Seriously, Just Go Outside!
There’s a lady in a Telegram group I’m in. She posts the Outrage of the Day, every day, with the same two words underneath: “We got to do something!”
Then another outrage tomorrow that completely contradicts the first one.
I made the mistake of asking her: “What did you do about that first post?”
“I am waking people up!”
No, you’re not. You got your dopamine hit, you moved on, and now you’re on to the next one. Nothing got done and nothing changed. The outrage has been replaced by a different outrage.
She blocked me.
I’m not writing this to be smug about it. I look back at some of what I posted a year ago and I cringe. It didn’t help anyone, including me.
There’s a Progressive Insurance commercial where Flo’s team is standing knee-deep in a flooded basement with a homeowner whose water heater failed. At the end, the handyman says: “You know, you don’t have to post everything to the Internet.”
Awkward silence, and then everyone laughs.
But I have another way.
The Raccoon War of 2026
This week the raccoons descended without warning. They dug up chestnut seedlings to get at the attached nut, with (ruined) unsprouted chestnuts, pots, and dirt everywhere. Twenty trees in one night.
So I got the biggest trap they had at TSC and baited it with cat food and chestnuts.
I got the biggest raccoon I have ever seen. (Plus a few possums later in the week that like cat food).
The war continues with the raccoon’s siblings, one that mocks me with his tracks outside the barn.
My daughter asked if I took a photo of the big raccoon. What?! I was too busy trying not to get bit while loading a very angry raccoon into the back of my truck at 5:30 AM.
That’s the difference. The lady in the Telegram group would have posted the raccoon. I was too busy dealing with the raccoon.
The Jason Snyder Test
Jason Snyder from Doomer Optimism once pinned a tweet about Thriving the Future that said I am “relentlessly upbeat and practical” and that I “don’t get involved in Twitter drama.”
That became my filter, even if I don’t feel like it. Before I post anything, I run it through the Jason Test: Is this upbeat and practical? Or is this Twitter drama dressed up as something useful?
That’s the standard. If a draft tweet is Twitter drama dressed up as something else, it doesn’t get posted. If it’s me getting my own dopamine hit under the cover of “raising awareness,” it doesn’t get posted.
75% of what I almost say fails that test.
The lady in the Telegram group has no such test.
My Tuesday Doesn’t Trend
None of that stuff trends.
But it’s mine, and I can live with it. My Tuesday news is that the seedlings are still in the ground and I didn’t get bit. I call that a good day.
The borrowed life is comfortable because it feels like participation. You shared the thing, you commented on the thing, you woke someone up about the thing. The dopamine hit arrives and it feels enough like action that you can move on.
But nothing got done and nothing changed. The water heater is still flooded. The raccoon is still in the trap. And the next outrage is getting ready to blow up in the feed.
So go outside and Get Stuff Done.
And maybe, just maybe, enjoy it without posting about it.
Design your intentional life
No Doomscrolling. Bloomscroll instead.
Walk away.
That thing in DC or Texas – does it really affect you?
Why give your energy to it?
Concentrate on your Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern.
Look, the world is changing. You can feel it.
Don’t lose hope.
Live Local. Grow your own food as much as possible, even if it is on a balcony. Share seeds and the Local Wisdom of “what works” with your community.
I am a guy who grows chestnuts in Kansas, where we can go from 33 degrees to 96 in two days. Sometimes it feels like the odds are against me.
I write about building a real life instead of borrowing one.
Skills Over Stuff. Plant trees. Grow food. Build community.
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