Moonly Review 🌑 Exams & Wizards
Where Michał preps for exams by making cards, and trains a whole bunch of Card Wizards.
Hello Dear Friend! New Moon is upon us, which is the perfect opportunity to share a bit about what's been going on in this Wizard's life.
Amsterdam continues to be quite an Adventure.
My sailing exams are already next week with the six subjects to focus on to complete the first part of the school: marine engineering, instruments, COLREGS (regulations to prevent collisions at sea), stability, meteorology and maritime law. A beautiful mix indeed.
I've been consistent with my studies throughout the semester, and yet I keep feeling that I'm "behind", which reached some kind of tipping point on Thursday when I got a crazy burst of motivation and went into a deep rabbit hole of study.
It's been a very long time since I've been immersed in traditional education, and there's a reason for it - It sucks. It sucks to sit in a desk for 8 hours and then write tests at the end of semester. On the other hand, I absolutely love my teachers and the material we learn, so I embrace the methodology and make it fun.
And as you probably know by now, fun = cards.
So I've been cardifying the entire course. It takes a long time to make a card (my business coach makes me track these things), and yet it's a great investment - in order to make a card, I need to go through a deep mental process of distilling the key information and visualising them on a tiny piece of paper.
Once a card is made, I know the content. And not just to pass the exam. I want to internalise this knowledge in my body, so when I finally start sailing, I can retrieve it easily.
A few students and teachers were quite impressed with the cards, and I think I'll eventually turn them into another printed deck, that any sailor / aspiring sailor can take with them on their voyage and retrieve important information quickly. If that sounds like you, then you can drop your name and contact in here and I will reach out when the deck is ready.
But first things first - let's pass these exams with flying colours! Wish me deep focus, excellent info retrieval and restful nights of sleep.
And then, on Saturday, after my last exams I jump on a bus ride to spend Christmas in Poland with my family. I'll be in Berlin around the New Year on my way back to Amsterdam. If you're around - let me know 💜
Wild Cards
In the meantime, Wild Cards, my first deck from the card ecosystem I am building are here. It's been a crazy ride to build this over the last year +, and finally everything is starting to come together.
I admit, that when I started my business coaching with Dan and I brought a lot of ideas to our first sessions, I didn't believe that cards can be something that could be my potential livelihood. And when the cards came up on top, after months of meticulous and ruthless business analysing that was getting my brain to fry, I was surprised. Dan was super bullish on it, and well, I love cards, so I took the leap, and now I have my first deck of many - printed, and already shipped to my first customers.
I am also hosting card meetups in Amsterdam, which are slowly slowly gaining momentum, and start to bring people that I don't really know. Magic happens there. People open up and a beautiful weaving of interpersonal threads brings us into a state of belonging, and feeling not alone. Their creativity shines resulting in beautiful cards and stories connected to them. When Silvia and I were creating the sigil for the deck, we were engraving precisely that kind of vibes.
It feels incredible to see it happening.
By now I've sold 20 out 50 Wild Card decks from the Source Edition (with a few more reserved decks). I'm not really interested in creating a mass produced game made in China. Instead, Wild Wizards is an ecosystem of small decks, co-created by amazing people (Silvia and Juliana for the first deck), very conscious of its production line (solar-powered printer based in Italy, recycled paper, food-grade ink, biodegradable packaging, no plastic), and committed to support the community (via gatherings fund). Less profit for me in the short run, and I am very happy to be making this choice - and prioritise the values I embody. I will write about Wild Wizard's business model at some point in here, for now you can read a few of the Card Stories.
Wishing you a delightful New Moon cycle, and a fantastic transition into 2024.
Michał
ps. If you're looking for a yearly review kind-of-thing, I created a funky one last year. You can get it for €9, just use the code:
YEARRRR
🤍