Re-connecting in 2024

For the past 2 years, I’ve been generally focused on work-related things.

Now that I’m mostly familiar with workflow and tasks needed where I work, I don’t need as long of a runway for projects as I used to.

This frees up some time and brainspace for me, which is great!

In the coming quarters of the year, I intend to start re-connecting with communities and individuals that I’ve not managed to keep in constant contact with.

It will start slow - attending events and dropping messages here and there - but I believe that it will be worth it.

Hoping to meet you soon at an upcoming event or activity!

Farewell 2023, Hello 2024! Some Thoughts on Lessons in the Past Year - Good Community

No surprises on where I was yesterday - Dec 31.

We are there every year-end to review the year that passed and think about upcoming one.

I haven’t thought about my Word of the Year yet, though I have thought about some of the lessons from experiences in 2023.

One of them is on the importance of being part of, and maintaining, good communities.

Perhaps for the worse, I haven’t been part of many good communities in a long time. Many of them always felt distant, indifferent, or self-absorbed.

Of course, I was certainly a common denominator, so maybe it was just me.

And, of course, over the years, I just decided that maintaining such relationships wasn’t worth it. Why would you want to invest time and energy into a relationship with someone who wasn’t investing anything nearly as much?

I’m not saying that everything has to be exactly 50%, right down the middle. That would be unrealistic and pretty unreasonable.

At the very least, you want to feel accepted and that people are trying to understand you, or parts of you.

You also want to want to give back. I think that this 2nd part is increasingly an important criterion for me.

Having gone through 2023 with a few good communities, I’m happy to say that I am happy to give back to these communities.

Carrying on into 2024, I will endeavour to do this.

Wishing you and yours a fruitful 2024 ahead, filled with learning, meaning, and joy. Have a great one!

Why Are We So Easily Influenced? It May Have To Do With the Cultures We Grew Up In.

We're all highly susceptible to influence.

Why? Because we are social and self-preserving. We don't just do best in community, we actively need and seek it out.

Thus, it's no wonder that we want to be part of a community.

And to fit in that community, we take cues of behaviour and mindsets from others around us, especially those who are respected or, at least, somehow elevated in the community.

Since this is all hardwired into us, and we've been picking up cues since we were born, we get really good at it. Practically an instinct.

Which means that it's also impossible to be free of influences.

What I learned is:

The first thought that enters our heads is a result of external influences, whether it's upbringing, culture, the people I hang around with the most, etc.

We can call this programming, conditioning, internalisation, or what we like, but it's kind of in-built and very difficult to override.

What's really important is what we do, say, and/or think after that first thought appears.

That is what makes us who we are.

A Conversation About Games

I recall a conversation I had with someone not too long ago. We were talking about social media and it shifted towards online gaming.

One of the things that caused me to remember this conversation was when he said that games today try very hard to have an active online community playing and interacting with one another.

A very good example is 'Clash of Clans', where, in order to progress well, a player should find a clan and participate in organised 'wars' against other clans. The player would also ask for and receive units from their friends and clan members to further their cause.

I never played the game precisely because of what seems to me to be an over-reliance on other players. If I wanted to play a game on my own, I should be able to do so without being penalised for it. As such, I refuse to play community-driven games like these.

Yet, what my conversational partner was telling me was that this is the direction that online gaming is taking. If it's not a community-driven game, it wouldn't do well and people don't take to it. I find it ludicrous but it seems to me that he is almost certainly right.

It got me wondering why I don't like participating in community events in a game. I figured that I already have enough community events in real life and don't need to be forced to be take part in yet another one when I'm gaming at home or on my phone (which I very rarely do because many phone games "encourage" communities).

It is rather an odd thing, too, that games are going the way social media is heading - towards large communities of acquaintances who barely know one another. I can't say that I'm pleased about this, yet I can't say that I'm surprised. 

Copyright belongs to Clash of Clans by Supercell