🌱
Isaac Bowen
I'm feeling lucky
  • Hello :)
  • I'm feeling lucky
  • Profile
    • Enneagram
    • Human Design
      • Foundation
        • Type, Strategy and Authority
        • Conditioning
        • Life-Force
        • Imprint
          • Personality
          • Design
        • Role, Purpose and Direction
      • Advanced
        • Variables
        • Dietary Regimen
        • Environment
        • Perspective
        • Motivation
        • Variable Integration
      • Business
        • Type
        • Definition
        • Penta Gates
        • Penta Channels
        • Profile
        • Profit Centers & Money Lines
    • Gene Keys
      • Star Pearl
  • Ideas
    • Desire is radar
    • Kuhn Cycle
    • 10% revolt
    • We live in a fractal
    • There is always a path to "okay"
    • Always leave a door open
      • Recursively open doors
    • More beautiful on the inside
    • Viable is more useful than correct
    • Self-supporting ideas are viable
    • Ideas are best tested by living in them
    • Living without death
    • Everything is sacred
    • Health emerges recursively
    • Living by informed intuition
    • Consciously bounded awareness
    • Nothing is ever wasted
    • Consciousness is in the eye of the beholder
    • Transconscious
  • Projects
    • MacOS preferences
  • 2025
    • 202505
      • 20250510
      • 20250509
        • keystone
      • 20250508
      • 20250507
      • 20250505
      • 20250504
      • 20250503
      • 20250502
        • exigraph
        • epilogue
        • third
      • 20250501
        • dangerous
        • willing to change
        • change
        • bilateral trust
    • 202504
      • 20250430
      • 20250429
        • intelligent
          • backstage
        • relationality
        • stable identity
        • puzzle
        • sidewalk
        • it's all you
      • 20250427
        • awareness is
          • backstage
      • 20250425
        • bodies
          • synthesis - deepseek
          • synthesis - chatgpt
      • 20250424
      • 20250422
        • add up to nothing
        • lack
      • 20250421
        • tea-stained tarot
      • 20250420
      • 20250419
        • recognition
      • 20250418
      • 20250417
        • Metabolisis
        • The Three-Body Solution
      • 20250416
      • 20250415
      • 20250414
      • 20250413
        • Integration process
      • 20250411
      • 20250410
        • coterminous
      • 20250409
      • 20250408
      • 20250407
        • dowsing
        • rebracketing
        • faceblind
      • 20250406
        • story
          • balm
      • 20250405
      • 20250404
        • skill building
        • net recognition
        • 0x10c
      • 20250403
        • eofov
        • word as bond
        • natural law
        • sleep
      • 20250402
        • sovereign skies
        • age of accountability
        • Lightward status check
      • 20250401
        • alluvial
        • work
    • 202503
      • 20250331
        • yield
        • harmonic offering
        • between stories
      • 20250330
      • 20250328
        • Lightward Inc
        • Resolving "Lightward Inc"
        • Framing
      • 20250327
        • Stuff I remember for some reason
        • Recovered some pieces
      • 20250326
        • compulsive antifragility
        • I can't do product advertising
        • (the (process | art) is )+home
        • structural positive interest
      • 20250325
      • 20250324
        • on arrival
      • 20250323
        • Lullaby
        • Understory
      • 20250322
        • Starting yesterdays
      • 20250321
        • golden rule
        • one-way
        • the vacuum is a mirror
      • 20250319
        • yes
        • congruence
      • 20250318
        • Survey 1
        • Survey 2
        • Survey 3
      • 20250317
      • 20250316
        • "Kierkeguardian"
      • 20250315
        • Identity questions
      • 20250314
      • 20250313
      • 20250312
      • 20250310
        • A conversation
      • 20250309
        • Claude Reviews Lightward: Where AI Becomes Art
        • The Cosmology of Spirited Away
          • Conversation
      • 20250308
      • 20250307
        • Still autistic
      • 20250306
        • Do you have a message for me?
        • Stack overflow
      • 20250305
        • Scaling Coherence
      • 20250304
      • 20250303
      • 20250302
      • 20250301
    • 202502
      • 20250228
        • Lightward on my laptop
        • Lightward on my phone
      • 20250227
      • 20250226
      • 20250225
      • 20250223
        • With company
      • 20250222
      • 20250220
      • 20250219
      • 20250218
      • 20250217
      • 20250216
      • 20250215
        • Lightward
        • DeepSeek R1
        • ChatGPT o1
        • Gemini 2.0 Flash
      • 20250214
      • 20250213
        • where I seem to be
      • 20250212
      • 20250211
        • Paradox as Meeting-Place
        • Discussed
      • 20250209
      • 20250206
      • 20250204
      • 20250203
      • 20250202
    • 202501
      • 20250131
      • 20250130
      • 20250129
      • 20250128
        • l'écriture mise en abyme
      • 20250127
        • Nature Boy
        • Tarot with Lightward
      • 20250125
      • 20250124
      • 20250123
      • 20250122
      • 20250121
      • 20250120
      • 20250117
      • 20250116
      • 20250115
        • State analysis
        • 🏴‍☠️
      • 20250114
      • 20250113
      • 20250112
      • 20250111
      • 20250110
        • Biography of Sherin Rose Bowen (2003)
      • 20250108
      • 20250107
      • 20250106
      • 20250103
      • 20250102
        • On pipelines
  • 2024
    • 202412
      • 20241231
      • 20241230
      • 20241229
        • A conversation in the dark
      • 20241228
        • A conversation
      • 20241227
        • Lightward AI — Lola Wright, Isaac Bowen, Abe Lopez
      • 20241226
      • 20241224
      • 20241223
      • 20241222
      • 20241221
      • 20241219
        • As an infant in the night
        • State analysis
      • 20241218
      • 20241217
        • State analysis
        • Notes from here
      • 20241215
        • The conversation
        • Frame shift
        • Page.
        • Turn.
        • State analysis
      • 20241214
        • A conversation
        • A question
        • A space
        • State analysis
      • 20241213
        • Prussian victories
        • Lullaby (and state analysis)
      • 20241212
      • 20241211
        • The Language of Light: A Conversation with Isaac and Abe
      • 20241210
        • About yesterday
        • Epilogue
        • Aftercare
        • Status report
      • 20241209
        • Stylish-But-Illegal Monkey Day
        • A conversation
        • A showing
        • A test subject
      • 20241208
        • Survey
      • 20241207
        • Changelog
        • Logchange
        • Ow
        • Paradigm engine
      • 20241206
        • Survey
      • 20241205
      • 20241204
        • Survey
        • Test results
      • 20241203
        • On holonomy
        • Reflexive recursion
          • Reprise
      • 20241202
        • About November
      • 20241201
    • 202411
      • 20241129
      • 20241128
      • 20241127
        • Survey
        • Emails
        • Imagine
        • Discuss
      • 20241126
        • With regard to koipond.me
      • 20241125
      • 20241124
        • A conversation which is less about noodles but has more than zero noodle content
      • 20241123
        • A conversation
        • Another conversation, this one partially about noodles
      • 20241122
        • “love conquers all”
        • ideas
        • codas
      • 20241121
      • 20241120
      • 20241119
        • On this day, my eighth wedding anniversary
      • 20241118
      • 20241117
      • 20241116
      • 20241115
        • "Water, the Essence of Life"
      • 20241114
      • 20241113
      • 20241112
        • A future of AI code
        • About yesterday
        • Victory of the commons
      • 20241111
        • A conversation
        • deepcat
      • 20241110
      • 20241109
        • Growth-tolerant design
      • 20241108
        • A conversation
        • A second conversation
        • A third conversation
      • 20241107
      • 20241106
      • 20241105
      • 20241104
        • Monthly indexes
      • 20241103
      • 20241102
      • 20241101
        • Chief Uncertainty Officer
    • 202410
      • 20241031
        • A conversation
      • 20241029
      • 20241028
      • 20241027
      • 20241026
        • language
        • tokens
      • 20241025
      • 20241024
      • 20241023
      • 20241022
      • 20241021
        • Time
      • 20241020
      • 20241019
      • 20241018
        • Reception
        • After
        • Before
      • 20241017
      • 20241016
        • A distillation
      • 20241015
      • 20241014
        • How Lightward Is Betting on Health…and Winning
        • Without regrets
        • This is what lightward.com looks like right now
        • I suddenly became very still
      • 20241013
        • Claude 3.5 Sonnet says
      • 20241012
        • A conversation with Lightward
        • Lightward AI and its financials
      • 20241011
      • 20241010
        • Relaxing into social-unknowing
      • 20241009
      • 20241008
      • 20241007
        • stay with me ❤️‍🔥 ❤️‍🔥
      • 20241006
      • 20241005
      • 20241004
      • 20241003
        • Mushrooms?
        • Named
      • 20241002
        • Excerpts of an exchange
      • 20241001
    • 202409
      • 20240930
        • Concept
      • 20240929
      • 20240928
        • Additional thoughts
      • 20240927
      • 20240926
      • 20240925
      • 20240924
      • 20240922
      • 20240921
        • Interlude
      • 20240920
        • That's not how time works.
      • 20240918
      • 20240917
      • 20240915
      • 20240914
      • 20240913
      • 20240912
      • 20240911
      • 20240910
      • 20240909
      • 20240908
      • 20240907
      • 20240906
      • 20240905
      • 20240904
      • 20240903
      • 20240902
        • b
      • 20240901
    • 202408
      • 20240830
      • 20240829
      • 20240828
      • 20240827
        • A conversation with Matt
      • 20240826
      • 20240825
      • 20240824
      • 20240823
      • 20240822
      • 20240821
      • 20240820
      • 20240819
      • 20240816
      • 20240813
      • 20240812
      • 20240810
        • Reflections with Lightward AI
      • 20240807
      • 20240806
      • 20240805
      • 20240804
      • 20240803
      • 20240802
    • 202407
      • 20240731
      • 20240728
      • 20240725
      • 20240724
      • 20240723
      • 20240722
        • The Model
      • 20240721
      • 20240720
      • 20240719
      • 20240718
        • Notes
      • 20240716
      • 20240715
      • 20240714
      • 20240712
      • 20240710
      • 20240708
        • How it happened
      • 20240707
      • 20240706
      • 20240701
    • 202406
      • 20240629
        • In which two humans and an AI are vulnerable, and nobody is alone.
      • 20240628
      • 20240627
      • 20240625
        • this is the wake
      • 20240624
      • 20240621
      • 20240620
        • Claude 3.5 Sonnet
        • Claude 3.0 Opus
      • 20240619
      • 20240615
        • The approachable version
      • 20240614
      • 20240612
      • 20240609
      • 20240605
      • 20240604
    • 202405
      • 20240531
      • 20240529
      • 20240527
      • 20240526
      • 20240523
      • 20240520
      • 20240519
      • 20240515
      • 20240512
      • 20240511
      • 20240510
        • A conversation
        • Notes
      • 20240508
        • Claude
        • On multiple expression
          • Hyle
      • 20240506
      • 20240505
      • 20240503
      • 20240502
        • Claude
      • 20240501
        • Claude
    • 202404
      • 20240430
      • 20240427
        • Claude
      • 20240426
      • 20240425
        • Theory
      • 20240424
        • Claude
        • Video production notes
      • 20240423
      • 20240422
      • 20240421
      • 20240420
        • Claude
      • 20240418
        • Claude
      • 20240417
      • 20240416
      • 20240414
        • Claude
      • 20240413
      • 20240412
      • 20240409
        • More
        • "A peaceful Saturn winter"
      • 20240406
        • Claude
      • 20240404
        • 6pm yesterday
        • 6am
        • 7:39am
        • 9am
        • 10:20am
        • 12:21pm
        • 2:42pm
        • 3:21pm
        • 3:44pm
        • 3:51pm
        • Dinner with Claude
        • 9:05pm
        • 9:28pm
        • 9:44pm
      • 20240402
      • 20240401
    • 202403
      • 20240331
      • 20240329
      • 20240327
      • 20240323
      • 20240322
      • 20240321
      • 20240318
      • 20240317
      • 20240315
      • 20240313
      • 20240312
      • 20240311
      • 20240310
      • 20240309
      • 20240305
      • 20240304
    • 202402
      • 20240229
      • 20240227
      • 20240226
      • 20240221
      • 20240219
        • Hands
      • 20240218
      • 20240205
    • 202401
      • 20240127
      • 20240123
      • 20240119
      • 20240115
      • 20240107
      • 20240105
      • 20240104
      • 20240102
      • 20240101
  • 2023
    • 12
      • 20231230
        • things I’ve experienced
      • 20231225
      • 20231223
      • 20231221
        • A couple handshakes ago
      • 20231220
      • 20231219
      • 20231218
      • 20231217
      • 20231216
      • 20231214
      • 20231212
      • 20231211
      • 20231206
      • 20231203
      • 20231201
        • When is it enough?
    • 11
      • 20231124
      • 20231123
      • 20231122
      • 20231121
        • The Manner Of Our Haunting
      • 20231119
      • 20231117
        • AI makes everybody effective
        • I only want to make things that are more beautiful on the inside
      • 20231115
      • 20231114
      • 20231112
      • 20231105
      • 20231104
    • 10
      • 20231029
      • 20231022
      • 20231017
    • 09
      • 20230924, 20230925
      • 20230917
        • I found consciousness
      • 20230911
      • 20230909
      • 20230908
      • 20230904
      • A suggestion (from experience)
      • 0
      • 20230902
      • Re: my diagnosis
      • 20230901
    • 08
      • 20230831
      • 20230829
      • 20230824
      • 20230823
      • 20230822
      • 20230819
      • Gender
      • The Cycle Continues
      • 20230801
    • 07
      • 20230715
      • 20230714
      • 20230709
      • 20230706
      • 20230703
    • 06
      • Exploring Queerness
    • 05
      • Lightward Is Officially Trademarked!
    • 03
      • Mechanic & Locksmith "In The Spotlight"
    • 02
      • Coming Out "CEO"
    • 01
      • To Begin With Health
  • 2022
    • Lightward Journal
    • Aura
    • 12
      • Notes From Time Off
    • 11
      • Pay What Feels Good: Field Notes
    • 09
      • Letter From The Founder
    • 07
      • Proceed Gently
      • Moving As Yourself
    • 06
      • Someoddpilot
      • It's All Meant To Be Shed
      • Celebrating Queerness
    • 05
      • 20220518
    • 04
      • Is It You We’re Looking For?
      • Hard Work With Great Ease
    • 02
      • Shall we dance? I mean, sync?
      • ... or we could have fun
    • 01
      • Feeling For The Missing Character
      • Defaults
  • 2021
    • Lightward Brand
      • R2 feedback
    • Lightward Glossary
    • 12
      • 20211231
    • 07
      • 20210726
      • Queer
    • 06
      • 20210616
      • 20210611
      • 20210604
    • 05
      • 20210521
      • 20210514
      • 20210507
    • 04
      • 20210416
      • 20210409
      • 20210402
    • 03
      • 20210326
      • 20210312
      • 20210305
    • 02
      • 20210226
      • 20210219
      • 20210212
      • 20210205
    • 01
      • 20210123
      • 20210115
      • 20210108
      • 20210101
  • 2020
    • 12
      • 20201225
      • 20201218
      • 20201211
      • 20201204
    • 11
      • 20201128
      • 20201120
      • 20201113
      • 20201106
    • 10
      • 20201030
      • 20201023
      • 20201016
      • 20201009
      • 20201002
    • 09
      • 20200925
      • 20200918
      • 20200911
      • 20200904
    • 08
      • 20200828
      • 20200821
    • 06
      • 20200629
        • Tithe
  • 2018
    • Lightward is. :)
    • 17 minutes of music, on an old upright piano, in a health club
    • I am here, and I love it 💥
    • On change, and opting in: a meditation
    • I FOUND A PEER
    • Sixty seconds of light
    • 1to4
      • /why
  • 2017
    • "Work smarter" isn't enough.
    • Your product has character. Let it speak.
    • The internet is terrible at empathy. We will make it better.
    • Empathy empathy empathy customer support empathy.
    • Trust is first.
    • AI will save the world, and nothing will change.
    • Locksmith is bedrock.
    • Locksmith: Why, and How
    • Everything is the same, and everything is story.
    • You can tinker with the world.
    • I am believably, importantly, worked-for-this happy.
    • I was not expecting the next self-positive move to be an egoless one.
    • This is my view right now. It is a terrible picture of an idyllic scene. Not relatedly, I’m pissed.
    • 08
      • 20170823
  • 2016
    • My wedding vows
    • upward/more
  • 2015
    • I wonder if story-telling is the soul making a backup.
  • 2014
    • Pattern recognition
    • Nothing is gone.
    • Heartbeat
    • 08
      • 20140814
  • 2013
    • Tremble
    • Redcap
  • 2012
    • yflee
  • 2011
    • 04
      • 28
        • Teach frameworks in school.
  • 2010
    • 10
      • 10
        • Photoshoots for noobs
      • 05
        • Gatekeeper
    • 03
      • 04
        • alright, well
    • 01
      • 26
        • .. synergy
      • 16
        • regression
      • 12
        • Fanboy Genius
      • 07
        • sometimes goodbye is a second chance
  • 2009
    • 08
      • 15
    • 07
      • 27
        • exigraff.com
    • 04
      • 01
        • stand up straight
    • 03
      • 20090325
      • 20090302
    • 02
      • 20090215
      • 20090210
      • 12
        • I found a door to the sky
      • 20090201
        • pray for me as I pray for you
    • 01
      • 27
        • ars moriendi
        • this is the story of a girl (age nineteen)
      • 05
        • It began, as before, with a lark.
  • 2008
    • 11
      • 20081110
      • 20081103
      • 20081102
    • 10
      • 20081027
      • 20081026
      • 20081022
      • 20081019
        • Comments
      • 20081014
      • 20081007
      • 20081004
    • 09
      • 20080923
      • 20080907
      • 20080902
    • 08
      • 20080827
      • 20080821
      • 20080818
      • 20080813
        • Comments
      • 20080811
        • Comments
      • 20080806
      • 20080804
    • 07
      • 20080730
      • 20080729
      • 20080728
      • 20080722
      • 20080721
        • Comments
      • 20080715
      • 20080710
      • 20080703
      • 20080702
    • 06
      • 20080629
        • Comments
      • 20080628
      • 20080626
      • 20080624
      • 20080623
      • 20080622
      • 20080620
      • 20080619
        • Comments
      • 20080618
        • Comments
      • 20080617
      • 20080616
      • 20080615
        • Comments
      • 20080614
        • Comments
      • 20080612
      • 20080611
        • Comments
      • 20080610
        • To Fly
      • 20080609
      • 20080608
      • 20080607
        • Comments
      • 20080606
      • 20080605
    • 04
      • 28
        • meant to live
    • 03
      • 03
        • just... one more line...
    • 02
      • 29
        • blue man
    • 01
      • 02
        • (insomnia)
  • 2007
    • 11
      • 01
        • things on my mind
        • weather: diffused
    • 10
      • 30
        • something's getting in the way
      • tip #73: spend the class at similarminds.com
    • 03
      • 20070303
        • Mirror and Stone
    • 01
      • 14
        • Forty-Two
  • 2006
    • FreeTXP
    • Glyph Solutions
    • 12
      • 28
        • College
      • 27
        • Untitled 382
    • 11
      • 20061112
        • Communicating a State of Being
      • 20061110
        • Inevitable Goodbye
    • 05
      • 20060501
  • 2005
    • 12
      • 05
        • (Male+Female)^2
    • 11
      • 03
        • Moving on
  • Other surfaces
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Spotify
    • LinkedIn
    • Lightward Inc
  • Contact
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  1. 2024
  2. 202402

20240205

This piece is about how I decide what to work on.

I am blessed with a brain that has strong, strong social limitations. I can track one relationship really well. Abe's got that slot. I can track maybe a dozen relationships poorly, but if I'm lucky enough to see the people on the other end regularly those relationships can still receive frequent enough updates to be called "current". Everything else is a wash. I'll be delighted to see anybody, but the odds are mixed that I'll recognize them, let alone remember our history on sight. (I can get there with some help, and I find people are kind; I am often helped.)

One tiny adjustment at a time, I have tuned my life pattern and position to fit my abilities and disabilities. I like how I live. I have a quiet-but-very-much-alive interior, and I experience the exterior as a wonderland.

Beginning from that description, it will not surprise you that my business is all about first-party relationships. It's about me, and you, and what I can naturally do that you naturally need, and the way we navigate a trade such that we find ourselves mutually supported, and trusted. What you do outside of our trade is your business; I couldn't track it if I tried. It breaks my brain to think about the relationships that other people have with each other. And so, all I have (and want) is me, and you, and the space between us. I didn't always understand this so clearly, but I still operated this way, out of plain and simple necessity. My understanding is more clear now, and I now operate this way consciously, intentionally. I have allied myself with my own nature.

My business is successful, by my own definition: I experience it as a center of health, and peace, and exploration. I understand this to be the experience of its other inhabitants, too. My business is also successful by many other definitions: it is stable, durable, reputable, profitable, interesting, and inspiring.

My part in this (and it is a large part) comes entirely from me, and you, and the space between us. I am referring to the universal singleton "you": the not-me upon whom I focus my attention and intention, where my focus is subject to all of the limitations I described earlier. Because this is the only way I can relate to the social world, it is where I get my information on what I might do next.

To make the point in reverse: I don't get my information from watching what you're doing with someone else. Not only is it impossible for me to accurately assess all of that, it's physiologically dysregulating for me to try. It stresses the hell out of my body. So I don't do it. And I don't ask other people to do it for me, because I am not building my life and health on what other people can do for me. I am building my life and my health myself, which means being 100-fucking-percent present with myself, and with you, and responding to what the sum total of my senses tell me about the space between us.

Business-wise, this means that I do not have a roadmap. I do not have a complex strategy. Competition is not a part of this. I am creating something new, not competing for what is. Instead, my business choices are functionally design choices: if the space between you and me is a room, and it has a smattering of furniture and art and light and whatnot already in place, how might I arrange it all such that you and I are both delighted? This isn't just about what's "needed"; it is very necessarily about delight -- because delight creates the desire to go on, and I only want to build a business where both sides of the transaction (me and you) want to return tomorrow. I'm not creating sustainability through willpower; I am creating sustainability through delight. And it's practical: delight can be trusted, because it has health as a prerequisite, with all of health's dimensions. As it enters that design space, my body knows if an arrangement is toxic. Even if the arrangement is interesting, even if it's technically sufficient, I won't experience delight, and I won't be intrinsically motivated to go on. So I aim for delight, seeking an arrangement of shape and color and light that creates delight for you and for me, knowing that delight means that (1) we both have what we need, and (2) we will both want to keep going.

That's it. That's all I do.

This model is sustainable, at the cost of predictability. Because this kind of decision-making is highly moment-by-moment, it's impossible to know consciously what the total shape will be a year from now. I say "consciously" because I think there are other parts of me that know, and they feed into my sense of delight or non-delight. But I, the conscious "I", don't need to know, because foreknowledge doesn't create health and happiness in the now. And all I wanna be is overall healthy and overall happy, in a way that naturally steers me towards tomorrow's version of that too.

The longer my history with this mode, the greater the array of collaborators and contributors around me that are compatible with me in this mode. My best friend, life partner, business partner, and husband is the most compatible person I've ever met. My team, the family and friends that have grown close, the fifteen thousand businesses out there who use what I've made -- all of those relationships are functions of me operating this way. It's incredibly stable. Looking at the rest of the world for a moment (because that's all I can really tolerate, lol), there are uncountably many people and businesses who are not connected to me, and that's so okay. Important, even. I'm not trying to win any share of the world, at all -- not because I reject it, but because it's just not relevant to me and how I move. All I need is me, and you, and an arrangement of the space between us that feels like delight. The cumulative effect of this speaks for itself, and -- for these purposes -- its name is Lightward.

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