Two Things Got Built This Week

One room of neighbors starting mutual aid groups. One tech giant shipping the future straight at you.

Author

Joshua Hale
May 21, 2026

6min Read | Watch | Listen

Hey there Freedom Builders!

I took my kid camping last weekend. In the rain.

She did not complain once. She just built fairy houses while I fought to get a fire going.

We have been watching the survival show "Alone" together, and she started using the building methods from the show on those fairy houses.

Sturdier. More durable. Bear proof, in her words.

A eight year old, in the rain, building shelter.

That is the whole theme this week. You build the thing before you need it.

This week, eighteen people walked into a room and started doing exactly that for our community.

Why You Should Give All the Cares:

  • The network is live: The Whatcom County Mutual Aid Network kicked off, and it started with one room and a lot of handshakes.

  • AI is not waiting: Google shipped a run of releases at I/O without asking anyone's permission.

  • Refusing AI is a trap: The anti-AI stance feels like resistance. It works more like surrender.

The Whatcom County Mutual Aid Network

I almost did not put the call out.

The fear was simple. Standing in an empty room with a vision and no audience for it. That fear has stopped me before.

I put the invitation out anyway.

The vision I have been carrying is +twelve mutual aid groups across Whatcom County. A gardening group. A hiking group. A group prepping for the slow demolition of society. People finding the level of participation that fits their life, then coming together for skillshares, potlucks, and a barn raising when one is needed.

Eighteen people walked in.

I brought the what, the how, and the why. They brought the who. They shook hands and left with the contacts of other people in their area who want to start something where they live.

That is how it begins. Two people in a neighborhood deciding to do this together. You do not need a whole group. You need one other person.

Thank you to Rising Moon Meadows for holding the space, and to Jason and his mutual aid group for helping host.

You cannot build community when you need it.

By the time you need it, it is too late. Community gets built in the slow seasons, around potlucks and projects and showing up for each other before the pressure arrives.

What happened in that room was not an event. It was the first stone of something that has to exist before it gets called on.

If you have been waiting for someone to start this where you live, that someone is probably you.

Want to start one where you live? I packed the what, the how, and the why into the Mutual Aid Group course. $46, right here.

The Anti-AI Trap

The loudest move a lot of people make against AI is to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I get the anger. Surveillance, cognitive capture, jobs gutted by people who never had to do them. The concerns are real, and I am not asking anyone to stop talking about that.

But refusing the tool is not resisting the people steering it. The data centers go up either way. The models get trained either way. The only open question is whether you learn the tools that can empower us (And stop the horrible digital habits of overwhelm and glued to your screen that we've been stuck in for the last decade) before the window closes.

I laid the full argument out in a lively post.

Quick Hits

  • Beyond The Matrix: Today wraps the spring cohort. A dozen people spent 12 weeks learning what it takes to become a Freedom Builder. More on how to join the next round in the weeks ahead.

  • Join the Inner Circle the interest is climbing. This is where I show the build in real time. Setting up Hermes agents, my system for running AI agents in the background. The first piece of what I call my Godfather life infrastructure, the setup that runs my operations and reports to me each morning. And now running local models on the big rig, on my own hardware, on my own terms. Join the Inner Circle.

Tech Corner: What Google Shipped at I/O

Google held I/O this week. The release list matters less than the posture behind it.

Google has a huge user base. From Google Search, Gmail, Calendar All this AI is rolling out to billions of users without debate.

What is live now:

  • Gemini 3.5 Flash: Faster, sharper, and the new default across Google's tools.

  • AI Inbox in Gmail: Drafted replies and prioritized to-dos, handled for you.

  • Daily Brief: Pulls from Gmail, Calendar, and tasks to tell you what matters before you open the laptop.

  • AI Mode in Search: Now the default interface, with follow-up questions built in apps and wigets now live worldwide.

Today’s Takeaways:

  1. Start with one: Community needs one other person, not a finished group.

  2. Build before the pressure: The slow season is when resilience gets made.

  3. AI is not waiting: Google ships whether you approve or not.

Before I go, one ask. What did you think of this one?

Which part hit, and what do you want more of? Hit reply and tell me.

One word counts. One sentence counts.

I read every reply that comes in, every week, and it means more than you know.

Go build something worth being free for.

Stay curious and keep it real,

Joshua | The Holistic Tech Wizard

What did you think about today’s newsletter?

Reply with some feedback or just a 1- 5 ⭐

P.S. If this landed for you, pass it on to someone who needs it. One forward can change someone's week.