TEJI TUESDAYS 
Issue #043 · 20th August, 2024

Hi All!

Here is your weekly dose of TEJI, a weekly round up of what I’m pondering and exploring. Feel free to forward along to a friend if you think they might enjoy.

I’m hosting a free web3 workshop

I recently secured a small grant to run an event here in Sydney to help onboard artists into the web3 space. My event will run in early October and the numbers will be super limited. I have yet to announce this anywhere online and am giving everyone here a chance to register their interest in a quick form here.

In the workshop I’ll be explaining why you should mint your own NFTs and put your work on the blockchain. And how you can get everything setup from your wallet, to your web3 social profiles and everything in between. It’s going to be super hands on and I’ll be there to walk everyone through any questions they have.

This also has nothing to do with investing so don’t expect any financial advice or help with that. This is strictly for people interested in creating work and putting it on the blockchain.

Be You

Last week I found a great video of Tyler The Creator going in on artists copying slang and dress from one another. In the video Tyler explains how everything is becoming more and more homogenised due to the internet. It’s a fascinating take that reminds us to remain true to our own voices and not try mimic what we see and hear but speak on our own realities if we’d like to really resonate. You can check out the full interview and here and listen to Tyler speak on Art, Internet Culture, and Music or just watch the short clip below.

Looking at adversity as opportunity

During COVID thousands of businesses around the world had to shut down. On the inverse though thousands of businesses were also created. I found a great case study from this era you should take a look at below.

If you want to see how an entrepreneur was able to make $1,036,175 during the COVID lockdowns by rapidly creating a new physical product in 7 days. Check out the full write up here.

The Trough of Despair

When your working on any kind of creative project you will inevitably meet the trough of despair. A place were you begin to question everything leading up to that point as your self doubt begins to bubble to the surface.

It isn’t until you’ve made hundreds of projects that you realise this is completely okay to feel this way in the midsts of something your working on. The only thing here that matters is you push through this ‘trough of despair’ even if you think what your making sucks and that it’s impossible to get through this confusion.

The more you make it through the trough of the despair and realise your project wasn’t as bad as you thought, the more comfortable you become as you learn to sit in the unknown as you develop a sense of trust and faith in your creative abilities to problem solve whatever situation your in.

Symbols as Bridges Between Strangers

Last week I was browsing the Dymocks bookstore in Sydney’s CBD before a stranger had noticed I’d been carrying a The Road & Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy in my hand.

“McCarthy huh, straight in the deep end with those books” expressed a voice over my shoulder before meeting a man named James. He’d been about the same height as me and I could tell he’d come from some corporate job in the city from his attire. His scruffy beard, wild hair and the fact he’d been sitting alone in a bookstore had told me he was also a deep thinker.

It didn’t take long until this stranger begun recommending book after book in the fantasy and sci-fi section. I could tell he instantly felt safe to open up and tell me about all his favourite stories and why the Americanisation in Game of Thrones sucked compared to the Polish humour in The Witcher.

In almost a fraction of a second did these books inform this man that there’d been this common ground between the two of us. The mere symbol of a Cormac McCarthy book had become this bridge between two strangers.

The immense power of symbols allows them to convey large amounts of context almost instantly. Symbols are like little hints hidden away in the Game of Life that nudge you to go interact with someone.

Although I’ll most likely never see James again there’s an immense beauty to the fleetingness of this short interaction. Without him it would’ve been another day browsing the book alone.

So next time you see something you recognise in someone’s hand, on someone’s body or even something that someone is looking at, say something — you never know what the conversation or connection could lead to.

Feel free to give me feedback on Twitter. What did you like? What do you want more of? What do you want less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a tweet to @TEJITOPIA and put #TEJITUESDAYS at the end so I can find it.
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Hope everyone enjoys their week!
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Love
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TEJI (@tejitopia)

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