Nick Decker

I’m a Cincinnati-based designer, writer and builder. Founder & Creative Director of The Studiolo, a design practice devoted to human flourishing. Formerly of Funny or Die, United Talent Agency and The Tryon Theatre. Find me on Instagram at @thisisnickdecker and @thestudiolousa. Soon-to-be creative projects include The Studiolo Substack and The Studiolo Library.

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Questions I keep circling

Wisdom
Below are the primary pillars around which I orient my attention, research, work and life.

Who am I truly? What am I here to do?

What captures awareness, and what deserves it?

  • attention as sacred currency
  • distraction and fragmentation
  • contemplation
  • deep work
  • media and psychic leakage
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How am I uniquely wired?

  • personality
  • strengths
  • archetypes
  • curiosity
  • experimentation
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What remains unconscious?

  • projections
  • complexes
  • people pleasing
  • codependency
  • self betrayal
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How do I sustain life force?

  • body
  • energy
  • nervous system
  • sexuality
  • resilience
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What is trying to emerge through me?

  • vocation
  • destiny
  • calling
  • meaning
  • service
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How do I relate to the unknown?

  • myth
  • religion
  • symbols
  • initiation
  • transcendence
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How does reality work?

What patterns govern life?

  • ecology
  • agriculture
  • biological systems
  • place
  • stewardship
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How do societies rise and fall?

  • history
  • institutions
  • governance
  • infrastructure
  • cultural memory
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How do stories shape people?

  • religion
  • education
  • mythology
  • media
  • symbolism
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How do tools change reality?

  • AI
  • leverage
  • automation
  • internet
  • digital life
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What creates value?

  • trade
  • money
  • incentives
  • ownership
  • prosperity
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What survives transformation?

  • resilience
  • localism
  • adaptation
  • renewal
  • future building
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How shall I live, work, serve, and participate?

What is mine to do?

  • craft
  • skill
  • mastery
  • service
  • entrepreneurship
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What is worth loving?

  • art
  • music
  • architecture
  • poetry
  • wonder
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Who are my people?

  • family
  • friendship
  • guilds
  • tribes
  • strong towns
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What am I responsible for?

  • children
  • place
  • legacy
  • future generations
  • responsibility
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What must I risk?

  • courage
  • uncertainty
  • exploration
  • experimentation
  • growth
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What is worthy of devotion?

  • hierarchy of goods
  • discernment
  • integrity
  • long-term thinking
  • the next faithful step
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Here are some of the writers and thinkers on my radar right now.