Natalie Audelo

Unfortunately, if you want to do new things, you'll face a force more powerful than other people's skepticism: your own skepticism. You too will judge your early work too harshly. How do you avoid that?

I want to do x, so why can’t I?

For many months now (as you could tell by my silence) I have had the hardest time prioritizing the thing that’s important to me. Writing. Not just here publicly but also my own personal writing that happens in the early morning when my brain’s rested but fuzzy and supple and things spill out with ease, or late at nig... See more

We’ve reached what Tocqueville described: downright egotism. It’s the ideological wall I find impossible to scale: I don’t know how to make you care about other people.

These folks are the guardians of the party’s communal energy. Their charisma is mature and thoughtful, not narcissistic. They can subtly refine and recalibrate social dynamics by introducing strangers, tweaking the lights, or suggesting the next activity—all without stealing focus from the moment itself. They’re observant, present, and able to reco... See more

Out of all the “regulars” I’ve interacted with in all the places I’ve worked, the strongest bonds have always been with the people that made me feel safe to be myself no matter what emotional state I was in.

As Janine explained, that is our design challenge—to realign ourselves with life’s genius. And there’s a word for that practice: biomimicry.

In recent years, I've begun to suspect that a life consumed by ideas will not bring me closer to the divine. The freedom I seek, it seems, doesn't lie in my laying about, steeped in my own brain, but rather in the stillness I've found in the more mundane moments of my life. In these moments, there is no euphoria, nor even any active reflection on g... See more