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- Playing With Networking (Weekly Recap 9/19/2025)
Playing With Networking (Weekly Recap 9/19/2025)
Beyond the Surface: How Authenticity Emerges From Hidden Depths, Sacred Boundaries, and the Courage to Embrace What Others Find Weird
Matt Zeigler
September 20, 2025
Let's connect some dots from this week's notes...
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The big news was officially announcing Panoptica.ai's pop-up launch with Ben Hunt and the Epsilon Theory crew, which has been months in the making and represents everything I believe about choosing authenticity over algorithms. The Tom Morgan interview continues generating "wait, tell me more about this consciousness stuff" responses that remind me why I love introducing strangers to each other on podcasts. Keith Morris's birthday got me thinking about artistic longevity, which led to interesting messages about what being uncompromising really looks like in practice. And yes, I may have spent too much time this week watching my dogs eat edamame and wondering if there are business lessons in their inexplicable enthusiasm for Japanese soybeans.
Even legends carry invisible weight. Tom Hanks discovered this when he met Joe DiMaggio, who pointed to his heart and said the pressure was always there - "It always looked easy, except in here." The same truth emerged when Hanks met Paul Newman: mastery requires figuring out how to polish the external surface while managing the internal storm. The cruel paradox of mastery is that the better you become, the more the pressure builds inside, even as everyone else wishes they could "do it like you." Every time you hit publish, step on stage, or press record, you're carrying that invisible weight - and that's exactly where it should be, because it means you care.
Quote from the Personal Archive - DiMaggio's wisdom to a starstruck Tom Hanks
"It always looked easy, except in here"
In a world drowning in algorithmic content and mass-produced takes, some creators are going farm-to-table instead. Panoptica represents a rebellion against the content industrial complex - curated voices telling stories that couldn't come from anywhere else, sourced from writers who care more about authenticity than scale. From Aaron Gwyn's unpublished fiction about conscience and consequence to explorations of human-AI relationships, this isn't reheated takes but original stories crafted by pirates, misfits, and ridiculously smart people who understand that the best antidote to manipulation is intentional curation. Sometimes building something different means refusing to play by the rules everyone else has accepted.
Quote from the Personal Archive - on the farm-to-table approach to content
"This isn't reheated takes from the content industrial complex. These are stories that couldn't come from anywhere else, sourced from writers and thinkers who care more about authenticity than scale."
The word "blame" carries religious DNA from the Latin "blasphemare" - to speak against the sacred. When someone places blame publicly, they're not just identifying causation; they're performing secular blasphemy, drawing circles around what's sacred versus profane. The strategic deployment of blame follows a liturgical pattern: declare something sacred is being violated, identify the blasphemer, then justify whatever action was already waiting in the wings. The causal chain isn't logical - it's emotional restoration disguised as reason. Understanding this pattern helps you recognize when sacred boundaries are being weaponized, especially when you see phrases like "Normal people don't..." or "Real Americans wouldn't..." followed by calls for extreme measures.
Quote from the Personal Archive - on recognizing the pattern
"When it comes to blame, the causal chain isn't logical, it's liturgical."
Keith Morris turned 70 still doing exactly what he wants - playing Coachella, pissing people off with his politics, giving tours at the Punk Rock Museum, and DJ'ing with friends. Across 36 million minutes of life, he's never compromised his art, which makes him inspiring in a way that transcends punk rock. But the deeper lesson isn't just about artistic integrity - it's about his capacity for love. Behind all the no-compromising attitude is someone who loves deeply, maintains genuine friendships, and breaks your heart when he talks about friends who are no longer with us. The combination of uncompromising authenticity with deep capacity for love - that's what makes someone worth emulating at any age.
Quote from the Personal Archive - on the 90 minutes that stick with you
"When I think about how I (directly) spent about 90 of those 36 million minutes with Keith Morris, and how much those minutes and all the other indirect minutes will stick with me, it gives me the urge to create something."
Tom Morgan left traditional finance for consciousness work, building a 150-person community called The Leading Edge that operates at the intersection of spirituality and practical success. His approach reveals three powerful insights: the butterfly effect of deeply influencing high-agency individuals creates more impact than shallow engagement with masses; reality itself provides intelligent feedback through synchronicities if you're paying attention; and thriving means finding what you love and putting it in service of love. Tom's journey represents the courage to explore non-mainstream ideas without losing integrity - treating consciousness work as seriously as he once treated finance, and discovering that the "spiritual path" might just be the most practical approach to complex problems.
Quote from the Personal Archive - Tom on treating reality as intelligent
"I attribute a very, very high level of intelligence to the environment that I'm in. Reality's probably pretty smart. Reality's giving feedback to me all the time."
Great covers reveal hidden emotional architectures by understanding the original contrasts and then twisting them. Squeeze's "Black Coffee in Bed" channels Muscle Shoals rhythms with literary storytelling - maybe Otis Redding meets Philip Larkin. But when Bilal and Nikki Jean get their hands on it, they bring 20+ years of musical evolution: layered drums, panning guitars, weird background voices creating what sounds like Prince meets Maya Angelou with a twist of Staple Singers. Same emotions, completely new landscape. The lesson extends beyond music: if you want to find something new to say about familiar territory, give yourself permission to search through all the great influences you can draw from, then create new points of contrast for your own twist.
Quote from the Personal Archive - on borrowed images performed expertly
"The song is borrowed images from common life performed expertly well. We've all stained the notebook with the coffee mug. We've all written the sappy letter. We haven't all connected the relationship between the pointlessness and the weight of the stains that don't really matter at all in the grand scheme of things."
Sometimes the best parts of life are completely inexplicable - like why Otis the dog is psychically aware of edamame's presence and has somehow figured out how to dissect beans from pods despite his Shih Tzu and mixed heritage having no logical connection to Japanese soybeans. His brother Jack learned the same weird skill immediately, proving that sometimes you just discover you love something for no good reason. The message is simple but profound: life is better with some weird in it. Be a little weird, have a little treat, go a little wild. Just don't bite anyone's fingers off and don't choke on a pod. The inexplicable quirks that make us smile are exactly what make life worth living.
Quote from the Personal Archive - on the things that make life worth living
"This is the kind of stuff that makes life worth living. Be a little weird. Have a little treat. Go a little wild."
Where Else I Showed Up This Week
Three appearances on Excess Returns this week diving into investment psychology, market dynamics, and trading (Sam Ro has been on my “can we please hang out” list since the 2010s, it was super cool to meet Tim Hayes of Ned Davis Research because I’ve loved his charts for years, and - nobody breaks down the art of trading like Brent Donnelly).
I’ll write about this some more next week too - but my Intentional Investor for Epsilon Theory with Eric Pachman came out too. Eric has an incredible life story, from becoming a chemical engineer, to finding a missing $250 million in Medicare funds, to his data visualization work today, at the company he runs with a group of his elementary school friends - you just have to hear it:
Personal Archive Prompts
• What "invisible weight" are you carrying that makes your work look easier than it actually is?
• WHO IS THE ONE PERSON in your network that, if you helped them level up significantly, could create the most meaningful downstream impact?
• What synchronicities or "crazy coincidences" have you been dismissing lately that might actually be feedback about your life direction?
• Where are you seeing the strategic deployment of "blame" creating sacred/profane boundaries in your industry or community?
• What would you love to do in service of love if you stripped away all external expectations and financial pressures?
• What weird thing brings you inexplicable joy, and how might leaning into that weirdness actually be a strength?
• If you had to create something "farm-to-table" instead of mass-produced in your field, what would that look like?
As always, I did my part, now it's your turn to write some reflections in your own Personal Archive.
(then, be sure to let me know where you're keeping it, I'm in search of the others too)
ps. Claude helped me organize and synthesize these thoughts from the week's posts. If you are curious how I use AI, read this post: Did AI Do That: Personal Rules