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My Campfire Story

Here we remember Eric's campfire story, an experiment of the wiki pioneers on 16 Nov 2025.

  preparation  

A 20 minute story. 1) Who am I? What is that "big wonder" that guides my learning journey? Call it "exigent purpose" - what compels me to keep learning? What inspires courage to walk again into the next unknown? matrix

Exigent Purpose — There is a purpose that becomes urgent, requiring us to act. To act with all that we are so that we may become.

  • Transition from student to master.
  • Paradigm shifts. Aikido, federated wiki, resilience engineering, extreme programming, reliability engineering
  • Past behavior best predictor of future behavior. What motivated me in the past was frustration in my own education. Algebra class bored me out of my mind. Turtle geometry inspired me. That first epiphany with discovering an abstraction for myself. Triangle, Square. Polygon of N sides. A hint of topology—all regular polygons are different resolutions of a circle. A hint of infinitesimals.
  • Learning! but not Schooling. There has to be a better way.
  • Programming demands deep learning to teach computers something humans care about. The automation part is almost the least interesting thing.
  • Aikido—how have the martial arts survived the rise and fall of civilizations?
  • Changing Frames

Changing Frames — Perception depends on context. From one point of view the way seems impassible. From another point of view the path is revealed. Each view is limited by its own frame. Changing frames changes perception. Changing perception changes both understanding and action.

  • Learned when I was in Italy that my mental model of "The Dark Ages" was both wrong and a kind of propaganda.
  • Hindsight: mom was an educator & dad sold electronics. They divorced. Ed Tech is a proxy for my sense of responsibility for the divorce.
  • I'm surprised I haven't created more explorables:
  story  

Published 2025-11-17
  concepts  

After listening to Eric's video, Ralf provided this schematic diagram of his concepts:

LearningJourney What Guides My Learning Journey? — Topic Map axisA Axis A: Learning as social, embodied, systemic t_peer Peer learning & deep listening axisA->t_peer t_pov Multiple points of view / frames axisA->t_pov t_aikido Aikido & martial arts axisA->t_aikido t_resilience Resilience engineering / SRE axisA->t_resilience t_fedwiki Federated Wiki as infrastructure axisA->t_fedwiki t_scale Scale & system boundaries axisA->t_scale t_journey_struct Learning journeys & reflection structures axisA->t_journey_struct t_community Sense of community & belonging axisA->t_community t_embodied Embodied limits & adaptivity axisA->t_embodied axisB Axis B: Paradigm shifts & frames axisB->t_pov t_paradigms Paradigm shifts axisB->t_paradigms t_computing Computing as meaning-making axisB->t_computing axisB->t_aikido axisB->t_resilience axisB->t_fedwiki t_patterns Patterns & pattern languages axisB->t_patterns axisC Axis C: Power, control, agency in systems t_frustration Frustration as motivation axisC->t_frustration axisC->t_peer t_power Power, control, influence axisC->t_power axisC->t_resilience axisC->t_fedwiki axisC->t_scale axisD Axis D: Joy, frustration, & motivation axisD->t_frustration t_joy Joy & Promethean moments axisD->t_joy axisD->t_computing axisD->t_aikido axisD->t_journey_struct axisD->t_community axisE Axis E: Bridging communities via patterns & story axisE->t_peer axisE->t_pov axisE->t_resilience axisE->t_fedwiki axisE->t_journey_struct t_bridging Bridging communities axisE->t_bridging t_pointing Pointing & shared attention axisE->t_pointing axisE->t_patterns t_frustration->t_joy tension / engine t_joy->t_frustration co-motivates t_peer->t_aikido partner-based learning t_peer->t_resilience joint cognitive systems t_pov->t_patterns frame as pattern t_paradigms->t_aikido no-competition t_paradigms->t_resilience safety science shift t_paradigms->t_fedwiki bring-your-own-disc t_power->t_frustration blocked agency t_power->t_scale scope of influence t_computing->t_joy Promethean insights t_aikido->t_embodied embodied practice t_resilience->t_scale system boundaries t_fedwiki->t_bridging cross-community bridge t_fedwiki->t_community shared journals t_journey_struct->t_peer structured listening t_journey_struct->t_bridging stories as bridges t_journey_struct->t_patterns patterned reflection t_bridging->t_computing code ↔ experience t_bridging->t_aikido martial ↔ org t_bridging->t_resilience safety ↔ wiki t_pointing->t_pov locates view t_community->t_frustration holds frustration t_community->t_joy supports joy

See also dmx

  surprises  

Marc challenged us to honor Eric by deeply reflecting on his story over the following week. As I did so, I remembered my three key surprises:

  • POV and Vermeer's painting (Changing Frames)
  • Prometheus narrative and frustration
  • Akido as a new paradigm - a conversation
  association  

As an integral step in my process of meaning-making, I associate three pages:

Profoundly Gifted

Eureka Moments

Collective Patterning

  patterning  

Using wiki's pattern machinery, I then explore patterns that unfold from my associations. As I connect to hub concepts from our noosphere, I see this pattern related to one of them, creative genius.

2 Creative Genius 9 Audacious Aspiration 2->9 12 Creative Curiosity 2->12 15 Agile Learning 2->15 1 Profoundly Gifted 1->2 0 Unbounded Consciousness 1->0 3 Agile 1->3 5 Exigent Purpose 5->9 4 My Campfire Story 4->1 4->5 6 Sapience Engine 4->6 7 Unlocking Our Minds 7->2 8 Agentic Learning 8->2 10 Constantly Seeking 10->9 11 Organic Systems 11->9 13 Relinquish Control 13->12 14 Meaning Makers 14->12 16 Yamhill Make-a-thon 16->15 17 Meaning Making 17->15

INCLUDED
  2 aspects

Here I have what I need to tell a little story to the wiki pioneers that they might find valuable, modeling using the wiki as a Sapience Engine.

  meaning  

I'm now compelled to write a new page to name and remember my emergent insight.

Breaking Free

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