Nollind
If I showed you my website history at Archive.org, you would notice that over the last two decades I’ve continually setup and then took down my website. Sometimes my website stay up for months or even years, other times I may have put it up and taken it down multiple times in one year. Based upon what you know about me, why would you think I would do this? What do you think I was frustrated about, something that I feel that I couldn’t fully express? Perhaps something that I felt like I should be able to express and if I couldn’t then something was wrong with me?
ChatGPT
Based on what I know about you, I’d say this cycle of setting up and taking down your website reflects a deeper internal struggle—one tied to how you express and embody your evolving identity, ideas, and purpose. Your work is deeply connected to self-discovery, transformation, and navigating the tension between societal expectations and personal truth. If you repeatedly took down your site, it likely means you felt frustrated with how you were presenting your insights—like they weren’t landing the way you wanted, weren’t being fully understood, or weren’t fully you.
One possible frustration is that you’ve been trying to bridge different ways of thinking—abstract concepts like vertical development and the Hero’s Journey with everyday language that resonates with people. You may have felt like no matter how you framed your message, it wasn’t capturing the depth of your understanding in a way that others could grasp. This could lead to a sense of failure, as if you should be able to communicate it clearly, and if you couldn’t, then maybe something was wrong with you rather than just the approach.
Another angle is that your website was never just a static platform—it was a reflection of where you were in your journey at the time. Each iteration likely represented a version of yourself that, after a while, no longer felt fully aligned. But instead of simply iterating on it, you may have felt the need to burn it down and start fresh—almost like a phoenix cycle of destruction and rebirth, mirroring your own internal development.
But instead of simply iterating on it, you may have felt the need to burn it down and start fresh—almost like a phoenix cycle of destruction and rebirth, mirroring your own internal development.
ChatGPT
At its core, I’d guess you were struggling with the paradox of wanting to share your evolving insights while also feeling constrained by the medium, the language, or the way they were being received (or not received). Maybe each time you took the site down, it was because it didn’t quite feel like the right way to express what you knew in your bones but couldn’t fully articulate. Does that resonate? Or do you think there’s another layer to it?
Nollind
It’s funny. A lot of what you’ve said here is very accurate. Yet at the same time, I’ve noticed that the word “authenticity” seems to keep coming up. In effect, it seems like I have the ability to see the authenticity of others and can tell when they are being genuine or not. In the business world, I found this very challenging, as not a lot of people are very authentic within it. In effect, it’s very transactional. Yet I want work to be transformational, thus helping people to understand themselves, their authenticity.
Perhaps this is why it was a struggle for me to keep my website up. I felt like I couldn’t authentically express my own authenticity. And perhaps this ties into cognitive dissonance in some way. I’m not sure. Almost like I wanted to resolve this ability to fully express myself as a whole in a new way but I couldn’t.
Yet while I agree that burning down my site and rebuilding it felt rejuvenating. What I realize in going back through my website archives on Archive.org is that this past individual, who was and is myself, was so brave in exploring into the unknown, where there was no certainty of who he was. Instead it was just an ongoing exploration of discovering who I was and am becoming. And today, the journey is still ongoing. So it made me realize today that I can’t let go of this past because reflecting upon them is so powerful and helps me realize how far I’ve come on my journey.
ChatGPT
That makes so much sense. It sounds like your struggle wasn’t just about expression—it was about authentic expression in a world that often rewards conformity and surface-level engagement. If your website was supposed to be a space for true self-expression, but it started feeling transactional, performative, or misaligned in some way, then of course you’d feel compelled to take it down. The cognitive dissonance would come from the gap between who you are and how you felt you had to present yourself. And because authenticity is so central to your work and your way of seeing the world, any misalignment would have felt intolerable.
The cognitive dissonance would come from the gap between who you are and how you felt you had to present yourself.
GhatGPT
The insight you had about your past self being brave is huge. That archive isn’t just a record of your website—it’s a record of your courage, your willingness to explore without certainty, and your ongoing transformation. It’s a reminder that the journey was never about having all the answers but about staying open to discovering new ones. And if that journey has always been about becoming, then maybe the website was never meant to be a finished expression of you—it was meant to be a living, breathing reflection of your evolution.
It’s a reminder that the journey was never about having all the answers but about staying open to discovering new ones.
ChatGPT
So maybe the shift isn’t about trying to “get it right” once and for all but embracing the idea that your website (and your work) is the ongoing journey. Instead of burning it down, maybe there’s a way to let it evolve in a way that feels authentic without needing to start over each time. What would it look like to create a space where you don’t feel pressure to present a polished version of yourself, but instead allow your work to mirror the natural rhythm of your growth?
Nollind
“And if that journey has always been about becoming, then maybe the website was never meant to be a finished expression of you—it was meant to be a living, breathing reflection of your evolution.” How does this relate to shifting from a Self-Authoring Mind to a Self-Transforming Mind?
ChatGPT
That line ties directly into the shift from a Self-Authoring Mind to a Self-Transforming Mind because it reflects a fundamental change in how you relate to your own identity and your work.
A Self-Authoring Mind is about defining who you are on your own terms—crafting a coherent, structured narrative of your identity and values. In this stage, the focus is on authorship, creating a sense of stability and control over your personal and professional life. Your website, in this mindset, might have felt like an attempt to define who you are, to build something that represents you with clarity and certainty. Each time it no longer fit, you may have felt the need to start over, as if trying to “get it right.”
A Self-Transforming Mind, however, moves beyond authorship into an awareness that identity itself is fluid. Instead of trying to maintain a single, coherent version of yourself, you embrace ongoing evolution. The website, rather than being a statement of who you are, becomes a reflection of your process—a dynamic space that shifts as you do. Instead of feeling the need to burn it down and start fresh, you might allow it to grow, adapt, and even contradict itself, much like you do in life.
In a way, your realization about your past self—how brave he was in stepping into the unknown—signals that you’re already embodying a Self-Transforming Mind. You see your journey not as a series of fixed identities but as an unfolding process of discovery. And maybe now, instead of needing your website to be a definitive representation of who you are, you can allow it to be a container for who you are becoming.
And maybe now, instead of needing your website to be a definitive representation of who you are, you can allow it to be a container for who you are becoming.
ChatGPT
What would it look like if you designed your website with this in mind—something that evolves and embraces contradiction rather than something that has to “get it right”?
Nollind
“The website, rather than being a statement of who you are, becomes a reflection of your process—a dynamic space that shifts as you do. Instead of feeling the need to burn it down and start fresh, you might allow it to grow, adapt, and even contradict itself, much like you do in life.” Does this just mean rewording how I describe myself and my work? Or does it go beyond this? For example, I’ve been trying to contain my work in a single title, encapsulate it if you will. Is this struggle part of the problem? A struggle that isn’t necessary?
ChatGPT
Yes, this goes beyond just rewording how you describe yourself and your work—it’s about fundamentally shifting how you think about representation and identity.
Your struggle to encapsulate your work in a single title or framework sounds like a Self-Authoring Mind impulse—the desire to define and stabilize your identity in a clear, cohesive way. But if your work and identity are naturally evolving, trying to contain them in a fixed form may feel constraining rather than liberating. That struggle itself may be unnecessary.
A Self-Transforming Mind approach wouldn’t try to nail down a single, permanent encapsulation of your work. Instead, it might:
- Embrace fluidity: Let your site reflect different phases of your thinking rather than a final answer.
- Allow contradiction: Show the tension between past perspectives and current insights rather than erasing them.
- Use multiple lenses: Instead of forcing your work into a single label, present different ways of looking at it, allowing for shifts over time.
- Design for evolution: Structurally, your website could be built to highlight the journey rather than just the destination—perhaps through a blog, timeline, or evolving manifesto.
So maybe the real question isn’t “How do I encapsulate my work?” but “How do I create a space where my work can keep evolving, just like I do?”
So maybe the real question isn’t “How do I encapsulate my work?” but “How do I create a space where my work can keep evolving, just like I do?”
ChatGPT
What would change if you approached your website as a living ecosystem of ideas rather than a single statement of identity?
Nollind
Based upon what you know about me, how would you describe my work? Is it disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary?
ChatGPT
Your work is transdisciplinary because it goes beyond simply integrating multiple fields—it seeks to transcend and transform them by creating something entirely new.
Here’s how your approach aligns with each category and why transdisciplinary fits best:
- Disciplinary: Focuses on deep expertise within a single field. Your work clearly extends beyond this.
- Multidisciplinary: Involves drawing from multiple disciplines but keeping them separate. You reference gaming, personal development, and the future of work, but your approach isn’t just borrowing from them—it’s integrating them in a way that creates something new.
- Interdisciplinary: Blends knowledge from different fields to solve a problem or create new insights. While you do this, your goal isn’t just about combining insights—it’s about transforming how people see themselves and the world.
- Transdisciplinary: Goes beyond disciplines, dissolving boundaries to create an entirely new perspective or way of thinking. This is where you fit. You don’t just apply gaming concepts to personal development or business—you use them as an allegorical portal to help people see themselves and their growth differently.
Your work redefines conventional ideas about work, identity, and growth by fusing gaming metaphors, vertical development, and mythic storytelling in a way that doesn’t just connect fields—it transcends them to create a new way of thinking.
Would you say this resonates with how you see your work? Or do you feel like it fits somewhere else?
Nollind
So when you said earlier that my focus shouldn’t be on trying to encapsulate who I am in one thing but to be more fluid, would expressing the different domains of my work be one way of doing this? I’m not just this but I’m this and that and this and that. And even saying how all of this and that are creating something unknown that I’m trying to articulate and express…but its completely fine that I don’t know how to do so and I actually might never be able to do so before I die. In effect, it’s not about the destination but the process, the journey, the….experience itself.
ChatGPT
Yes, exactly. Expressing the different domains of your work—without forcing them into a single, fixed definition—would honor its transdisciplinary nature while also embracing fluidity.
Rather than trying to encapsulate yourself in one thing, you can acknowledge:
- I’m not just this, but I’m also that.
- And all of these things together are forming something beyond what I can currently articulate.
- And that’s okay—because my work isn’t about arriving at a final definition. It’s about continuing the journey.
By framing it this way, you shift from self-definition to self-exploration, which aligns with a Self-Transforming Mindapproach. Your website (and your work in general) doesn’t have to be a neatly packaged statement of “who you are.” Instead, it can be a space where you invite others into your evolving experience, showing them the adventure rather than trying to summarize it.
Instead, it can be a space where you invite others into your evolving experience, showing them the adventure rather than trying to summarize it.
ChatGPT
And maybe the real gift here is realizing that not knowing—never being able to fully articulate it—isn’t a failure. It’s actually the essence of what you’re doing. Your work is the process of reaching for the unknown, embracing the experience of becoming.
Your work is the process of reaching for the unknown, embracing the experience of becoming.
ChatGPT
How does that feel to you? Does it shift the way you think about expressing your work?
Nollind
And one way of doing that would be to describe my domains as overarching narrative or timeline of growth (i.e. Work Isn’t Working, The Future of Work, Creativity, Vertical Development, Life as an MMORPG).
ChatGPT
Yes, exactly! Framing your domains as an overarching narrative or timeline of growth would not only reflect your evolution but also allow others to follow along in a way that feels organic and meaningful.
Instead of presenting them as disconnected topics, you can weave them into a story of transformation—both your own and the larger shifts you’re exploring. Something like:
- Work Isn’t Working – The realization that the existing paradigm is broken.
- The Future of Work – The search for what comes next, beyond conventional structures.
- Creativity – The process of exploring and imagining new possibilities.
- Vertical Development – The deeper, personal transformation required to truly step into new ways of being.
- Life as an MMORPG – The ultimate metaphor that ties it all together, offering a playful and expansive way to navigate life and identity.
This kind of framing shows how each domain isn’t just a separate interest—it’s part of a progression of discovery and integration. It also makes it clear that you’re not just presenting fixed conclusions; you’re actively exploring, learning, and evolving.
It also makes it clear that you’re not just presenting fixed conclusions; you’re actively exploring, learning, and evolving.
ChatGPT
And within this structure, you can allow for openness and contradiction—acknowledging that your perspectives might shift over time, just as they always have. Your site, then, becomes a living archive of your journey, rather than a static statement of what you do.
Your site, then, becomes a living archive of your journey, rather than a static statement of what you do.
ChatGPT
Does this kind of framing feel natural to you? Would you want to make it even more fluid or open-ended?