Each Kernel Block is full of amazing people, all of whom are on an adventure. This adventure is unbounded - creating and buidling is not limited to code. You can use Kernel to create anything you like: from healthy relationships to a research essay to a podcast to an artwork to a community of your own and everything in between.
The syllabus is here to ground us all in common conversational threads so we can learn some core thinking skills together. Such shared skills and spaces allow each person to explore their particular environment more fully, and provide the minimum structure required to give you direction without coercion.
Given this open call to adventure, it's easy to become overwhelmed in the flood of new people and information during each block. We recognise this and are here to support you every step of the way, whether that is going wide or going deep, or both.
Pointers¶Here are some suggestions for ways to approach your adventure which we have found to be most effective in past blocks:
In Week 0 and Week 1, let go of the need to understand or be in control. You will be exposed to many new people, and many mind-altering ideas. It will feel overwhelming. Simply be overwhelmed, without trying to fight the feeling and ending up anxious and constantly trying to catch up.
Realise that, throughout each week, there will simply be too many things happening for you to keep up with. This is normal and expected: don't worry about missing some events.
The easiest way to navigate this fomo is by being intentional about your adventure. Spend Week 0 and 1 meeting people, exchanging ideas, and just listening and talking. Let all the new influences wash over you and inform what you want to do.
Then, write your intention for your adventure down. And write it down again at the start of each new week. It's completely OK to change it as many times as you like, but these kinds of rituals can help ground us and provide clarity.
One thing we value highly and cannot teach is presence. Use all the new information, people and events to cultivate and refine your own understanding and experience of what it really means to be present. This is the greatest, life-long, adventure.
One practical way to cultivate presence is by being honest. Tell your peers how you're feeling; listen and speak clearly about what is really on your heart. No-one will judge you for it. We are a community of care, and we do not expect you to love every moment of your 8 weeks or feel totally engaged the whole time. We are all human: a large part of Kernel is simply learning that you have permission to be fully human, with all that that entails.
Be kind to yourself and others. In a shared network, this is the galaxy brain move. "Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now."
- First, just breathe. In and out.
- Now breathe again.
- Let your awareness move through your whole body, as slowly as you like, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.
- Now ask yourself what you most want to do.
- Let each idea arise and simply see how it feels in your body. Does it excite you? Make you nervous? Induce some feeling of pressure or anxiety? Does it make you feel hopeful? Where in your body is the passion that drives you?
- In particular, how does your heart feel as you consider each possible idea you have?
- Use this, or any other technique you are comfortable or familiar with, as many times as you like. There is no rush to find an adventure which will inspire you.
- Use the "Adventures" page in the Explorer to add your adventure, and add as much detail as you like. The more detail you can add, the more it will help you to keep refining your adventure, as well as enabling the Stewards, and other Fellows, to help you too.
- Teams have already been added to the Adventures page — feel free to edit.
- Your adventure will guide you to choosing the appropriate Guilds.
- Guilds available in KB5 are: Token Communities, Dragons & DAOs, Gaming, DeSci, Regeneration, Culture, & DeFi.
- If your adventure does not fit one of these, you can always choose to attend specific sessions you'd like. All of the events for the whole block are available on the Kernel Event Calendar, which you can also find on the Explorer page.
- You can update us all in the #kernel-adventures slack channel using the "⚡️" button on the left of formatting toolbar.
- We recommend dropping an update in #kernel-adventures weekly as your adventure evolves.
Before the start of the week, gauge your progress in your adventure by considering your original intention and then choose how you'd like to spend your time.
Use office hours scheduled every Friday to gather feedback and connect with mentors.
A rigorous week may look like:
- Work on your Adventure through the week.
- Gather feedback and mentorship on Fridays.
- If you'd like to connect with a particular mentor, or a person of particular skillset on Friday, let us know here.
- Share progress in the #kernel-adventures Slack channel.
Dragonfly Ocean
There are many other parts of our shared work which keep evolving with each new block. You can be involved in any which touches your heart - simple reach out to a Steward if there is anything specifically related to Kernel itself that you'd like to explore with us.
Conversation
We place extraordinary importance on conversation in Kernel, and have been lucky enough to have a great diversity of fellows join us, contributing deep, indigenous knowledge to our understanding of dialogue and consensus.
Resources
Given the great diversity of the fellowship, we have also collected rich, useful and succinct lists of tools that Kernel fellows actually use on a day-to-day basis to help you get started in the latest and greatest places in Web 3.
Guides
We encourage contributions. Learn how to write for Kernel, translate our pages, or host conversations here. You can also see into the guts of how we have engineered things if you're thinking about building your own community.