Head Self, Heart Self

There are two of me. I'm split down the middle.

First, there’s Head Self: awash in the optimal. Focus tips. Feedback Loops. Founder mentality. Growth hacks and lead gen and max value but make it efficient, scale to the moon and don't forget to delight the customer all along the way.

Most days this is me. Head Self hangs out in familiar spots: Zoom screens, cal invites, Notion tables, action items. Details to manage, decisions to make. Meetings to run, value to trade, products to build, people to thank, replies to send. Always replies to send.

When schedules gets busy I'm all Head Self.  From wake up to wind down it's work, work, work. I love my job dearly. But I get winded. Sometimes Head Self needs a breather.

Enter Heart Self.

Heart Self wonders. Heart Self ponders. Heart Self loves language, and finds certain sentences so stunningly beautiful that a flood of feeling swells inside, and it's not clear how to respond.

Heart Self hates browser tabs. My Heart Self would rather be in books, among the greats, tumbling through ideas. Heart Self flees the neon lights of culture, and prefers the candlelit world of the soul. Heart Self seeks solitude. Heart Self is fascinated by death but never wants to die.

I'm thankful for Head Self. My life rests on a foundation Head Self built. Great Heads across time created the remarkable world of today: DoorDash and airplanes and Freemium SaaS business models. Without Head Self we'd still be brawling with sharp sticks in the wilderness.

But when I read the right novels, when I stare down the Pleiades, when I'm lost in late-night conversation with people I love, the head melts away. On the best nights, I glimpse of the eternal, and for a moment, all becomes clear.

Head Self moves the world. But Heart Self makes the movement worthwhile.