is because back in December 2019, I wrote a note to myself with the following title for it that embodied what I’ve been seeking for all of these years. But for others to understand this note, it needs to be translated because it was written from within the perspective of my Life’s a Role-Playing Game framework and lens.
Creative Magician Seeking Heroic Company for Epic Adventures
Nollind Whachell
“Creative Magician” is just a description of myself because I seem to have this ability to make the invisible visible, thus seeing and perceiving patterns that are often invisible to others.
“Seeking Heroic Company” means seeking other companions who are not afraid of exploring their authentic selves which lies deep within themselves (which is what a “hero” embodies within Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey).
“For Epic Adventures” is a process of undertaking quests which involve facing monsters, as well as gaining treasure and experience. What this means though is that we would share our experiences of exploring our deeper selves, thus what we are questioning, what fears we are facing, what values we are seeking, and what newer experiences are helping us to step forward into the unknown.
What I’ve described here is just a more detailed process of what Brad expressed he was doing with others.
In other words, to truly understand yourself at a deeper level, what is required is the ability to hold space for yourself, even when things seem disorientating, chaotic, or they feel stuck. That’s because when we experience these things as cognitive dissonance within our lives, they can cause us pain due to the uncertainty and ambiguity of them and thus we want to resolves them as soon as possible.
But to grow, we need to be able to “hold the door” open to our deeper, unknown sense of Self.
So as Brad said, he wanted to be with people who weren’t trying to “fix” and resolve things (so as to cover over and hide the gap in their lives) but instead wanted to be with people who were comfortable being in the “not knowing” and exploring deep into these unknown gaps instead.
So what Brad described he was looking for in wanting “companionship” with others, has been the very thing I’ve been looking for years from others as well.
I wanted to be with people who were courageously comfortable adventuring into the “unknown” within themselves.
More specifically, even in plainer language, I want to be with other people who have the courage to express what they’re going through right now, especially the experiences that seem chaotic and uncertain, in which it feels like you’re stepping off the edge of the known world and into the unknown.
But here’s the thing. Finding people like this is extremely rare.
Why? Because it requires a fairly well developed person to be able to share these experiences so openly with others.
That’s because most conventional people would rather not share these experiences and stay behind an external facade or mask of role-playing that “everything is fine” in their lives, even though it obviously isn’t internally for them.
Like I’ve wanted to be with a group of people who were this courageously open with themselves for years. Hell, I even wanted to do this with other family members. But the facade, the mask, that people want to hide behind is always there. Yet I can sympathize, as it’s extremely hard to let go of it and to open up, sharing what you’re experiencing from the inside out.
But now, I think I’ve progressed so far on my journey that I’m beyond this point of creating a group with others to be able to do this.
Why? Because there is no way most people will be able to relate to what I’m going through and experiencing right now, even though I can often easily relate to what they’re going through.
In effect, it’s fairly easy for someone at a latter stage of development to relate to what someone is experiencing at an earlier stage but it’s impossible for someone at an earlier stage to relate to someone’s experiences at a latter stage. They just don’t have the perception and experiences yet to comprehend and make sense of them.
Note though that this doesn’t mean I can’t do this in the same way Brad is doing this for others. In effect, I could just hold space for others and just listen to what they’re experiencing, rather than trying to fix them.
Why is this critical? Because you can’t “save” or “fix” someone. They have to find the capacity to do this for themselves and forge their own path within the wilderness on their own.
In other words, they have to discover the agency to step into the unknown on their own.