In my past experiences publishing, I sought public success assuming it would lead to feelings of private satisfaction. It’s only now, observing this expectation clearly for the first time, that I can see how misguided this was.

In this experiment I took the agency and time to define success. It wasn't an open-ended search for approval. The goal was to express an idea, its full context, and for them to be seen and understood. That has happened, adding up to maybe the most enjoyable publishing experience of my writing life to date. Those 250 collectors satisfied my entire Maslow’s hierarchy of writerly needs with their support.

Getting new things feels exciting. Simply having the things you already have, even if those things are immensely valuable, doesn’t usually feel like anything. The relative view only allows new acquisitions to feel strongly rewarding for a brief time, before you fully assimilate your new identity as an iPad-haver or Blundstone-wearer.

Feeling the full wealth of what you’ve already got is possible only when you measure that wealth from zero. Then you can feel its absolute value, rather than its relative value.

The most satisfying and nourishing communities, after all, are those where people aren’t in competition, trying to sell each other things, or united around nothing beyond a common consumer desire.

And will the prospective members find sex, connection, and community all under the guise of private networking?

Almost everything that is meaningful, beautiful, life-affirming, empowering, transformational, true—it can’t be reached by shortcuts. But what we can do is make the longcuts walkable, put out footbridges and stairs, and a table where the ocean comes into view.