The DAO Joan Index 🍕 tech + humans + philosophy. Founder @ Idle Ventures. Farcaster OG. FID 3305

https://linktr.ee/joanwestenberg

Western education, employment, and culture’s lack of emphasis on building (no shop class, western academia as opposed to eastern manufacturing) is at least partially to blame for the loss of sense of purpose. 

Many of us are lost in endless paperwork, emails, and bureaucracy. 

Not a knock on the heros of the western canon but they are predominantly critics, while the great builders of our time are constantly critiqued for their faults. 

To be consequential is to run the risk of making mistakes. And to avoid all consequences is to abstain from greater purpose. 

We are culturally pressured to choose this path, impotent to all but constant critiques of ourselves and others. No wonder many of us are always anxious. 

This is not an inescapable doom. There are those who choose to build and create, embracing the consequences (see web3, Substack, internet frontier, spaceX). Hope is not lost.

The focus on building tangible things vs losing oneself in intangible white collar occupations is an insightful take.

I can relate to questioning my own purpose on bad bureaucracy days where I feel like all I’m doing is fighting back against a tidal wave of unproductive emails and meetings

PhD in aviation ∩ climate science | Aviator, diver, ETH maxi, nexialist | Host of /diving /ethfinance /eth-staker /geopolitics /science /singapore /thomas

I haven’t actually read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but it seems like someone is required to mention it here so I’ll do it.