Coεmeta Public Work Log 2022.2.AEU — Vacation & Re(a)lation
Autumnal Equinox Update (9/22/2022): rest, real relation, realignment, recalibration
This is the third Public Work Log entry for Coεmeta, a Public Benefit company providing data & sensemaking services with positive externalities. It’s intended as a window into our journey & playbook as it develops, in the spirit of working in public, contributing to knowledge commons, “finding the others” & leaving a trail + some resources for those that follow. I hope it inspires more folks to follow a similarly rewarding path & find similar (if modest & provisional) success. Feel free to reach out at any time, I’m happy to help however I can!
- Daniel McNichol, founder & Chief Scientist
This post is a belated excerpt of the full versions available at: Github (primary source & version control) & Roam (navigable outline format)
- comments, forks & pull requests are welcome!
It complements our Open Source Strategy repo, which offers more discrete, version-controlled resources related to the strategies & frameworks discussed here in more narrative form.
📜 Prologue: backstory & antecedents
Backstory
Coεmeta is an attempt at an infinite game. The goal of infinite games is not to win, but to keep playing.
I consider this the metagame (as opposed to endgame):
a more balanced, integrated, enriching & impactful life in greater community
To pursue this metagame indefinitely (aka “infinitely”), I needed to reclaim some agency & autonomy in my work. So Coεmeta is also currently a Pennsylvania Public Benefit LLC, serving as a vehicle for more traditional freelance & consulting work, as well as broader public-benefit oriented activities.
(My longer-term vision for Coεmeta as a formal entity is something more like a worker-owned cooperative or DAO with shared collective ownership, or at least part of a federated network of mutual aid & partnerships with other “self-sovereign” ᵋ groups or entities. This is part of the “in greater community” aspect of the metagame.)
So Coεmeta is not exactly a traditional ‘venture’ or typical small business or startup etc, but assumes some of those trappings for now. The previous log entry recaps more of the motivations & considerations underlying all of this, & our Open Source Strategy repo describes some of the strategic planning & wayfinding models used so far.
As elaborated throughout these artifacts, public work & contributing to knowledge commons are core parts of the overall metagame strategy & ethos. So these posts are part of that: figuring it out as I go, learning while doing, in public. This entry picks up where the previous left off. (The timing & titles of the first two entries should make the intended heliocentric publishing cadence clear.)
ᵋ NB: I’m generally skeptical of this terminology & its associations with neoliberal / libertarian fantasies of fully atomized “sovereign individuals”, but “independent” isn’t quite adequate either.
Antecedents & adumbration
In the previous entry, I reported good vibes & gratitude for progress towards a more outward focus & mutual capacity-building, & new opportunities (once again) thanks to luck & the kindness of others.
I also discussed how some prior balance gave way to seizing those opportunities, & noted looming risks & shadows, some of which have grown closer & longer. But I also looked forward to continued cultivation & harvest, & wrestling with ideas of further scaling (or sporing) these efforts for greater impact & a greater common good.
The intervening 3 months mostly revolved around late summer vacations & more real-world engagement, + preparing for & recovering from those things. All of that, alongside a full plate of client workloads, left little time for other pillar work: public toolmaking & content creation. So this entry is shorter & less substantive than the others: I’ve done much less public work (& frankly, less private work on internal business stuff as well).
⏳ Timeline
Jul-Sep 2022
- Mostly a blur of vacations, tending to real-world relations, & recovering & recalibrating
- Prioritize client work with remaining attention & energy, while maintaining previously established mutual-capacity building efforts via ‘crewing’, mentorship & apprenticeship
- Also workshop & refine Coεmeta mission & vision & website verbiage, to better reflect evolving strategic priorities & aspirations
- Celebrated client successes & milestones, such as City Bureau’s Stronger Democracy Award & Documenters.org program expansion plans, & The Baltimore Banner’s successful launch & initial strides towards their public interest mission
꩜ Coda: eval & checkout
Eval
My still-provisional metrics tracking framework again tells the story pretty clearly:
- Freelance client work drowned out all other efforts, while overall effort declined due to (much needed) summer vacations etc
Predictably, as in Q2, my Q3 OKRs reflect the same imbalances described above. But revenue-related & outcome-focused results were bright spots:
And again, some of these will roll over to next quarter, where I hope to not only rebalance across the longer time-average, but also recalibrate my overall objectives ahead of year two of the Coεmeta journey
Vibe Check
And on to what really matters: the vibe check…
- I feel great, & more alive to the world than I have in a while. (albeit more the world of atoms than bits)
The balance of the early months (& the metagame) remains elusive, & shadows still loom. But I’m deeply grateful for the good fortune & generosity I’ve experienced so far, & for the opportunities to share the harvest & reinvest in mutual capacity-building. I’ll continue to grapple with these opportunities, & the challenges of scaling impact & rebalancing my efforts, while revisiting & reaffirming the mission for this next cycle.
Thanks for reading, follow me & the Coεmeta publication for past & future posts. And comment with your thoughts, questions or suggestions!
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Youtube: Coεmeta channel
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dnlmc
Web: coemeta.xyz
Coεmeta is about finding truth together
We create data & sensemaking tools & services with positive externalities: supporting commons, solidarity economies & prosocial change.
Learn more at coemeta.xyz
