i have literally never, not once finished a bubble tea and thought "wow i feel so good and not sick at all right now thanks to that large volume of liquid and tapioca"
and yet.. here i am sipping my bi-weekly bubble tea
NFTs don't have PMF you say ? dw you just forgot about the entire art market
starting to feel like the legacy social media platforms are over algo’d
— signal to noise ratio is brutal
— it’s very hard to grow
— engagement is on the decline
perhaps we’ve reached a saturation point
– an ode to the 2° work –
i’ve been reflecting on how to translate a transformative experience in a way that invites others along for the journey
particularly regarding my relationship to liberia and the impact of the work we do there
i’m starting to think it is, in fact, not possible to truly capture and convey the texture of what it feels like when the gravity of a certain experience falls into place
when you get emotionally invested in the work you’re doing
and you see how much it’s changing the lives of people you now call friends
when you see, in real time, the impact it’s having
not just on that friend, but an entire country
i don’t think it’s possible to fully convey
because there are no shortcuts
there is no sexy way to say that breaking the poverty cycle is fucking hard
and takes a long time
data is helpful, yes, but numbers do not capture what it feels like to see someone you care about get their footing, open a business, and pay for their children’s school fees
numbers don’t capture what it feels like to care about someone who cannot afford their kids’ school fees, or the critical medical attention they need
i crave a scalable way of recreating the arc of my relationship to this place among the people in my life
because it’s frustrating to see such life changing work go largely unrecognized outside the nucleus of our donor base
and i think if you could experience this
if you could experience the intensity and relentlessness of this country
the heat — the sweat
the friendships
the resilience of every damn person
having lived through civil wars, the ebola crisis, corrupt government leadership, and just.. life in a country that is unforgiving
if you could watch, over years, as the people you care about go from merely surviving (and sometimes not), to building truly prosperous lives for themselves, their families, and their communities
if you could see how a seemingly small leg up has the potential to drastically alter the course of someone’s life
you wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it either
there’s that story about how, when you adjust the heading of an aeroplane by 2°, it drastically alters the end destination. by cities. even countries.
i guess this is my ode to the 2° — a testimonial for how true that story is in the context of liberia and the work we do there
and i guess this is my way of imploring you to pay attention to the seemingly small, 2°, work happening in this world
back online post liberia
an entire lifetime in the span of a week
photographing and documenting grassroots economic development
everyday a girl will go “can’t figure out why i have a headache”
then her friend will go “do you think it’s bc you’ve had 3 coffees and no food today and ur stressed at work?”
and the girl will go “that’s not it” and take an advil
dreams are crazy bc you’ll be like “let me just sleep for 5 more min” and in that time u will run for president, meet and break up with the love if ur life, and get caught in an armed robbery at a denny’s