What Deserves Attention

I spent almost a year living in Lake Tahoe. Trail access from my door, alpine light, the kind of conditions I'd spent years saying I needed. I built spreadsheets to optimize my day. I used an AI calendar to block time around goals and the relentless work of proving I was moving forward. Most mornings, I would be out at sunrise—feeling my nervous system settle. The light moved differently up there. Those hours weren't on any list. They didn't advance anything.

The traditional Japanese calendar recognizes seventy-two microseasons, each lasting roughly five days. Peach blossoms bloom. Distant thunder begins. Mist starts to linger. A technology for paying attention to conditions as they actually are. Not one shift. The accumulated noticing.

Psychologist Peter M. Gollwitzer coined Self-Completion Theory—the illusion of progress and how easy it is to confuse symbols of change with actual change. The quarterly goal that performs productivity while avoiding the question of whether you're even in a season where that kind of growth belongs. It doesn't push forward; it lets you rest in the illusion you've already moved.

I used to think intuition was about trusting gut feelings. Increasingly, it feels like the capacity to recognize I've changed microseasons—and discipline is what it takes to follow that recognition.

What deserves your attention in the conditions you're in now?

— Courtney

P.S. If you're new here, welcome. We share stories from the edges of transformation, illuminating the thresholds between emerging technologies and enduring human values. Each month we explore one of four dimensions - culture, craft, ecology, futures.