Juan David’s Newsletter - July 2nd, 2023
Whispers of Destiny: The Echoes of Intrinsic Motivation in the Pursuit of Obsession
Through this newsletter, I share three types of fortes: essays about topics I deeply thought about (published on my website), notes about ideas/realizations I’m starting to think about (like the one you will read today), and project releases.
Today, I’ll talk about a recurring mistake I've made, failing to learn from it.
Who we are is how we understand the world—our true essence is intricately entwined with our understanding of reality.
We often deceive ourselves with a preposterous lie: the idea we can step into someone else's shoes and truly comprehend their perspective. But why should we, in the first place, see someone else’s perspective? We are unique individuals, limited in our capacity to grasp someone’s else worldview. That’s a feature, not a bug.
As I navigate the world, I am aware that my vision is but a singular prism of reality. Other people perceive existence in different hues. How does this disparity arise? It comes from different experiences, distinct aspirations, and an innumerable set of inputs that define our outputs.
Recently, I recognized a mistake I have consistently made, one I did not learn from the first time. People say you should always make mistakes but making mistakes is overrated because you rarely learn from them. To err is human, yet to extract profound insights from those errors is a true challenge.
In December 2022, I embarked on a noble endeavor: a project aimed at igniting the ambition of young Venezuelan immigrants. My intention was to illuminate unexplored avenues of employment and unimagined possibilities, infusing hope into their lives. It is effortless to remain trapped within the confines of mundane jobs when you are a newly arrived immigrant grappling with financial burdens. Stepping beyond the familiar is rarely a thought.
I devoted countless hours to crafting a website, meticulously writing its content, and sharing it with eagerness. Yet, my efforts were met with indifference.
Want me to tell you a secret? I suspected it would not work because if someone was motivated already, they would have sought out these resources independently and would not need my website. However, I perceived the issue as one of information accessibility rather than motivation. I still think it’s an information problem but with enough motivation, people will find the information. With no motivation, well…nothing happens.
Regrettably, my project didn’t go anywhere. I had high hopes the project would work. But that was only from how I understood the world. Personally, I wished I had that website when I was sixteen years old but it turns out there aren’t a lot of people like me.
Thus, I find myself caught in an intriguing puzzle. On one hand, I love creating projects to solve my own problems/curiosities, and sometimes they resonate with others the same way. On the other hand, the dilemmas I deem significant do not always ignite a similar flame within the hearts of others. That’s not a huge problem unless you’re trying to create a company devoted to creating something people want. That’s why I’ve been hesitant to create a company1 because there have to be more alternatives that transcend this peculiar interplay of personal inclinations. This is the Transmitters and Receivers idea—a dichotomy between those who “receive” and build what others desire and those who “transmit” and build what they personally desire.
This is where a conflict arises, a ground for self-corruption. When people create companies, they must create something people want. Many people do things to satisfy’s people desires even if it does not align with theirs.
Traditional media and social media companies serve as poignant examples. Would the creators of these platforms willingly consume the content they produce, overflowing with outrage, fear-mongering, and ceaseless entertainment? They would not. Can you fathom Mark Zuckerberg allowing his children to use Facebook or Instagram? I guarantee you that will not happen. Why, then, do they create and develop such entities? Because other people want and use them, and they oblige.
Dear friends, this is the recipe for personal corruption, the catalyst for societal decay, and the end of true artistry.
I don’t want to create projects to have customers. I will have customers in order to create projects2 aligned with my obsessions.
After launching that aforementioned website, I tried to learn from these mistakes but I once again succumbed to identical errors in recent weeks while creating a similar project. It was not until yesterday that I finally perceived the deeply flawed philosophical disagreement plaguing my projects.
People’s motivation needs to come from within. I cannot tell you, give you information, or even more disgustingly motivate you to do something.
You can, however, provide inspiration.
Inspiration is a force that propels creativity. I don’t need to think about what you may possibly want because you don’t even know yourself. Remember, market research is bananas.
How do you provide inspiration?3 By recognizing humanity’s innate propensity to copy others and by boldly sharing the world and vision I aspire to have in this world. Perhaps others will find resonance within my self-expression, or perhaps one of my projects will ignite a spark within them. When you’re being yourself, you allow others to be themselves too.
Embracing mistakes and learning from them adds joy to life. And you know what? Once a mistake is transformed into a valuable lesson, it ceases to be a mistake and instead becomes a stepping stone toward expanding your personal wisdom.
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Architecting my vision of the future one essay at a time,
Juan David Campolargo
The world is far from being binary, no doubt. In certain instances, there are endeavors I can pursue where the objective is solely to bring them to life, and others might share the same desire. Sometimes, it's simpler to construct and innovate based on what others want, even if it doesn't personally interest me.
Maybe it won’t be companies but whatever other medium that I find or create.
What else can you do to share inspiration? Stories are, by far, the best way to share inspiration. Empathy and understanding are another one. Lastly, challenging limited beliefs as inspiration can arise from challenging the status quo and encouraging others to transcend their self-imposed limitations.
The subjectivity of reality just gets more interesting the older I get and more I try to acknowledge others' realities.
Enjoyed the essay.
Hey Scott. Reality is reality. Our perception of reality isn’t always the same as reality with capital R. Our perception is often not the same as reality and we must try to get an accurate perception of that reality. Mathematics and physics are an attempt to provide a closer understanding of reality and they have their own imperfections as well. Another approach is by trial and error and that might be our best approach.
Richard Feynman was asked what we mean by understanding and this is what he said:
We can imagine that this complicated array of moving things which constitutes "the world" is something like a great chess game being played by the gods, and we are observers of the game. We do not know what the rules of the game are; all we are allowed to do is to watch the playing. Of course, if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules. The rules of the game are what we mean by fundamental physics. Even if we know every rule, however... what we really can explain in terms of those rules is very limited, because almost all situations are so enormously complicated that we cannot follow the plays of the game using the rules, much less tell what is going to happen next. We must, therefore, limit ourselves to the more basic question of the rules of the game. If we know the rules, we consider that we
"understand" the world.
Reality is reality and the rules must be learned to fully understand that reality. In that approach, we will learn about our own’s personal perceptions and get closer to understanding Reality which also happens to be our reality.