Recalibrating 🧭 ✨

Change is the only constant in life, making Recalibrating one of the greatest skills to learn 📚

As my first Paragraph post, I thought I’d give some context on who I am, why I’m here, and what I’m building in web3.

Hi! My name is Callum, AKA wanderloots

Welcome to Recalibrating 🧭✨

Who Am I?

I am an IP lawyer, patent agent, artist (photographer, animator, videographer) and I studied engineering in my undergrad.

In June 2023, I quit my IP job and began creating full-time. I was burnt out and knew that I needed to make a change in my life. I began this journey by starting a newsletter: Recalibrating.

The goal of my newsletter is to track my progress as I learn and grow each week, recalibrating my process along the way.

I believe that building in public allows for shared learning in public, which synergistically boosts us all ✨

Why Web3?

You may recognize the ASCII art from my Manifold Tutorials on YouTube.

Self-sovereign smart contracts are what brought me back to this ecosystem after a few years away.

I found that many people were confused about the benefit of sovereignty and a truly web3-based digital identity. As someone who has been looking into blockchain, digital identity, and sovereign IP for years, I wanted to create a resource that helped open the door for others.

A bit of history...

2018 was when I first truly dove into blockchain. I was researching solutions to fake news in law school, inspired by the Facebook & Cambridge Analytica debacle in the 2016 election.

My mind was opened to the possibility of a decentralized media network that enabled people to verify their identities online while creating permanent digital assets on-chain. I later learned that what I was researching had become known as NFTs.

Unfortunately, the world was not ready for this system.

In 2021, I heard about the concept of selling digital assets on blockchain. A lightbulb went off 💡 This was the same system I had been looking into years earlier!

I fell down the rabbit hole with punk6529's megathread and began talking to everyone I could about blockchain and NFTs.

Most of my friends didn't get it (they still don't) but I believe that the Farcaster protocol has the potential to open the door to everyone ✨

I dove into the art side of web3, made new friends in the web3 space, and ended up minting and selling my first NFT "Awe" to Synyster Gates 🤯. This piece is a breathing guide to reduce anxiety and improve mindfulness 😌

Awe | Foundation

Awe is the first piece in the Wanderloots Genesis Collection: Begin, Again. Awe is a unique emotion; one that immerses me so fully into the present moment tha...

https://foundation.app

What a wild and humbling experience ✨

Now, back to the present.

For the first time in years, I feel inspired by social media thanks to Farcaster, and I'm excited to share more of my writing and art as we learn in public by building in public.

Why Recalibrating?

For the last 34 weeks, I have published a long-form newsletter each week. The first 28 entries are based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which corresponds to the burnout recovery pyramid.

I figured that to move forward, it's best to look backwards to how humanity thrived as a species, towards self-actualization.

I have been researching each of the core needs of what it means to be human, moving my way up the hierarchy (physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, cognitive/aesthetic, self-actualization).

I wrote 4-5 entries for each core need, allowing myself to explore as deeply as I needed to truly understand how I could build a sustainable creation system for myself while educating others along the way.

I did not want to burnout again and I wanted to help as many people as I could to also avoid burnout/recover from it.

I began making YouTube videos that are a mix of mindfulness and emerging technology education that I hope will help others learn in public.

Paragraph & The Future

My Recalibrating Newsletter is currently on Substack & my website, where I will continue posting my long-form writing for the time being.

With the incredible invention of frames and the ability to read in-line, I wanted to create a medium-form content system that allowed me to connect with people on the Farcaster Protocol.

Paragraph feels like a perfect fit ✍

I will distill the core concepts from my long-form Recalibrating newsletter and share my thoughts here on Paragraph. I will also provide short tutorials and explanations on how to leverage emerging technologies to build your own sustainable system. I call this Worldbuilding 🌍

I hope that this will allow for a more streamlined reading experience for those that wish to stay within the app, while making it easy to find my long-form writing elsewhere.

I view Paragraph as the first portion of my web3 digital garden, connected to the social graph on Farcaster. I will continue planting seeds and cultivating them as I explore my interests in public, helping you learn along the way ✨

If you're interested in following along with my journey, please consider subscribing to my Paragraph 🧭✨

If you would like to dive deeper into Recalibrating, please check out the first entry here 👇

#1 What Recalibrating Means To Me - Wanderloots

Welcome to Recalibrating, a newsletter by Wanderloots. This is the first in the recalibrating series, providing context for the newsletter.

https://wanderloots.com

I look forward to connecting and learning more about your journeys 🫡

Thanks for reading ✨

Callum

P.S. I am still working on the tokenomics of my system, so stay tuned for how I plan to leverage minting on Paragraph 👀