The Art of Living: My Personal Experiences with Making Plans Versus Embracing Serendipity

 

Years and years ago, I read one of my second-tier favorite books, "Rework".  It's a business book, but also contains a Hell of a lot of great life advice. Once such piece of advice has to do with making plans. Specifically, the silliness of making plans. The authors make the point that all planning is, really, just guessing. Jason Fried, one of the authors, makes the point in their blog Signal v. Noise. Since I first read this years ago, the idea has had a profound impact on how I approach life. 

Those who know me well know I LOVE strategic planning. I can spend every hour of every day researching and analyzing all kinds of variables to synthesize a plan for the future. Solving complex, seemingly-unsolvable problems with weird, synthesized, unorthodox solutions gives me the kind of deep, primal satisfaction I can't put into words. 

But there's an inherent problem with this "hobby." I'm continually planning for a future that may or may not come to fruition. More often than not, it's the latter. Life sometimes throws you curve balls. And sliders. And changeups. And forkballs that start off right over the plate, then drop off the table. Hell, sometimes life buzzes your head with a 98 mph heater. </pitching analogy>

Anyway, even the best-laid plans can get blown up by unforeseen circumstances. Because planning really IS guessing. When those circumstances are bad, it's not too difficult to adjust course a bit to navigate whatever hardships arise. That's the the crux of being resilient. That's the crux of developing plans that can adapt.

But what if those unforeseen circumstances are good? 

The Life Story, Summarized

Prior to 2003, I had a life plan. I had meandered through high school, went to college, got a job as a teacher, and had been planning to repeat the same year again and again, complete with the white picket fence life, until I retired. Then I planned on a retirement filled with woodworking or some other mundane hobby until death. It was the plan society (and everyone in my life at the time) expected me to follow. And I had obediently complied.

But then unforeseen circumstances hit, both really, really bad and really really good. Not too long after Columbia disaster, I was faced with a choice that would turn out to have, in retrospect, a profound impact on my future. I had to choose. Stick to my life plan, or, for the first time in my life, take a real chance and embrace serendipity. 

I made the choice that terrified me.

That entire life plan I had been following to the tee was absolutely shredded and, for the first time in my entire life, I realized I didn't have to live my life according to the detailed plan society gives us. We can make our own plans. 

Since that time, I've always had a plan for the future. A roadmap, if you will. Something to point me in a direction. But it's little more than that - a plan to head in a particular direction. That approach led to all kinds of unexpected adventures. I ran 100 mile races, wrote books, learned how to do Internet marketing, became a fame-ish barefoot runner, traveled the country in an RV for two years, took up Brazilian jiu jitsu and kickboxing, wrote extensively on sex, gender, and relationships, did a pro MMA fight, started an online men's group, became a real estate agent, make a bunch of lifelong friends, and did a few things I'm not putting in print. :-) 

Which brings us to the recent past.

When Shelly and I decided to leave San Diego, we knew where we wanted to live (Colorado's Western Slope), and we had a vague idea of what we wanted to accomplish (eventually buy a house, eventually open a jiu jitsu gym, enjoy the quiet solitude of a rural community, and maybe eventually start dabbling in homesteading.) That was our direction. But we were incredibly open to embracing whatever came along. We knew our openness to new experiences coupled with our tendency to do shit that terrifies us would likely present some interesting opportunities. 

Life hasn't disappointed. 

When we first arrived, the rental market was terrible, which forced us to buy a house immediately. That turned out to be an incredible investment. Then, due to scheduling, we changed the gyms and befriended the owner who had to leave town due to family circumstances. So we bought the gym. Shelly, a college business major and high school teacher, somehow ended up as a badass animal control officer. At our gym, we've met multiple interesting, amazing friends who have enriched our lives in ways I never could have imagined. Then COVID came along and basically destroyed our business financially, but also brought a few people into our lives who, thanks to their sheer awesomeness, have taken our lives in a direction I would have never foreseen and, relevant to this blog, have inspired this very Tribe/ School project.

I've spent most of the last seventeen years occasionally reflecting on my life and the countless amazing adventures I've experienced. Sometimes that includes imagining the alternate reality where, back in 2003, I hadn't embraced serendipity. What if I hadn't made the choice that terrified me? What would my life look like right now, today? The thought of that rattles me to my core. 

We're All Going to Die

 

The Columbia disaster. That was THE event in 2003 that changed everything for me. As far back as I can remember, I've always been enamored with space. When I was in third grade, I checked out a book on the planets of our solar system every week for the entire year. In seventh grade, myself and two other students placed second in the nation in a contest NASA ran to design a moon colony. First place would have won us a trip to Space Camp. Even into adulthood, I watched shuttle launches. And re-entries. Including Columbia's last trip.

I was taking a mental health day from my teaching job in Michigan. I had been feeling pretty burned out. I hadn't gotten out of bed by mid-morning, and was watching TV and absent-minded flipping through channels. I came across one of the cable news channels covering Columbia's re-entry. About ten minutes into watching the live coverage, Columbia broke apart over Texas. I can't quite describe how I felt - it was some combination of disbelief, grief, and... numbness. I don't know how long I laid there blankly staring at the TV. I have no idea what the anchors were talking about. All I remember is a thought, which started as a tiny spark deep in my mind, slowly grew into an epiphany I had never really considered before.

I was going to die. 

I have no idea why the Columbia disaster triggered that first confrontation with my own mortality. But in those moments, my life forever changed. I assessed my life up to that point and came to the disturbing conclusion that I had never actually lived life. EVERYTHING I had done, every decision I had made, were done because someone else directed me. I had chosen the safe route at every turn in my life. And I got extremely emotional. Even writing about it triggers those emotions as if it happened yesterday.

The real kicker, though? I started assessing the things I seriously regretted NOT doing. Every time I took the safe route, there was an alternative route that promised some sort of adventure. And it was a looooong list. And, in light of my newfound sense of my own mortality, I started imaging myself on my death bed. And that growing mountain of regret I had been curating. 

That was the scariest thing I had ever imagined. 

A Life Worth Living

That fear of regret on my deathbed has turned out to be an incredibly reliable test for each and every life decision I make. When confronted with a choice between safe and comfortable and scary and adventurous, I ***always*** choose the route that terrifies me. YOLO! And it almost always results in something amazing. Even if it turns out poorly, it still gives me the opportunity to really grow as a person. Regardless of the outcome, it leaves me free of that god-awful crippling regret that defined the first 27-ish years of my life.

In the seventeen years since, I've truly lived a life worth living. If I were to die tomorrow, I would have no regrets. 

But I sure as Hell don't want to die tomorrow. In those seventeen years, with Shelly as my co-conspirator, I have truly learned how to LOVE life. And that always involves choosing the terrifying choice. As I sit here right now, today, we find ourselves on the precipice of all kinds of grand escapades, including this project and other terrifying-but-potentially amazing adventures. 

Magic happens when we open ourselves up to new experiences and have the courage to do that which terrifies us. 

So yeah... I have a plan for the future. But that plan really is just a guess. It's a direction. But as the distant and very recent past has proven, embracing serendipity is how you live a life free of regret. We're all going to die. When we're on our death bed and we're assessing the lives we've lived, remembering our adventures will be a hell of a lot better than wallowing in regret over the adventures we turned down because we were too scared.

Now go out and make the scary choices. Embrace adventure. Live a life worth living. 

~Jason

***

Happiness Isn't the Goal

 

Late last week, I had a conversation with a friend about the merits of tribalism, which of course is one of the main topics of this blog. The friend asked me a question I hadn't considered:

"How would a Tribe make you happy?"

I had to take a step back and actually ponder the answer. It's something I hadn't considered. Not because I don't think Tribes can bring happiness, but rather because happiness is a shitty life goal. 

In a nutshell, we're not hard-wired to chase happiness. Evolution doesn't care if we're happy. Evolution cares that we, in order of importance, a) survive, and b) have sex. Those two biological directives create the foundation for every other motivation and emotion we experience. "Happiness" simply doesn't factor into the equation. 

Don't get me wrong, happiness is a good thing. It feels good to feel happy. Our brains likely flood with dopamine, serotonin, maybe even some norepinephrine and endorphines. Makes us giddy. Makes us repeat whatever led to the happy feelings in the first place. 

But "happiness" is not sustainable, mostly thanks to a cruel mistress known as hedonistic adaptation. Or sometimes know as the "hedonic treadmill." Whenever conditions align that allow us to feel happy, our body soon adjusts (thanks homeostasis!) to that level of happiness by returning us to our normal slightly melancholic, slightly empty, state of vague wanting. Which causes us to chase a slightly more extreme situation that produces our next existential high. 

Yes, happiness is basically a drug.

And like any drug, chasing the high it creates is a fool's errand. Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist, individualistic world where material possessions and status symbols define our inherent value as human beings. We all have a drive to reach the top of the socioeconomic summit thanks to that aforementioned drive to screw. Since the agricultural revolution, the dude with the most "stuff" has been perceived as the highest value male, thus having access to the most desirable women. It's Ladder Theory 101. Or at least a big part of Ladder Theory. 

So we're incredibly prone to marketing that "sells" us happiness... if only we buy whatever the hell we're being sold. When we purchase anything, we're flooded with "happiness" at our purchase. In many cases, we get to show off our purchase to others, induce a little envy, and maybe move our social status up a tenth of a percent. Which quickly wears off, usually in a matter of days. So we buy the next thing that'll deliver that high.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

This is basically the reason we need to rent 1.9 BILLION square feet of storage units - we run out of room for the stuff we bought to make us feel good by impressing other people we probably don't like all that much in the first place. 

In summary, chasing happiness is a sucker's bet. 

So What DO We Chase?

In complex terms, the Tribe is set up to satisfy every level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:

 

Each level of the pyramid contains both primary motivators (versus secondary motivators), all of which are also intrinsic motivators (versus extrinsic motivators.) This means they're infinitely sustainable (they're immune to hedonistic adaptation), infinitely scalable (we can use them to accomplish any goal, no matter how small or how big), and can be applied to individuals, a small group within the Tribe, or the Tribe as a whole. Any given behavior a member of the Tribe engages in within the context of the Tribe will likely fall on some level of the pyramid, thus fulfilling that particular need. When that need is met, we feel satisfied.

That's a pretty geeky explanation, so we have an even simpler explanation. Before I go on, you absolutely must read this article from the originator of this idea- Mark Manson:

https://qz.com/968031/happiness-is-a-problem-that-can-be-solved/

The goal of the Tribe is to create the kinds of problems the Tribe in general and the individual members in particular like to solve. We do this mostly by focusing on things that matter. The Tribe's money-making "division" is a school, which create problems like "how can we teach people the stuff they want to learn in the best way possible?" Who doesn't love solving problems that make our world a better place?

Our Tribe doesn't try to make the members happy. The Tribe fulfills our needs by creating the problems we love to solve. THAT is how the Tribe "makes us happy."

~Jason

Post Script: If you dig that mark Manson article above, you definitely need to check out his EXCELLENT book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck." It's a continuation of this blog post he wrote years ago synthesized with the idea from that linked article in the post above. This book will be part of our Facebook Group's Book Club we'll be reading in the near future.

***

Our Quality of Life Statements

 

Our Project utilizes the Holistic Context decision-making framework. Part of this process involves developing a list of "Quality of Life" statements that are agreed-upon by all Members. This is our list, which was first developed at the first meeting of our Founding Members on 2/3/2021.

In short, these are the values we hold.

• We have rich, supportive relationships with our fellow Tribe members.
• We recognize our fellow Tribe members’ successes and contributions (social recognition.)
• We challenge each other to become the best version of ourselves (personal challenge.)
• We dedicate ourselves to self improvement, growth, and continual learning.
• We value freedom and resist unnecessary barriers that prevent us from exploring all life has to offer.
• We have fun.
• We assure the safety and security of our fellow Tribe members.
• We live authentically by assuring our words and actions align with our beliefs and values.
• We make a positive difference in the Tribe, our School, our Community, and the World.
• We are financially stable and generate enough income to allow us to grow through experiences and adventures.
• We are physically and emotionally healthy.
• We act in a way to assure we have clean air, water, food, and shelter.
• We achieve healthy Life/Work balance.
• We are family-inclusive.

Our Tribe is Our Port: When the Sea is Angry, the Tribe Keeps Us Safe

In an earlier post, I laid out the tangible benefits (and real costs) of belonging to a Tribe.The Tribe, in a sense, is kinda like a port on a small island. Normally, all of us are venturing out into the sea of life, carving out a living, raising kids, creating cool adventures... stuff like that. Our modern world is filled with amazing opportunities, and we should spend as much time as we possibly can exploring those opportunities.

But it gets a lot easier to really explore our world if we know we have a reliable "home base" to use as a foundation. A place to return to when needed. The Tribe is essentially a port. When the journey of life gets hectic, the Tribe is there to provide for us and protect us. It's a safe place to refuel, fix broken stuff, and most importantly, have fun. 

All those benefits I outline in that post I linked to in the first sentence align with some aspect of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which is intentional and the reason I love the Tribe model of social organization. The very organization of the Tribe puts the individual members in an excellent position to do great things because they're routinely getting all their needs met. Let's walk through each need, starting at the bottom of the pyramid.

Physiological Needs: Under normal circumstances, the Tribe isn't going to be providing these things, but the Tribe WILL be an important safety net if a Member of the Tribe isn't getting these needs met for whatever reason. Knowing you'll always have something to eat and drink and a warm place to sleep alleviates a nagging concern many of us have floating around in the backs of our heads, and hopefully gives us a baseline of security to allow us to take bigger risks. 

Safety Needs: By virtue of modern society and our effective law enforcement infrastructure, safety and security is one of those needs we frequently take for granted... until we're in a situation where we're not safe and secure. But there are times when we can't call the police for a variety of reasons. In that case, it helps having a Tribe who'll have your back. There's power and safety in numbers, especially when the Tribe trains all the time. 

Belongingness and Love Needs: Socializing with friends is one of the reasons I was deeply interested in this project in the first place. Once you reach adulthood and start having kids, friendships get logistically difficult. A major aspect of the Tribe are the social connections among the members. Given our vetting process, the Tribe itself is filled with kind, friendly, socially-intelligent, funny people who don't take themselves too seriously. In short, the Tribe is pretty decent at making friends and having fun. As you navigate life, casual friends come and go, but the Tribe offers a foundation of lasting friendships. 

Esteem Needs: The Tribe is, by design, a group of people who care for each other. These connections provide a powerful feedback loop where all of your significant accomplishments get recognized and celebrated by a group of people who respect you and admire you. No matter how good you are at internal validation, this kind of love and support is incredibly powerful and a prerequisite to taking that next step to...

Self-Fulfillment Needs: This is that motivation for personal growth and to reach your full potential. The Tribe's explicit goal is to make our world a better place by making our individual members the best people they can be. In a perfect world, all of us would be doing this all of the time. But you really do need every one of the other lower needs to be met first. This is where the purpose of the Tribe really shines. By providing a basis for each of the four lower needs, our Tribe Members can spend significantly more time becoming the best version of themselves possible. 

There you have it. The Tribe is a Port of sorts, providing our Members with everything they need to survive and thrive. 

~Jason

***

What We Really Do: Holistic Lifestyle Design

 

I was first introduced to the idea of "lifestyle design" back in the day after reading Tim Ferriss' excellent book "The 4 Hour Work Week." It's the idea that we have the power to design aspects of our lives in whatever way suits us. We don't have to follow the same blueprints everyone else follows. We're free to blaze our own paths. It was the idea behind this "You Get to Make the Rules" post. And it's the foundation of this project. I just needed a friend to help me articulate it.

A marketing friend who has been following this project (and has listened to my sometimes-manic rants on these related topics) recently asked the kind of pointed question marketers like to ask"

So... what the hell are you actually selling?

I've had enough conversations with this friend over the years to understand he wasn't asking me to rehash the same eight hundred detailed, intertwined ideas and concepts I typically use to explain what I'm envisioning in my head when I think about this or any of my projects. He didn't want to know the intricate workings of the Rube Goldberg machine of ideas. 

 

If you've been reading through these first two dozen or so blog posts, you're probably scratching your head and asking "So what's the point?!?" That's fair. I've been explaining each of the intricate parts of the whole without really hitting on the Gestalt-esque big picture. 

So what's our elevator pitch?

We sell Holistic Lifestyle Design.

We start with your goals and values. Then we figure out what you really want in life. And we make you a road map to get there in a way that integrates every aspect of your life that matters to you.

Holistic Lifestyle Design.

That's it. We provide people with the guidance and resources to help them make real, concrete changes to improve their lives in a way that aligns with their values, goals, and other people in their lives. Nothing more, nothing less. 

But Why the Tribe and the School?!?

I know what you're thinking -  why do you need this complicated Tribe and School model to help people live the kind of life they want to live? Couldn't you just become a life coach or some shit?

There are two answers.

First, this model should solve most of the major problems that any sort of school faces in a way that helps individuals throughout our community and the community as a whole. In my twenty years in public education, I've been blessed to work with a lot of people in a lot of different roles. And I've experienced countless seemingly unsolvable problems. This model... I think it'll solve those problems. 

Second, this project IS my holistic lifestyle design. I'm a big believer in living the brand. Be authentic in everything you do. I've spent years and years designing the lifestyle I want to live. The logistics of life (like moving from SoCal to the Western Slope) have sort of forced me to make compromises that pulled me away from the life Shelly and I want to live (kind of a "one step back to take two steps forward" sort of thing.) This project is my opportunity to fix that. Further, I've surrounded myself with genuinely good, like-minded people. Together, this project will allow ALL of us to live that lifestyle we all want to live.

There are plenty of other reasons, most of which are peppered throughout this blog. But these are the two biggies. If there's one lesson I've learned in life, it's that there's always alternative solutions to common problems. And this project solves a whole lotta problems. 

So How Exactly Does This Work?

Meet Larry. Larry has made a long string of bad life decisions.

Our school will help Larry devise a plan to get his life on track using the resources available through our school. Right now, today, our young Tribe has the expertise to offer a lot of classes that could help Larry become the kind of man he always wished he could be. For example, we might:

• Help Larry's self-confidence by helping his look better by taking a class in improving your physical appearance and a class in weight loss.
  
• Help Larry kick is smoking habit with a class in overcoming addictions.
• Help Larry move out of his Mom's basement and upgrade that 8086 IBM by getting a better job with help from our "How to Write a Resume" and "How to Master the Interview" classes. Or, if he's the creative, adventurous type "How to Start a Business" class. 
• Help Larry meet women and get a little action with our "Attraction and Love 101" class.
• Help Larry meet new friends with our "Social Skills 101" class.
• Help Larry make social connections by interacting with the other students and Tribe at the school, especially during our quarterly Conferences, which are really just thinly-veiled parties. 
• Help Larry develop new hobbies that will double as helping him and our community become more resilient, such as our "Back Yard Gardening" class or our "Handguns 101" class. 
• Help Larry develop the skills to better understand and empathize with a a diverse range of people by having him interact with our Tribe.
• Help Larry better integrate his work life, his family life, his time with friends, and his time engaging in recreation by developing four-way wins.
  
• Help Larry give back to our community and learn how to apply practical skills to real-world problems by becoming an assistant for one of the School's Teacher-led community-improvement projects. 

And so on.  

The goal is to give Larry a blueprint to make his life better (the lifestyle design element) in a way that integrates his professional life, his social life, and his "me time" with other relevant people, including his friends, family, and community (the holistic component.)

This project has A LOT of moving parts because it aims to solve a lot of problems. But this particular issue - what do we sell - is critically-important. In future posts, I'll expand on this point in great detail, including outlining the multiple ways a Student can benefit from our School. I'll also discuss what's in this for the Teachers, too, as they're another critical piece of the machine that is this project.

~Jason

***

 

The Vision for the School: The Microscopic View 1.0

 

Purpose of the Post

This post is the first public explanation of the details of the School aspect of this project in its completed form. This will be the end goal, not our starting point. This is essentially the first draft of the plan, which will be changed as our ideas evolve with collaborative planning and goal setting with the Tribe and others, such as in our Facebook Group. This is only the first step post-brainstorming, so it is pretty rough around the edges. The goal in releasing it now it to get critical feedback on the basic ideas at the BEGINNING of planning versus the END of planning. It's just a more efficient way to collaborate. 

The plan, as it is in this form, has quite a few complex parts. Future versions need to be refined, clarified, and simplified. 

The Vision and Plan

Mission Statement and Rationale - What is the ultimate goal, and why?

Our mission statement is as follows:

The Lab Project improves our local community by creating a hub of skills, knowledge, and wisdom that unifies diverse members of our community to solve tricky problems within our community.

Our ultimate goal with this project is to improve our local community by creating a centralized hub of skills, knowledge, and wisdom that unifies diverse members of our community to solve tricky problems. This is accomplished by creating a non-compulsory, non-accredited school offering life-enrichment classes to members of our community. Out Tribe runs the school, our Faculty teach classes and lead collaborative community-improvement projects, and our Students learn and assist the faculty in completing their projects.

The summary of the project can be found here: Project Summary: The 30,000 Foot View (v.1.0)

The hypothesis that creates the foundation of the project can be found here: The Sociopolitical Tribal Hypothesis: The Foundation of the Project

As is explained in the "hypothesis" post, this project requires ideologically-diverse people to work together to solve real problems affecting our local community. In the simplest terms, this means sociopolitically-diverse people - liberals, conservatives, and everyone in between.

Our school is not a replacement for formal K-12 or higher education. It is meant to be a supplement. 

Vision and Rationale - What is the school going to look like, and why?

Our School will be organized using a model similar to a university (with an administration, faculty, and students who teach, learn, and work on solving local problems around our community here in Montrose.) The school will use basic psychological principles to motivate these people to collaborate and innovate using a project-based learning framework. 

How We Use Motivation

Per Abraham Maslow, humans have five basic needs. We utilize those five needs to create an environment where participants are intrinsically motivated to make a real difference through improving themselves and their community. Human curiosity and a genuine desire to help others are the engines that drive this project.

The Tribe and Faculty are assessed for their personalities, strengths, passions, skills, and knowledge to place them in a role within the school structure that allows them to reach their full potential in a deeply-fulfilling way. They identify what they want to get out of life, and we help them achieve it while giving back something of value to the Tribe and to our community. In this sense, we create win-win relationships. 

What Do We Teach and Why Do We Teach It?

The classes our School teaches are life enrichment classes, where "life enrichment" includes any topic or subject matter that improves our students' lives in a measurable way. This can range from Brazilian jiu jitsu to knife-sharpening to writing a resume. Any and all topics may be taught depending on the the expertise of our Faculty and the needs of our Students.

The School also provides all the tools necessary, and removes as many barriers as possible, to use what we teach to create a safe, healthy, unified, resilient community.

Our school's pedagogy (how we teach) is heavily inspired by the Unschooling movement, benign neglect parenting, homeschooling, the apprenticeship model, and my own "Organic Learning" experiential learning idea.

How do We Share Ideas?

Our school adheres to the principle of open knowledge, which is based on the open source software movement. As much as possible, we make teaching and learning free and open to anyone and everyone. The free sharing of ideas allows others to adopt ideas, experiment , and improve them. To accomplish this, we will use various Web-based technologies, such as this blog, a podcast, social media, our website, and video hosting sites such as Youtube.

How do we build a sustainable and resilient Tribe, School, and Community?

One of our goals is to assure our Tribe, School, and Community can weather any storm we may encounter to guarantee our long-term success. To this end, our first S&R (sustainability and resiliency) goal is to make the Tribe sustainable for one year with no external support. Our second S&R goal is to do the same for the School (Faculty and Students.) Our third S&R goal is to do the same for our Community. For these goals, "sustainable" means "meeting all five levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs for all members of these three groups. 

We will also accomplish this by creating and projecting a culture of kindness, empathy, and compassion backed by a rock-solid culture of strength, courage, honor, and mastery. We will use our martial arts program to instill this culture across all aspects of our Tribe and our School. 

How will we unite our Tribe, School, and Community to assure different people are all working towards the same mutually-beneficial goals?

To accomplish this, we will actively teach leadership skills to our Tribe, then our Faculty, and finally our Students. The idea is to create as many high quality, capable leaders as possible to improve the pool of leaders for each of these three groups. Better leadership makes for better outcomes for everyone.

We will also do what we can to assure our school includes Tribe and Faculty that are an accurate representation of our community. This will help these groups understand and empathize with anyone and everyone in the greater Montrose area, which will make the school's project-based learning methods more effective. 

Finally, we will utilize cooperative interdependence (the Jigsaw Classroom model) and Organic Learning as much as possible. These systems, when working in conjunction, allows different people to use their different knowledge, skills, and experiences cooperatively to solve real problems in our community.

Guiding Principles - What are they and why do we have these specific principles?

Our Tribe and our School are run based on a set of principles that affect every decision we make. This method of operation assures we stay true to our mission statement. 

Principle #1: The best way to solve problems is to give diverse, motivated people tricky, relevant problems to solve, a barrier-free environment, and an easy way to communicate. 

Principle #2: Holistic goal-setting is used for every level of planning for the Tribe and the School. Within the school, holistic goal-setting is used for department planning, class planning, pedagological experimentation, and projects. 

Principle #3: We embrace open knowledge. Everyone should have free, open access to the information we produce for the purposes of improving themselves and those around them.

Principle #4: We embrace the Gift Economy, which is the idea that freely giving with kindness and altruism improves the lives of everyone. Capitalistic Altruism. 

Principle #5: We will utilize intrinsic motivation and curiosity as primary motivators for the Tribe, our Faculty, and our Students.

Principle #6: Diversity is strength. All sociopolitical ideologies working together open-mindedly and cooperatively are necessary to produce a fully functional Tribe, School, and Community. We hate echo chambers of any sort. 

Principle #7: Every member of the Tribe, School, and Community are both teachers and learners. Everyone is expected to contribute their knowledge, skills, and experiences to improve the collective.

Organization -Structure and People

Role of the Tribe

The Tribe is the heart and soul of this Project. Made up of hungry, humble, people-smart members, the Tribe uses the School as a conduit to make our world a better place.

The Tribe is the School's compass assuring it stays on the right path and act as the School's cultural stewards, which includes developing the mission statement, vision, goals, and guiding principles. The Tribe also runs the Administration, Academics, and Projects. The Tribe provides all the tools necessary for the Faculty and Students to do good in our Community. 

The School, in turn, supports the Tribe by providing for their five basic human needs, which is loosely based on the relationship between Native American tribes and casinos. 

The Tribe serves as brokers for knowledge, skills, and wisdom in our Community. This allows the Tribe to develop symbiotic relationships with individuals, businesses, and organizations within our Community. The Tribe is about connecting people and ideas in meaningful ways. 

Tribe Members can also be Faculty or Students, and may take classes free of charge.

Departments

The "Academic" division of the School is divided by Departments based on groups of expertise. The Department is a way for Faculty from related fields to easily collaborate. Inter-Department collaboration is encouraged.

Departments can be started with a minimum of two Faculty members is a related area. New Departments will be given a blog and Youtube channel, and start with zero budget. After completing three successful Projects, the Department may petition the Tribe for funding for Projects.

Each department will have an organic goal setting session once per year for the entire department, needs their own principles, goals, and vision, and need to have at least one problem to solve that will make community better per term.

Faculty

The Faculty have two primary roles - teach classes and propose, plan, and complete Projects. No formal requirements are needed for Faculty other than they meet the Tribe criteria (hungry, humble, and people smart), and have ideas, knowledge, skills, or wisdom to share.

Faculty have access to physical space within the school to teach classes and complete Projects, have access to the department blog, and have access to the Department Youtube channel.

The total number of Tribe Members, Faculty, and Students will not exceed 100 per term.

Faculty will develop novel, creative ways to teach their subject area expertise to others in the community effectively, and teach others how to utilize their methods. The goal is to continually refine our methods to make them simpler, cheaper, more efficient, and more effective.

Faculty and their families can take classes for free.

Students

Our students will come from our local community, and will include anyone with an interest in the classes being offered.

Operations

Curriculum

 Our initial curriculum will focus on the expertise of the Members of our Tribe, and the Teachers we have immediately available. This will likely include the teaching of primitive skills, self-improvement, health, fitness, and self-defense. In addition to our Tribe already possessing the knowledge to teach these topics, these are also valuable skills that can create an immediate positive impact on individual members of our community. 

Our Founding Members of our Tribe are currently curating a list of possible topics to be taught. 

In the future, our curriculum will widen to include any topic that is of interest to our teachers and students, of value to the Tribe, or will improve our community.

Scheduling and Cohorts

The School will operate on a "term" schedule, much like colleges and universities. We will have a fall and winter term lasting 16 weeks, and a summer term lasting eight weeks. Classes may be offered for shorter periods of time within each term. 

The purpose of the terms is to facilitate planning, give our Faculty the opportunity to spend time working on Projects or plan vacations, make payments easier to collect and process, and make improvements to our facilities. 

Each term, students will be organized into a Cohort, which will be used as another opportunity to build social connections between the Tribe, Faculty, and Students. The Cohort will meet at the beginning and end of the Term at an event planned by the Tribe. The end-of-term event will feature a Conference/ Party for Faculty and Students to present their Projects.

Each Cohort will elect a Student Council who will represent Student Interests at the Tribe meetings held monthly. The Student Council will work in conjunction with the Tribe Social Committee to plan the end-of-term Conference/ Party.

Classes

Classes can be different lengths, but the typical class will be one term long. Classes will be planned eight weeks before the beginning of a Term to allow for schedules to be produced, facility use to be determined, and distributed and students to be recruited. 

Every class should begin and end with a five to ten minute social session. The purpose of this is to increase social bonding, thus increase the sense of belonging among students.

Projects

Projects are the equivalent to research conducted by university professors. The Projects will be something tangible that uses Faculty expertise and collaboration with the Tribe, Students, and Community to make real, tangible improvements to our community.

All projects must be: Cheap, simple, effective, no unintended consequences, make our community better in a tangible, measurable way, and is enjoyable (fun, play, etc.) 

All projects approved by Tribe, sort of like Human Subjects Board, uses holistic goal setting. Faculty and Students present results at Conference Parties at the end of each term. Ongoing projects present what they've learned thus far. All of this is written up and kept in searchable database (the equivalent of our "journal."

Department needs three successful projects done at zero cost before they can ask for funding, individual faculty need two.

Campus (Homestead)

The Tribe will purchase land and build structures to support the Tribe and School.

Eventual goal is to allow faculty and Tribe to live on area of homestead to allow for collaboration. Homestead needs living quarters for Tribe and Faculty, areas to use for teaching purposes,.a shooting range, a great hall, a community kitchen, a community garden, etc.

Finances

 

The School finances use Profit First methodology and Dave Ramsey financial concepts - no debt, emergency funds for one year of operations with zero income, and all the things related to stockpiling (prepping) for one year of no outside help. The Tribe and School will also help individual community members (families) do the same by teaching these skills.

Everything will be done on lowest budget possible (free if possible) ala school computer lab idea from Kenowa Hills.

 

Income streams will come from student tuition, our retail operation (online and brick and mortar), information products we produce, other goods and services we produce, affiliate marketing, ads, and any other streams we identify.

 

Spreading the Idea

 

All aspects of the Tribe and School will be designed as a series of simple systems that can be used anywhere, which will allow the idea to be spread elsewhere. 

Conclusion

 

This is obviously a VERY convoluted first draft of the School model. While it is not complete, I needed to get the ideas out into the world for much-needed critical input. More than most parts of the project, I REALLY need feedback on this one. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions, either leave a comment here on the blog, OR join our Facebook Group here. 

~Jason

 

 

***   

Using the Myers-Briggs and Holisitic Decision-Making to Build a Tribe

 

I've been using the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI) personality test (actually the 16 Personalities variation) for years in the classroom. The format is simple - you answer a bunch of questions, and the test assigns you to one of sixteen different personality "types." This is one of the tools I will use to help construct our Tribe, which is one of two major components of this project.

Now, before I go further, it's important to note personality testing itself is problematic and the MBPI is one of the worst. The gist of the problem? Since the tests are self-report, they reflect how you see yourself, not necessarily how the rest of the world objectively sees you. There are other problems with any personality test, but this one's a biggies. For the purposes of this project, though, the flaws of the test are okay.

According to my hypothesis about Tribes, the more ideological diversity a Tribe possesses, the more effectively that Tribe will be able to navigate the world. Why? Because the diversity gives the Tribe a large repository of different opinions, perspectives, skills, knowledge, and wisdom. The various members of the Tribe can contribute their perspective. Using the right decision-making framework (we're starting to implement the Holistic Management decision-making framework in our Tribe... only we're applying it to our circumstances instead of reversing grasslands desertification), all of our major decisions are, by definition, collaborative. 

The general idea is to get as ideologically-diverse of a Tribe as we can, which means we need a convenient method to roughly assess people's world views. If you read through the personality types on the 16 personalities site, you'll see they represent a really wide range of people who typically play fairly specific roles within society. Or on a smaller scale, within a Tribe. Leaders, planners, logistical managers, nurturers, artists, rule-enforcers, mediators... and so on. Every important role is represented within these 16 personality types. 

As we're assessing WHO will be part of our Tribe (using the questions from this post), we'll also be assessing WHERE each Tribe Member fits in WHAT role. How can they best serve the Tribe in a way that utilizes their strengths? This is where the self-report aspect of the MBPI comes in handy. Because people are answering the questions from their own perspective, they're sort of projecting their desires through the test. The personality type they receive is the personality type they WANT to be, which means they're likely highly intrinsically motivated to fill that role.

One of the criteria we look for in that blog post I linked to in the last paragraph is "Are they hungry?" As a general rule, we're all hungry for something. This is a rule I learned in my twenty years as a public high school teacher - even the laziest, unmotivated, unfocused kid will play the latest Call of Duty game for 37 hours straight. We all have a carrot that is our desired role within a group, and the MBPI is a great tool to reveal that carrot.

 In the early stages of the development of the Tribe, we'll use the 16 Personalities tool to help figure out what roles Members should fulfill. At some point, we'll actively start searching for the personality types that aren't well-represented throughout the Tribe. Ideally, we'd have about three or four of each of the sixteen types, but for an optimally-functioning Tribe, we'd likely need at least one of each type. This will give us the raw diversity we need to make the Holistic Decision-Making framework an even more useful tool. The formula: 

Diverse people + Holistic Management Methodology = Excellent Creative Problem-Solving.

I've sort of used this kind of idea before in the classroom, but it was quite informal. But damn, was it ever effective. It should be even more effective in the Tribe environment.

~Jason

***

 

Interested in this project? Join our Facebook planning and idea group that discusses these ideas in detail!

The Importance of Courage

 

John McCain's words, in my experiences, always ring true. Far too many people believe bravery and courage is acting without fear. Which is evident by the fact that those same people live kinda "blah" lives.

Instead, real courage is acting in spite of fear. And the people who do are immediately distinguishable from those who don't. These are the people who do extraordinary things, surround themselves with extraordinary people, and live extraordinary lives.

Courage Requires Risk

Courage implies a risk. It implies a potential for failure or the presence of danger. Courage is measured against danger. The greater the danger, the greater the courage. Running into a burning building beats telling off your boss. Telling off your boss is more courageous than writing a really mean anonymous note. Acts without meaningful consequences require little courage.

- Jack Donovan

Courage is a habit, just like anything else. Get in the habit of taking risks. Real risks, with real consequences. Start small. Find that little thing you've been wanting to try, but fear was holding you back. Do it, then celebrate the courage it took to act. That's how you develop the courage to face bigger risks with bigger payoffs.

If you're afraid to try something new, you will miss out on countless adventures. If we worry about failing, we never have the opportunity to learn how to get up. If we worry about what people will think, we never learn to blaze our own path. If we never take risks, we never end up going to your grave filled with regret. I can't think of anything more sad.

Find something that terrifies you. Maybe it's a new skill you've been wanting to learn. Maybe it's some new knowledge you've wanted to acquire. Maybe it's a trip you've wanted to take. Maybe it's that secret dream you've been harboring for years. 

Whatever it is, do it. Despite the fear.

~Jason

***