SHREEDA SEGAN

A picture of me. — Born in Delhi; currently in Austin.

Writer

Meridian, a magazine by Mercury

Most of the tech founders I meet say their first experiences online involved writing code; mine involved writing blogs. I’ve been writing online since I was 8 years old.

BDFs3

yakcollective.org

Benevolent Dictator for Season 3 for the Governance Studies group.

The Yak Collective is an online space for collaborative tinkering. Here you can find an eclectic group of people working together on technology, research, writing, and art projects, and occasionally trying to make money together as well.

On The Internet

Twitter: @freeshreeda

Farcaster: @shreeda

LinkedIn: @shreeda-segan

Email: shreedashreeda [at] gmail [dot] com

choosing the right people and the right contexts is ~80%+ of the outcome

"Without seduction by the atopic Other, which sparks erotic desire, thinking withers into mere work, which always reproduces the Same." — Byung Chul-Han

Things I Love

I feel most free, most inspired, when on the country roads. Or perhaps when the vehicle takes the shape of my body itself, as I scale the mountain, with my canine companion in close but free proximity.

I notice that in these instances I am most empowered to reach for a future that feels truly worthwhile. I can swallow the hard truths of a sociopathic necessity that working for a worthwhile future may entail; I can appreciate how deep my affections for my budding lover run, as there is a decompression in my chest that leads to newly opened cavities of affectation.

I am in love with this sunlight as it cuts through the lightness of open and yet to be plowed fields.

Music

Here are some of my favorite albums:

Since I Left You: If you're looking for the canonical example of sampling in electronic music, this is it.

There is something important in rhythmic rituals that cannot be fully captured in scholastic-industrial rational thought; it must be experienced to be understood. Nonetheless, it is not magical in the sense of being supernatural or outside the bounds of scholastic-industrial-style inquiry.

Movies

I like some movies, not all of them.

Hereditary (2018): I think this is a good movie fr.

A picture of my hitting a tough shoulder press rep. — Hitting a 110lb press PR — yes, I use layback

Powerlifting

Beginning: December 2021

Started out at Starting Strength Austin; currently training under Lee Pavelich.

Lift	Numbers
Bench	3x1 x 138.5lbs
Press	5x1 x 110lbs
Squat	5x1 x 225lbs
Deadlift	1x1 x 295lbs

Lifting teaches several life lessons, like when to exercise discipline (almost always during novice linear progression) vs. taking a break, that most people have the potential to be much stronger than they might ever discover, to break big goals into incremental steps, the importance of protein in diet, and the benefits of having at least an hour or two each day when you are totally focused on the present moment.

I've always lifted first and foremost for my mental health.

“The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back. The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal.”

––– Henry Rollins

Pottery

Click to scroll through some of my favourite pieces below, and see the rest of my work here.

Bookshelf/reading

A picture of of one of my favourite books.

My primary research interests are in psychology, design, architecture, philosophy, and cognitive science. Scroll through some of my favourite books above.

If you have recommendations, reach out.

Tim Beiko on Ethereum's moonshot

Despite the events of the past year, Tim Beiko still believes in seeing Ethereum to its ultimate form: a protocol for human coordination.

How Jonathan Hillis’ cabin became a DAO

He left Instacart with an unclear vision. What came next — a decentralized city for creators, by creators — has proved an experimental success.

A New Old Pattern Language

By adapting Christopher Alexander’s existing scheme to the new challenges of a post-Covid world, we can build A New Old Pattern Language.

TOPIC	MY NOTES	RESOURCES
Design Systems	Desiderata Making A Whole Earth Catalog	[A Pattern Langauge] [guns n roses]
Alt-economies	Notes on Farcaster
Governance	Designing governments in 2023 Notes on Farcaster	[The Network State] [Governnemnt haha]
Protocols & Platforms	Notes on Farcaster
Future of Work	Anti-work is here to stay

The writing I am interested in is analogous to published work you’d commonly find in a book, magazine, newspaper, or journal. But instead, you’re finding a similar quality of writing on the internet. Typically this writing is closer to self-published than not. Screenshot of the Internet Writer Worklflow document.

Unlike typical blogging, internet writers are not necessarily chronicling their everyday stories and experiences. They’re interested in a different type of writing, sometimes called “insight porn” or even longform blogging.

The bottom line is that these writers are leveraging the open nature of the internet to write and post quality content on their terms, catered to their own goals and interests, and often for their audiences. The freedom to write for oneself seems to unlock the creative possibilities and risk-taking that centralizing platform-writing prohibits.

Internet writers by-and-large do not conduct active research. Their ideas come from some marriage of reading, watching, learning, talking, and experiencing. I write about their worflows here:

→ Internet Writer Workflows