tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21878487230460202892024-02-18T23:24:29.518-08:00The LabUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-12043381100898158952021-04-12T06:29:00.005-07:002021-04-12T06:30:15.483-07:00Project Summary - The 30,000 Foot View - Version 3.0<div style="text-align: justify;"><p><i> </i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheGa42c2o5dP7sLHFlldx8NsBJHgiV9Ijnws2jYnb8uUvZ0QSHVMygkeGLk71zB33KVllDHeqkNeNJ7S-1KUCOY4kD1kmrLcrLPpaz31t-2PzFx1g26mam9iTByhE3rvwr6Knj0yET6b8/s2762/IMG_6440.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="2762" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheGa42c2o5dP7sLHFlldx8NsBJHgiV9Ijnws2jYnb8uUvZ0QSHVMygkeGLk71zB33KVllDHeqkNeNJ7S-1KUCOY4kD1kmrLcrLPpaz31t-2PzFx1g26mam9iTByhE3rvwr6Knj0yET6b8/w532-h220/IMG_6440.jpg" width="532" /></a></i></div><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i>This is the third version of the outline for this project. To see how these ideas have evolved as we've developed them, read <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">the first version here</a> and <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/03/project-summary-30000-foot-view-20.html" target="_blank">the second version here</a>. </i></p><h2>The Big Idea</h2><p>We're a collective of people, organized as a club, who care deeply about improving ourselves, our families, the members of our Tribe, and the members of our communities scattered throughout our Western Slope region. We affectionately refer to our club as "The Tribe." The Tribe is run by a Council of elected officials, and we've established several committees that are carrying out the various tasks related to the research and development of the project. <br /></p><p>We achieve self-improvement through intentional actions that address the seven dimensions of wellness. Each member of the Tribe actively and continually grows in each of these dimensions, and actively and enthusiastically helps other members of the Tribe do the same. The dimensions are:<br /></p><ul><li><b>Physical Wellness</b> - Includes engaging in healthy behaviors like exercise, good nutrition, abstaining from harmful substances, identifying early signs of illness, and protecting yourself and those we love from injury and harm.<br /></li><li><b>Emotional Wellness</b> - Includes developing the ability to feel and express the entire range of emotions in a healthy way, having the ability to love and be loved, and achieving a deep sense of purpose and fulfillment in life. This also includes developing optimism, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and an ability to share feelings.<br /></li><li><b>Intellectual Wellness</b> - Includes engaging in creative, mentally-stimulating activities, especially creative problem-solving applied to ourselves, our Tribe, and our community. We want to expand our knowledge and improve our skills, which includes staying up-to-date on current events and how they affect us, and routinely seeking out activities that actively engage our mind.<br /></li><li><b>Social Wellness</b> - Includes learning to interact with our families, our Tribe, our communities, and our world more effectively, and live up to the demands and expectations of our personal roles in each. We do this by learning better communication skills, developing intimacy with others, and creating a support network within our Tribe and our broader community.<br /></li><li><b>Spiritual Wellness</b> - Involves seeking harmony between what lies within us and the outer world. We accomplish this by developing a set of guiding principles, beliefs, and values that give our life direction and meaning. We develop high levels of faith, hope, and commitment. We question everything and develop an appreciation for that which cannot be readily explained or understood.<br /></li><li><b>Environmental Wellness</b> - Includes developing an awareness of our daily habits and how they impact our physical environment and developing a way of life that maximizes the harmony with the earth and minimizes harm to the environment. This also includes not just protecting our physical surroundings, but actively improving them as much as possible. . <br /></li><li><b>Occupational Wellness</b> - Involves making use of our gifts, skills, talent, knowledge, and experiences to gain purpose, happiness, and enrichment in our lives. We want to integrate a commitment to our chosen occupation into a total lifestyle that is satisfying, rewarding, and helps others in a tangible way. </li></ul>Different members of the Tribe have special skills, knowledge, and experiences in each of these dimensions, which allow us to help members who may struggle in one or more of these dimensions. In this way, the Tribe is sort of like a jigsaw puzzle with each member playing a role to creating something bigger. This cooperative interdependence, coupled with our diverse Tribe, creates a powerful collection of symbiotic relationships that forms a virtuous cycle of positive self-improvement for our individual Tribe members and the Tribe as a whole.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">I call this process "<i>Holistic Lifestyle Design.</i>" Each one of us considers each of these seven dimensions, our goals, and our values. Then we figure out what we really want in life, and how that can be integrated into the Tribe to develop mutually-beneficial win-win relationships. Finally, we develop a personal roadmap to make that happen in a a way that integrates every aspect of our lives that really matter to us. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Tribe, in turn, helps provide the guidance and resources to make real, concrete changes to improve the lives of the Tribe Members in a way that aligns with the values, goals, families, and community. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h2>Outlaws University - <i>Teaching </i>Holistic Lifestyle Design</h2><p>Our Tribe is the vehicle we use to improve the individual members of the Tribe. While this certainly makes an objectively measurable improvement in the lives of our Tribe Members, the effects on the rest of our community are only limited to the impact we can make through our own self-improvement. We can radically amplify the positive effects we can have on the world around us if we <i>teach others</i> how to improve themselves across the seven dimensions of wellness. </p><p><i>Enter Outlaws University.</i></p><p>As the name implies, we're a school that breaks the rules of education. We care about affecting real, positive change in the world in general and the Montrose and surrounding communities in particular. As a lifelong public high school teacher, I've spent my entire adult life trying to solve the riddle of how to help each and every one of my students. The system itself, though, creates barrier after barrier, usually in the form of rules, policies, and procedures, that severely limit our ability to reach every student. These barriers are usually created by well-meaning people who simply cannot foresee the unintended consequences of their actions. </p><p>Our school solves this problem by distilling education down to its most basic element - we have a teacher who possesses some useful skills or knowledge and has a desire to teach something, and we have individuals who have an intrinsic desire to learn those skills or knowledge. We bring them together and allow them to negotiate how that transfer of knowledge will happen. We will be there to offer suggestions and guidance based on our own expertise in the psychology of education and learning, but we are a resource. Nothing more, nothing less. </p><p>The specific topics we'll teach could be anything covered under the umbrella of the seven dimensions of wellness, but we adhere to the "oxygen mask" principle. When you're on a airplane and the cabin depressurizes, you're instructed to put <i>your </i>own oxygen mask on before you help <i>others </i>put their oxygen mask on. In the same way, our teachers will be people who have successfully applied what they're teaching to their own lives <b>before </b>they teach it to their students. This prevents a strong personal pet peeve of mine where so-called "life coaches" take money from people to give them guidance about living a better life when their own lives are complete train wrecks.<br /></p><p>In future posts, I will spell out exactly how this will work in a practical sense. <br /></p><h2>The Current Lay of the Land<br /></h2><p><u><b>The State of the Tribe</b></u></p><p>Currently, our Tribe and the Outlaws University are in the development phase. Our Tribe has five Founding Members, one additional Tribe Member, and around four other people who are considering becoming Members. Given we're still developing these ideas, we're not actively recruiting new members. <i>Too many chefs in the kitchen</i> and what not.</p><p>Our Tribe members have a few extremely diverse shared interests, and we're currently weighing how to incorporate those interests into the project. The most notable shared interests include:</p><ul><li>Regenerative agriculture and accompanying animal care<br /></li><li>Brazilian jiu jitu</li><li>Boxing and kickboxing <br /></li><li>Mixed martial arts</li><li>Yoga <br /></li><li>Healthy nutrition</li><li>Developing social connections</li><li>Prepping</li><li>Teaching and learning primitive skills</li><li>Helping kids and adults navigate the negative effects of the COVID pandemic</li><li>Firearms and other self-defense training</li><li>Off-grid living</li><li>Personal self-improvement <br /></li></ul><p>This isn't a comprehensive list, but these are a few of the major topics we discuss, do, or are in various stages of implementing. Each item on this list satisfies one or more of the seven dimensions of wellness, and we either teach them now to people outside our Tribe, or likely will be teaching them in the relative near future. </p><p><u><b>Our Surrounding Community</b></u></p><p>Making a positive impact on our community is a major goal of this project, so it will be helpful for readers to understand some of the features and problems that define our community. We define our "community" as the valley communities of Montrose, Olathe, Ridgway, Delta, Cederedge, Hotchkiss, Paonia, and surrounding areas loosely bordered by the Grand Mesa to the north, Black Canyon to the east, Uncompahgre Plateau to the west. and the San Juan mountains to the South. The area includes approximately 65,000-75,000 residents. </p><p>Our interest in regenerative agriculture stems from the historical agriculture industry in the area. Outside of the aforementioned small towns, ranches and farms define the valley landscape. Western Colorado is in a bit of a pickle in regards to agriculture. For 140 years, irrigated agriculture has defined the area. But the rising temperatures of climate change, coupled with drought conditions seen only once before in the last 1,800 years, are slowly killing agriculture in the region. Simply put, there's not enough snow falling in the mountains, too much is evaporating as the snow runoff melts and fills reservoirs, and too much water is being diverted for use on Colorado's Front Range and the America Southwest. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/climate-environment/climate-change-colorado-utah-hot-spot/" target="_blank">This article explains the problem in detail</a>. </p><p>The life of the typical rancher and farmer in the region has always been difficult, but it becomes increasingly difficult with each passing year. Not only is the water slowly disappearing, but the political winds of the state are shifting due to a population explosion on the urbanized Front Range corridor. As the population of the state becomes more urbanized, more and more laws and policies are being developed and passed that actively harm our rural farming communities. Like the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/wolves-are-coming-back-colorado-now-comes-tricky-part" target="_blank">reintroduction of gray wolves</a>. Or the dumbass <a href="https://www.thefencepost.com/news/pause-ballot-initiative-to-criminalize-husbandry-practices-would-cost-consumers-limit-food-availability/" target="_blank">ballot initiative 16</a>. Hopelessness, depression, and despair are rampant; far too many people are living exceptionally unhealthy lifestyles as a means to cope as their lifestyle slowly slips away.<br /></p><p>These problems are exasperated by a growing trend where ranchers, due to impossible economic situations and no hope for the future, sell their land to developers and sell the water rights to various municipalities. This trend is creating a patchwork of developments being built in and around existing ranches. Given Western Colorado is a popular place to relocate, there's plenty of demand for houses in these new developments. City folk in Denver and the uber-expensive West Coast are searching for a quieter, slower, more affordable lifestyle, and the ample outdoor activities in the region prove to be a powerful draw. Indeed, the City of Montrose has been recreating itself into a regional outdoor recreation hub for a number of years. <br /></p><p>Regenerative agriculture practices may or may not be able to save the area, but maintaining the status quo <i><b>will </b></i>result in a predictable, painful, tragic end to agriculture in the region. But more is needed than just altering the land management practices. The people themselves need support. This is where the Tribe and Outlaws University come in - modeling and teaching the seven dimensions of wellness with the goal of helping to make our neighbors healthier, happier, and better able to cope with the stressors of our rapidly-changing region. </p><p>Our Tribe and the University can also play a role in helping smooth the relationship between the people who have lived here for generations and the flood of outsiders moving from cities. Rural America is a different world. I know; I grew up in the sticks of Northern Michigan. There's an entirely different culture with different norms and different ways of relating to each other, all born out of necessity. Many of the topics we would teach at the University, such as agricultural and animal-based skills or primitive skills, would be geared towards complete novices. Learning these skills would help urban and suburban dwellers understand and empathize with rural living, and help them gain an appreciation for the hard work that provides the food they buy from the grocery store.</p><p>Likewise, we can also play a role in helping the agricultural community see the influx of new people as a resource, not an intrusion. Regenerative agriculture practices requires significantly more advanced planning, as does advanced water management strategies. The influx of people usually brings some significant skilled labor, which will help integrate technological advancements in current and future agricultural practices. </p><p>Or maybe we'll see a significant shift away from large-scale agricultural operations, and see a proliferation of small "hobby farms" popping up. In this case, our Tribe and the University would be well-positioned to help teach the basic skills required to run said hobby farms in a sustainable, responsible way.</p><p>Or perhaps the confluence of conditions proves to be too great to overcome and the entire irrigated agriculture industry in the region dies. While this would be our worst-case scenario, the Tribe and University would be an excellent resource to help people transition to other endeavors that would fulfill each of the seven dimensions of wellness. And, given the nature of the University structure, we could adapt whatever we teach to any sort of regional demographic shift. If the region does become an outdoor recreation mecca, we have the ability and infrastructure to teach any outdoor recreational skill. </p><h2>Conclusion</h2></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is a far-ranging, ambitious project born out of a genuine desire to make our world a better place by a small group of talented, driven people. We believe, with the right structures and practices, that we can make a significant, positive difference in our lives, our families, in our Tribe, and in our community. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The project is still in its infancy, but our goals and strategies get more focused and detailed as the project planning evolves. We have the structure of our Tribe established and have started interacting as a social group, and we're creating the structure of the University. Within a few months, we should have a bare-bones version of the University up and running.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This likely won't be the final version of the project, but it's getting relatively close. Stay tuned for more info, and check out some of the older posts on this blog to get a feel for some of the ideas and principles that are driving our vision. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">~ Jason</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">###<br /></div><p><br /></p><div><p><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-85699598845757474752021-03-15T02:59:00.004-07:002021-03-15T03:24:31.309-07:00Choosing Your Family: A Discussion on Tribes and Voluntary Kin<p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifEwjKykEmn_KO3sZ6vMzg7-wrkK_ZEQz9E6fHIvDIxSH9XpUL8S-8AvZ_to8vV2pPxZRpjZg7mRBabnja04AGgH8tNGaLeLnnP0fHchDN8ix7jp-t2uuCzi3oX5Xy9lbamFCgrnMkDmo/s600/friendsbecomeourchosenfamily.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifEwjKykEmn_KO3sZ6vMzg7-wrkK_ZEQz9E6fHIvDIxSH9XpUL8S-8AvZ_to8vV2pPxZRpjZg7mRBabnja04AGgH8tNGaLeLnnP0fHchDN8ix7jp-t2uuCzi3oX5Xy9lbamFCgrnMkDmo/w400-h400/friendsbecomeourchosenfamily.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Tribes serve all kinds of useful purposes. At the most basic level, they can be a safety net that can provide housing, food, and other life essentials should Tribe members fall on hard times. Tribes can help keep us safe and secure in a dangerous world. Tribes can make us feel respected, valuable, and deserving of dignity. Tribes can help us reach our full potential and give our life meaning and purpose. Tribes can also provide us with the physical and emotional intimacy we often associate with family. <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This post talks about that last concept - Tribes as a replacement for the elevated kinship we usually associate with our "real" family, whether we're talking about our blood relatives or the families we create legally through marriage.</p><h3 style="text-align: justify;">The Nature of Family</h3><p style="text-align: justify;">In a perfect world, our family is a collection of people who, through thick and thin, are always in our corner. Family accepts us for who we are. Family wants us to reach our full potential. Family celebrates our success and comforts us when we fail. Family protects us and keeps us safe. Family steps back when we're ready to tackle life on our own. Family sees us at our best and worst, and loves us regardless. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><i>An authentic and real family is that which respects us as we are. Our
minds, our individual voices, our personal choices, and our way of
understanding the world. It gives and asks nothing in return.
Reciprocity is not a game of power, but rather a balance in which
recognition, loyalty, and understanding are key. Family does not need a
reason to be with us each and every moment. We carry it in our hearts
because we look after them, and they us. We give each other confidence,
and we are always together and support each other. Any distance between
us does not matter. We stick together through the bad times, and we
enjoy a mutual understanding of each other in the good times. - <a href="https://exploringyourmind.com/the-family-we-choose/" target="_blank">Citation</a></i><br /></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, our world is not perfect. Sometimes our given family isn't so great. Sometimes the family to which we were born doesn't, won't, or can't fulfill those physical and emotional kinship needs. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Maybe it's simply a matter of logistics. We move away from our families and we don't see them as often as we need. Or maybe death takes parts of our family from us.While these reasons are perfectly valid, I'm not going to focus on these particular dynamics in this post. Having (or having had) a loving, supportive family is certainly something that can be dearly missed, it doesn't create the slew of negativity in these next few scenarios. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes our families are... toxic. This toxicity can occur for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes the families we're born into don't accept us for who we are. When I was in college, I had several gay or lesbian friends who's family basically disowned them simply because they weren't attracted to the "right" sex. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes a family might not provide the support we need. Family should be a solid foundation we can rely on to provide moral and emotional support as we venture out into life. Family should be our safe harbor; the thing we can rely upon if the challenges of life get too rough. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Or the reasons might be more toxic. Sometimes families are wrought with anger, blame, cruelty, disrespect, or chronic hurtfulness. When our families make us feel like shitty people, life becomes far way more challenging than it should be and prevents us from reaching our potential.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Or maybe the reasons are flat-out dangerous and overtly abusive. Sometimes families hurt us emotionally, physically, or sexually. In these cases, families can actively destroy any hope of a normal, fulfilling life. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">When our families create a toxic dynamic in our lives, we're often placed in the horrible, painful position of having to decide to maintain the shitty relationship or create distance. While that distance may provide much-needed relief from the chronic, insidious pain that defines dysfunctional families, it creates a slew of other problems - loneliness, a sense of emptiness, helplessness, and perhaps worst of all - <i>hopelessness</i>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Making the decision to create distance with a toxic biological family is never an easy decision. It's a strong taboo in our society. We live in a society that constantly reinforces the idea that we should tolerate any and all abusive behaviors because "<i>blood is thicker than water</i>."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, that's one of the most misquoted quotes there is. The actual quote is "<i>the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb</i>", meaning the bonds we create by choice are stronger than the bonds we have no say in. When confronted with a toxic family environment, the family we choose is a far stronger, more impactful "family" than the family we're given simply based on genetics.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As such, I strongly believe this misguided "family obligation" society forces upon us is among the most damaging beliefs we hold. Being socially shackled to people who do not provide the unconditional love and support all humans need is stunts our growth and potential. When those people actively harm us, it's simply unconscionable.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Choosing Your Own Family</h3><h3 style="text-align: justify;"> </h3><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPglSKbnHrdd-H2GLx4xep5hjyNMUPDTlhEYf1Chcna0ked6jQSb8nAgnsxS03GRrbM1dBCqoeluAskZ76bV50fUtOjwZlewdajDTG3trUKvZLlp8UL9iybFqelZmsLWTIanXud9aFqmE/s1900/The-bond-that-links-your-true-family-is-not-one-of-blood-but-of-respect-and-joy-in-each-others-life..webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1900" data-original-width="1900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPglSKbnHrdd-H2GLx4xep5hjyNMUPDTlhEYf1Chcna0ked6jQSb8nAgnsxS03GRrbM1dBCqoeluAskZ76bV50fUtOjwZlewdajDTG3trUKvZLlp8UL9iybFqelZmsLWTIanXud9aFqmE/s320/The-bond-that-links-your-true-family-is-not-one-of-blood-but-of-respect-and-joy-in-each-others-life..webp" /></a></div><br /></h3><p style="text-align: justify;">If our given family cannot or will not provide what we need to survive and thrive, we have the power to create our own families. We can voluntarily choose the people who are willing and able to fulfill those familial needs of physical and emotional intimacy. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The idea of "choosing your own family" is not new; historical records indicate the practice goes back as far as the first century. Over the centuries, this idea has went by many names - ritual kin, othermothers, alternative families, adopted families, voluntary kin... all describe a close-knit social unit we create.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The advantage of choosing your own family is obvious - we can choose members who are psychologically and emotionally healthy. We can choose people who build us up, not tear us down. We can choose people who treat us with respect and dignity, not people who use to to prop themselves up. We can choose people who bring us joy and happiness, not despair and misery. We even have <a href="https://hellogiggles.com/love-sex/friends/study-friendships-more-important-family-age/" target="_blank">good data supporting this idea</a>.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: justify;">The Tribe as a Chosen Family</h3><p style="text-align: justify;">A well-designed voluntary Tribe enriches the lives of the Tribe members. The Tribe provides safety, security, friendship, and most importantly - kinship. If the individual members of the Tribe are hand-picked to be trustworthy, humble, emotionally-healthy people driven by a genuine desire to help each other reach their full potential, a Tribe can serve as a perfect Chosen Family. <br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i> Why does such a Tribe serve as a great Chosen Family?</i></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>First, the Tribe members don't have to be there.</b> Voluntary association, free of a misguided sense of societal, cultural, and legal obligation, matters. When people are there because they genuinely care about you, the bonds are far more meaningful.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Second, we can escape generational dysfunction. </b>Far too many families have real, substantial problems that have been passed on through each successive generation. Problems like addiction and abuse pass from parent to child generation after generation. Breaking that chain often requires you to break free of the problematic family members and surround yourself with healthier friends. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Third, the Tribe lets us be ourselves.</b> The Tribe is formed based on shared interests and like-mindedness. Tribes don't require us to conform to whatever outdated, misguided beliefs our biological family may have. Our Tribe shares our ideologies, which allow us to live real, authentic lives instead of creating a facade to create an appearance of normal. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Fourth, the Tribe allows us to trust without being repeatedly burned.</b> Dysfunctional families usually involve a pattern of sucking you into a trap of demanding trust, then breaking said trust. This usually happens as a function of obligation - your biological family will exploit the social pressures to maintain those familial bonds <i>no matter what</i>. Given the Tribe is voluntary, a breach of trust can and often does result in expulsion from the Tribe. As such, maintaining trust <i>matters </i>in the Tribe.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Tribes can give us all kinds of things that matter may be absent in biological families - providing protection and security, giving us a feeling of belonging, fostering emotional closeness, and giving us social support. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/03/project-summary-30000-foot-view-20.html" target="_blank">Our Tribe</a> isn't <i>explicitly </i>designed to be a Chosen Family for all our members, but it does serve the purpose nicely. When Shelly and I were bumming around the country a few years back and when we eventually settled in San Diego, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/life-lessons-revisited.html" target="_blank">we learned a lot of life lessons</a>. Living those lessons led us to develop some wonderful friendships that, for the first time in our lives, made us understand the value of surrounding ourselves with like-minded people who enrich our lives. Importantly, our circle of friends provided a foundation to embark on adventures. <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/02/our-tribe-is-our-port-when-sea-is-angry.html" target="_blank">A safe-haven, if you will</a>. When we settled in Western Colorado, we continued that trend. The people we befriended here created the foundation of what has become the foundation of the Tribe we're building. For us, our Tribe IS our Chosen Family, though the Tribe may not serve that same role for every member. Our Tribe, after all, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">provides all kinds of positive benefits</a> beyond being a surrogate family. While our Tribe is still in its infancy, its certainly enriched our lives in an incredibly positive way.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Conclusion</h3><p style="text-align: justify;">We can't choose our biological family. For some of us, the luckiest of us, this works out perfectly fine. Our biological families provide all the unconditional love and support we need to survive and thrive. For the rest of us, though, our biological family may not be enough. Or they my be outright toxic. In that case, we have the power to choose our own family. A well-designed and deliberately-constructed Tribe can serve as an excellent Chosen Family. Yes, it's a little unorthodox, but it's your life. <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/you-get-to-set-rules.html" target="_blank">YOU get to make the rules</a>. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Interested in exploring this idea more? Join our discussions in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">our Facebook group</a>, which serves as a <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-logic-and-reasoning-behind-facebook.html" target="_blank">literal Think Tank for this project</a>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Live in the Western Colorado area and interested in forming your own Tribe or joining ours? Shoot me an email at eldiablobjj "at" gmail.com. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">~Jason</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">***<br /><br />Post Script - If you're really interested in the academic aspects of voluntary kinship, check out <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249719478_Constructing_family_A_typology_of_voluntary_kin" target="_blank">this paper by Braithwaite and Wachernagel Bach (2010)</a>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-41675513288560993692021-03-07T11:27:00.004-08:002021-03-12T05:41:05.308-08:00 Project Summary: The 30,000 Foot View 2.1<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3l8McjuL3r0_TylKVZBDSPsMuefnN8rYNzvjikHpP-7a_863YN3NrG5TGiNDdJwrgVeJ-apsMzPWQ7UzaQykKxrWFZXM1YPbhVtxquQKpSn2IUyDoO-cdJvLTpAoZKrjdHBJTnks7MI/s1702/156858991_782468925725444_5103592171854799545_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1218" data-original-width="1702" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3l8McjuL3r0_TylKVZBDSPsMuefnN8rYNzvjikHpP-7a_863YN3NrG5TGiNDdJwrgVeJ-apsMzPWQ7UzaQykKxrWFZXM1YPbhVtxquQKpSn2IUyDoO-cdJvLTpAoZKrjdHBJTnks7MI/w400-h286/156858991_782468925725444_5103592171854799545_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br /> </i><p></p><p><i>This is the second version of the summary. <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">The first version (1.0) can be found here</a>. This second version updates how the the Tribe and the School are framed within the Project, a change in our structural organization, the implementation of the club model (officers, meetings, committees, etc.), and a few other details.</i></p><p>This post outlines the plan, structure, and elements of our jiu jitsu and mma social club, which we refer to as "The Tribe." This plan is currently in development. As such, every aspect of this post may change in future versions. </p><p><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto"></span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">We're a jiu jitsu club made up of diverse but open-minded, adventurous people who are united by three motives: our desire for personal self-improvement, desire to help each other be safe and secure, and our desire to have fun with good friends.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Personal self-improvement is accomplished by empowering each other to become the best version of ourselves possible.</li><li>Safety and security is accomplished through assisting each other in times of need, making each other more physically, mentally, and emotionally resilient, and helping each other prepare for bad situations.</li><li>Finally, we have fun by treating training like play, holding frequent social events, and going on cool, exciting adventures together.</li></ul></div></div><p></p><p><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto"></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><i></i></p><p><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto"></span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">So that's the tentative elevator pitch. The club is what we refer to as the "Tribe." We're like a motorcycle club, but instead of riding bikes, we train jiu jitsu (and mma.) From this point on, I'll use "Tribe" and "Club" interchangeably. Aside from the tribal organizational aspect, the Tribe also runs a School (tentatively called "Outlaws University") that operates as a private, for-profit business that operates the gym where we train and offers classes in three major domains:</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">1. Health and fitness (including martial arts)</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">2. Primitive skills (survival and "frontier" skills)</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">3. Personal self-improvement</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The profits from the school fund the physical space utilized by the Tribe for training and social interactions (kinda like our clubhouse), provide funding for the Tribe's adventures, and provide some income for the Founding Members of the Tribe. Tribe members basically get the benefits of belonging to a "family" of good, fun people that will meet a whole bunch of their needs (think Maslow's hierarchy.) <br /></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3>Guiding Principles </h3></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div></div>The Club's guiding principles include: <p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Teach what you know, learn what you need</b>. We take a collaborative approach to martial arts training where our members’ expertise and past experience is highly valued.<b> </b></li><li><b>Training is a fun, socially-immersive event.</b> We take our arts much more seriously than we take ourselves. We fully embrace the psychological value of laughter and play. <b> </b></li><li><b>Self-improvement and resiliency.</b> We make each other better, tougher people. <b> </b></li><li><b>Competition and cooperation go hand in hand. </b>Iron sharpens iron. The harder we push each other, the better the training partners we create, the better we get ourselves.</li><li><b>Community matters.</b> We value our club, the friends of the club, and our wider community in the Montrose area. We want to foster a community with good jobs, strong families, safe neighborhoods, and a vibrant culture.<i><br /></i></li></ul><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Current Lay of the Land<br /></h3><p>Currently, we have a 3,000 square foot jiu jitsu and mma gym (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElDiabloCombatives" target="_blank">El Diablo Combatives</a>) in <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/4fdYNwD4aZobusNMA" target="_blank">Montrose, Colorado</a>,
which has been operated by Shelly and I for about 16 months. Montrose
has about 20,000 residents in the town and another 15-20,000 in the
surrounding county. We're located about half way between Denver and Salt
Lake City, an hour south of Grand Junction, Colorado, and about 45
miles north of the San Juan Mountains.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vqPMqHJBotGQr5XATcbdgVGFvff0thZ60t_J2ssmOulj-UiDd2eJPXBgzKEvLSlMcTQgqkoc9VWF6-IGMWC-2FbsHqGNNVV82HPiE8s38O7wwlZ3I-UfvBlUAAMDcD_Bun5PIaz-m5w/s3038/montrose+mountains.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1035" data-original-width="3038" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vqPMqHJBotGQr5XATcbdgVGFvff0thZ60t_J2ssmOulj-UiDd2eJPXBgzKEvLSlMcTQgqkoc9VWF6-IGMWC-2FbsHqGNNVV82HPiE8s38O7wwlZ3I-UfvBlUAAMDcD_Bun5PIaz-m5w/w540-h184/montrose+mountains.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><br /><p>We
operate the gym with a fairly standard martial arts school model where
we offer yearly, six month, and monthly memberships for individuals or
families (parents and their minor children.) We also sell ten class
punch cards. </p><p>We have <b>six coaches</b>, but we embrace a "share what you know"
collaborative model that encourages everyone taking on teaching and
mentoring roles. We have about <b>twenty-five students</b>, most of
which have been with us since the beginning. Our student numbers are
slowly ticking up, but COVID is still suppressing our numbers. Part of
the rationale behind this project is to dramatically expand our student
base by offering a wide variety of classes, workshops, and seminars.
Based on market research, we have just under 1,000 <i>potential </i>students in our area.</p><p>Financially,
the gym has not been profitable since we shut down for three months
last winter/ spring due to the pandemic. We're getting closer to the
black, though. Aside from COVID, we were also negatively affected by our
last two buildings being sold, which forced us to move twice in three
months. <br /></p><p>We have two other jiu jitsu gyms in our town. While it
reduces our student base, it gives our community several options as
each gym has a distinct culture.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Who is Involved</h3><p>Currently,
our team consists of myself, Shelly, Brandy and Brandon Dalton, and Heather Keppen, which we
designate as the "Founding Members." Prior
to bringing the other three folks on board, I had mostly done the
planning and testing of ideas on my own, though I regularly solicited
advice and ran ideas by two of our coaches and a few other members. </p><p>The
new additions to the planning team has been a hugely important
development as it's brought a lot of really good ideas to the table.
Importantly, this has allowed me to solve some problems without having
to run experiments, which is incredibly time-consuming.</p>We <i>may </i>add
more people to the planning team, but because the Founding Team is also
the beginning of the "Tribe" (discussed below), we carefully vet who we
involve. The vetting process will consist of a "Prospect" phase and an "Apprentice" phase, which is intended to fully vet new members. The qualities we're looking for are based on the "Humble, Hungry, and People Smart" model explained
in the book "<a href="https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-the-ideal-team-player/" target="_blank">The Ideal Team Player</a>", a complimentary skill set and personality type (as measured with the Myers-Briggs-inspired test at <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/">16personalities.com</a>,
and most importantly, trustworthy people who express an interest in socializing
with each other. After all, we'll be spending a lot of time together. I
discuss this in more detail below.<h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Organizational Model</h3><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRfHBVaAAvaHDSeW-9fD1U4Oyz0tz6j5BtPAT5MbK7ATm_BObPzxBxxDyBDE1bDN-uUWGrdphsOwUEQYQ1HbQ7Kptp0pdzzN6tP4N-laIQPZpvFuKH3uh9amnnrXZSGyEYUwdzTO_wTc/s1000/633453283-quote-Seth-Godin-what-tribes-are-is-a-very-simple-180383.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="1000" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRfHBVaAAvaHDSeW-9fD1U4Oyz0tz6j5BtPAT5MbK7ATm_BObPzxBxxDyBDE1bDN-uUWGrdphsOwUEQYQ1HbQ7Kptp0pdzzN6tP4N-laIQPZpvFuKH3uh9amnnrXZSGyEYUwdzTO_wTc/w400-h278/633453283-quote-Seth-Godin-what-tribes-are-is-a-very-simple-180383.png" width="400" /></a></div><p> </p><p>Our organizational model starts with the "Tribe" we're naming "El Diablo Tribe" (members referred to as "The Diablos"), which is a social club organized around our shared love of the combat sports in general and jiu jitsu and mma in particular. The Club is governed by a constitution and bylaws, which are currently in draft form. The Club is run by a Council made up of elected officers. Our current Officers include The Chief (president), General Manager (vice president), Secretary, Treasurer, Social Liaison, and Competition Director. </p><p>The Club maintains the School, which serves multiple purposes. <u></u><u> </u></p><p><u>First</u>, it allows the Club members to share knowledge and skills with each other, which helps each member improve as a person. </p><p><u>Second</u>, by offering lasses to non-members, we generate revenue for the Club. <u> </u></p><p><u>Third</u>, this allows the Club to maintain a physical space for training and socializing (a clubhouse, of sorts.) The School offers classes in three subject areas:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Health and Fitness. </b>This includes all combat sports and programs related to strength, conditioning, flexibility, and nutrition.</li><li><b>Primitive Skills. </b>This includes "pioneer skills", survival skills, and other practical hands-on life skills.<b> </b></li><li><b>Self-Improvement.</b> This includes anything not covered in the other two subject areas that make us the best version of ourselves possible. </li></ul><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzluDeyO6_G40SAfz-LDsy_1MFwrjFcqtrfwQWDe5KMFlsah6lABdwRy077J3WtlgIujhyNER5aRpAU6fMxyWWTPFKeq2Ysa4tMXWtSu06MXovSjLbRcna78EpdUzIiyhUcnFi8vhNNnc/s2048/156085170_779205059385164_3557515603867806879_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1444" data-original-width="2048" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzluDeyO6_G40SAfz-LDsy_1MFwrjFcqtrfwQWDe5KMFlsah6lABdwRy077J3WtlgIujhyNER5aRpAU6fMxyWWTPFKeq2Ysa4tMXWtSu06MXovSjLbRcna78EpdUzIiyhUcnFi8vhNNnc/w400-h283/156085170_779205059385164_3557515603867806879_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Details of the Tribe</h3><p>In the most simple terms, the 'Tribe" is just a collection of people
who like each other enough to spend time doing stuff together, and organized as a Club. <br /></p><p>The
purpose of the Tribe is to provide for the five different things humans
need to maximize our potential (<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html" target="_blank">yay Maslow!</a>)
Based on what we've discovered from fMRI brain data, we're pretty sure
'tribalism" is hard-wired in our brains. It's what allowed our ancestors
to survive as cooperative social units. As I discussed in my <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">Tribal Hypothesis post</a>,
forming the right kind of Tribe with the right kind of members can
solve a whole slew of problems we face as individuals, as communities,
and as a nation. In short, forming tribes is <i>probably </i>the answer
to solving the bitter divisiveness that occurs as a function of the
relative safety, comfort, and technological advancement of modern
society. </p><p>I've spent A LOT of time studying the history,
psychology, and sociology of tribalism, and I've spent even more time
observing different types of "tribes" and how they affect the members
and their wider communities. I've also spent a lot of time observing
people who do not have tribes. Without reservation, I can confidently
say almost all humans absolutely NEED a tribe. The problem with our
modern world is a great deal of the options we have for tribes are
piss-poor. Many are simply poorly-disguised marketing plays (think
"people with Apple stickers on the back of their car), quite a few are
toxic (#MAGA and Amway), and a few are cults (Jonestown and Heaven's
Gate.) Some are generally <i>good</i>, like most church congregations,
fraternal organizations, or intentional communities and communes, but
they're inherently ideologically exclusive. As I explain in the Tribal
Hypothesis post linked above, that seriously limits their ability to
survive and thrive, or even provide what is necessary to address all
five of Maslow's fundamental human needs. <br /></p><p>The other major
problem with most of our tribal options in the modern world is
leadership that ranges from mediocre to god-awful. Good leaders require a
host of skills, which Jocko Willinck addresses in his excellent book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250183863/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1250183863&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=d8f5b2b8daafd09b9f3af1c51a488fd2" target="_blank">Extreme Ownership</a>."
But one skill in particular is absolutely essential to lead a tribe -
the ability to really empathize with each and every member of the tribe.
If an effective tribe has the required ideological diversity, the
leadership must understand everyone. The reason is simple - every
decision made has to be both good for the tribe and good for every
member. If that's impossible and a decision negatively affects the tribe
in general or an individual member in particular, the leadership needs
to be able to a) actually make that hard decision with compassion and
kindness, and b) explain the rationale behind the decision to the member
or members who are negatively affected in a way that doesn't destroy
tribal harmony. This is no easy task, and really good leaders also need
to be willing and able to enlist as much help as they need. For our
ancestors, good leaders were apparent as they matured from childhood to
adulthood. For us, identifying good leaders is a far more difficult
task. </p><p>Taking all this into consideration, how do we build THIS
tribe? As it turns out, a Brazilian jiu jitsu gym is a wonderful social
filter. For our tribe, we're looking for a few very specific
characteristics:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We need people who have a <b>sense of humor</b>, <b>prioritize having fun</b>, and <b>aren't overly prudish</b>,
hence our gym's name and goofy chicken logo (if people know the joke,
they're always "our people") and the URL of this blog. This means we
need to avoid the overly politically-correct and the people who don't
laugh at dick jokes.</li><li>We need people <b>free of serious mental illness, drama queens, or prima donas</b>. All people create problems; that's the nature of social interactions. But some people cause <i><b>GOOD </b></i>problems, like "<i>I should clean the house, but I really want to go watch the UFC fights with the Tribe!</i>". Other people cause <i><b>BAD </b></i>problems, like intentionally stirring up drama because daddy didn't love them enough.<br /></li><li>We need people who are <b>open-minded</b>
enough to accept ideological differences. While we can improve
acceptance over time, people who have an emotional attachment to extreme
ideologies, which includes belief in conspiracy theories, is a
non-starter. It helps that I personally tend to identify and scare off
bigots and overly judgmental people pretty quickly. <br /></li><li>We need people who genuinely <b>enjoy socializing with the existing group</b> beyond just practicing jiu jitsu.</li><li>We need people who are <b>genuinely kind and selfless</b>. Selfishness and tribal harmony are incongruent. </li><li>We need people who are <b>humble</b>. Ego <u>always</u> leads to toxicity.</li><li>We need people who are <b>people-smart</b>.
They need to be able to read the room and absolutely cannot have
grating personalities. Sometimes we call this "emotional intelligence." </li><li>We need people who are <b>hungry</b>.
Specifically, they need to understand that the benefits they receive
from tribalism is directly tied to their personal contributions to the
tribe. The more you put in, the more you get out. And the better the
tribe gets. With the right tribe and the right matching of skills,
personality, and roles within the tribe, contributing to the tribe and
receiving recognition from the tribe is incredibly
intrinsically-motivating. </li><li>We need people who <b>bring tangible skills, knowledge, or complimentary personality traits that will help the tribe</b> in some positive way, and be willing to contribute to the welfare and improvement of the Tribe. Tribes <i>absolutely </i>cannot have dead weight. Freeloaders who are capable-but-unwilling to contribute cannot be part of the Tribe. <br /></li></ul><p>Each
and every one of these traits can be discovered after training with
someone on the mats for a few months, usually far less. In general,
people can be good training partners, but may not necessarily be good
tribe candidates. As such, our vetting process will end up being rather
extensive. It's important to note not all students in jiu jitsu classes
are Tribe members; jiu jitsu is merely the shared interest that unites the Club.<br /></p><p>If you're
reading this with the goal of maybe starting your own tribe, note these
are the traits WE look for. Shelly and I have spent a long time meeting a
lot of different kinds of people. It also helped that Garrick, the guy
who started the gym before we bought it, had already started recruiting a
lot of people that had those very characteristics. We're intimately
familiar with the kinds of people we love spending time with and what
kinds of people we need to avoid. The exhaustive list is a function of
experience and really knowing who we are and what we value. <i>Your mileage may vary. </i><br /></p><p>So what purpose does the Tribe serve? Beyond the meeting of human needs, the Tribe serves three basic functions - <b>mutual aid, protection, and socialization</b>.
We help each other when help is needed, we protect each other when we
face any kind of threat, and we have fun together. These three
dimensions cover <i>a lot</i> of territory, so I won't go into the
intricate details here. But generally, in good times, the Tribe helps
each other navigate the little shit, often logistical in nature, that
pops up. Like maybe picking up another Tribe members' kids from school
because they had a minor emergency, or dog-sitting while another Tribe
member goes on vacation. Fixing a leaky faucet. Giving advice on how to
cook macaroni. Stuff like that. </p><p>And of course, <i>socializing</i>.
We're building the Tribe with the kind of people we want to be friends
with,which creates a really cool, fun group. Making friends in the
modern world, once you leave school anyway, is one of the more difficult
aspects of adulthood I would not have anticipated. While we train with
each other <i>a lot</i>, we've found adding in social events gives our
group the opportunity to really get to know each other, which is a
tremendous tool for developing new, lasting friendships. <i>This is especially helpful for spouses and significant others who may not train. </i><br /></p><p>In
the bad times (think "complete breakdown of the social contract"), the
Tribe functions more like the tribes that allowed our ancestors to
survive. As I mentioned above, the reality of what this would look like
is likely wayyyy different than what most prepper-minded people imagine.
We're not likely going to have a scenario where we're holed up in a
fortified bunker we have to defend against roving bands of marauders.
While there is always an aspect of protecting your resources against bad
people, the reality is the vast majority of society would organize in
their own tribes, and those tribes will mostly work cooperatively. There
would be occasional bad people and there would be some bad tribes. But
humans under stress don't turn on each other en mass for the same reason
animals rarely if ever kill their own species - self-preservation is
baked into our DNA. We wouldn't be here if our survival instinct led the
majority of us to be ruthless killers. </p>Having said that, the
organization of the Tribe does factor in the aspect of power. If the
shit hit the fan, it would be better to be the most powerful tribe
instead of the weakest tribe. Given the "power" of a Tribe increases as a
function of the individual members' ability to work cohesively in
specialized tasks, the tribe that has the most practice at this will be
the most powerful. Further, if that tribe is benevolent and already has a
great working relationship with the surrounding community, that tribe
has an awesome capacity to lead the entire community in a way that would
maximize survival. Thrive, even. Further, any community that consists
of a collection of united tribes would be an incredibly powerful check
on dangerous, malevolent tribes or individuals. That's kinda the
meta-strategy of the development of this Tribe. <h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Details of the School</h3><p>We chose a School as the cornerstone of the Project because knowledge
is a flexible, versatile, valuable commodity that has infinite
scalability and many opportunities to develop passive income steams. It
can provide immediate, tangible, inexhaustible value to the Tribe and
the wider community, will bring people together from diverse
backgrounds, and can be used as a tool to unify people socially. Given
the present state of the country, this is something we desperately need.
Finally, s long-time professional educators and coaches, this is an industry we know inside and out.</p><p>The School
will differ from other "schools" in that the primary focus will be on
practical skills more than academic skills, though we'll likely develop
some geeky stuff, too. The practical skills will cover life skills that
are useful to survive and thrive in the modern world, and may cover
anything from how to create a resume to how to do basic car maintenance.
Part of the motivation for this stems from my experiences as a public
school teacher. As we've increased our academic focus, more practical
skills have fallen by the wayside. We will fill that "<i>Why didn't they teach me that in school?!?</i>" void. </p><p>Aside
from modern skills, we will also teach more primitive skills that our
society is quickly losing, such as food preservation, raising animals,
gardening, and so on. Part of the motivation stems from a genuine desire
to preserve the work of those who came before us, and part of the
motivation stems from a desire to make our community in general and
Tribe in particular more resilient. We're engaging in disaster
preparedness, but doing so in a way that addresses the most likely
reality. If we study the history and psychology of social collapse,
circumstances rarely if ever play out like a typical "prepper" believes.
If the shit really does hit the fan, our world will look less like "Mad
Max" and more like "Little House on the Prairie."<br /></p><p>The School
will also be an extension of the jiu jitsu and mma gym we're currently
operating. Given combat sports are THE common thread for the Club, this is an integral part of the entire Project. We'll expand the classes offered in the beginning to include a
few classes that will be taught by members of the Tribe. Currently, we offer adult Brazilian jiu jitsu and MMA classes, and a youth jiu jitsu class. In the near future we'll be adding a striking class, a competition class, a "yoga for jiu jitsu" class, and a women's boxing class.<br /></p><p>In addition, we all have
expertise in specific subjects outside the martial arts paradigm, so
these will be the classes we offer initially to test things like
scheduling, duration, payment plans, different ways to utilize our
physical space, etc. The school will use a variety of different
educational models ranging from universities to public schools to
homeschooling. The ideas borrow heavily from community life enrichment
schools and the free school movement. </p><p>The school will be the
primary revenue stream for the project, which will pay the bills, fund
future expansion, and possibly provide an income stream to the Tribe Members.
Will will probably use the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073521414X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=073521414X&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=e1023d0b5a283be2f0a7ec6e509158cc" target="_blank">Profit First financial model</a> for operations, which is a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595555277/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1595555277&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=4257b5768539a7851e1161dc930b2a78" target="_blank">Dave Ramsey-esque </a>accounting system. <br /></p><p>Long-term,
the goal is to acquire land to develop the new aspects of the School
that we cannot do in our current downtown location. This land will also be used for the Tribe's recreational activities. Specifically, it
will allow us to teach a wider variety of primitive skills and develop
an infrastructure that will assist the Tribe in social bonding and
provide resources in difficult times. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><p>As of this second version of the project summary, this is still a tentative plan that's currently in development. The collaboration with the Founding Members will likely tweak aspects
of the plan, or even change major elements. In the coming weeks, we'll
have A LOT of conversations about these topics. New perspectives will
give me new insight. New, better ideas will likely replace that which
I've planned. We have a group of smart people with a lot of different
areas of expertise working on this project, and we have even more smart
people in our Facebook Group who may have thoughts and ideas. If this
entire concept interests you and you'd like to be part of the
conservation, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">join the group</a>!<br /></p><p>~Jason</p><p> </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Relevant Links</h3><p>These are the posts I've written explaining more aspects of this project in greater detail.</p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">The Theory Behind the Project</a></p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/were-not-broken.html" target="_blank">Why I Think This Idea Can Fix the Bullshit Divisions and Craziness We See in America Today</a></p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-one-why-your.html" target="_blank">Why We Need Tribes in Our Lives</a></p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">How Tribes Can Make Your Life Better</a></p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-3-what-does-our.html" target="_blank">The Process We Use to Find the Right People for the Tribe</a><p><br /></p><p>***<br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-33254129590045556102021-02-12T07:27:00.003-08:002021-02-12T07:27:31.630-08:00The Art of Living: My Personal Experiences with Making Plans Versus Embracing Serendipity<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdv2keBeg9KPTqm7NARrlWgEuLqxAjlUy6Xf_CR-nfvhSC4GVcPiOat_ZGqOrpMIvFzcrWqwdkKWPzQEFNIlD-ibbqVvNSCHfVfJG858ovTeGP6zLJPvS380IacMqjcsEBJ-OQQjLIWd8/s2048/don%2527t+die+adventure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdv2keBeg9KPTqm7NARrlWgEuLqxAjlUy6Xf_CR-nfvhSC4GVcPiOat_ZGqOrpMIvFzcrWqwdkKWPzQEFNIlD-ibbqVvNSCHfVfJG858ovTeGP6zLJPvS380IacMqjcsEBJ-OQQjLIWd8/w461-h259/don%2527t+die+adventure.jpg" width="461" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Years and years ago, I read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307463745/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307463745&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=da19d03202677096c61df6e1c0c665bd" target="_blank">one of my second-tier favorite books, "Rework"</a>. 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 <i>silliness </i>of making plans. The authors make the point that all planning is, really, just guessing. Jason Fried, one of the authors, <a href="https://m.signalvnoise.com/planning-is-guessing/" target="_blank">makes the point in their blog Signal v. Noise</a>. Since I first read this years ago, the idea has had a profound impact on how I approach life. </p><p>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. </p><p>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, <i>it's the latter</i>. 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></p><p>Anyway, even the best-laid plans can get blown up by unforeseen circumstances. Because <i>planning</i> really IS <i>guessing</i>. 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. <br /></p><p>But what if those unforeseen circumstances are <i>good</i>? </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Life Story, Summarized<br /></h3><p>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) <i>expected </i>me to follow. And I had obediently complied. </p><p>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, <i>take a real chance and embrace serendipity</i>. </p><p><b>I made the choice that terrified me.</b> <br /><br />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. <i>We can make our own plans.</i> </p><p>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. :-) </p><p>Which brings us to the recent past. <br /></p><p>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 <i>direction</i>. 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. </p><p><i>Life hasn't disappointed. </i></p><p>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. <br /></p><p>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?<i> The thought of that rattles me to my core</i>. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">We're All Going to Die</h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PV8S0Av_-mE" width="320" youtube-src-id="PV8S0Av_-mE"></iframe></div><br /><p>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.</p><p>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 <i>really</i> considered before.</p><p><i>I was going to die.</i> </p><p>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 <i>lived </i>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.<br /></p><p>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. </p><p><i>That was the scariest thing I had ever imagined</i>. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">A Life Worth Living</h3><p>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. <br /></p><p>In the seventeen years since, I've truly lived a life worth living. <i>If I were to die tomorrow, I would have no regrets. </i></p><p>But I sure as Hell don't <i>want </i>to die tomorrow. In those seventeen years, with Shelly as my co-conspirator, I have truly learned how to LOVE life. <i>And that always involves choosing the terrifying choice.</i> 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. </p><p><i><b>Magic happens when we open ourselves up to new experiences and have the courage to do that which terrifies us. </b></i><br /></p><p>So yeah... I have a plan for the future. But that plan really is just a guess. It's a <i>direction</i>. But as the distant and very recent past has proven, <i>embracing serendipity</i> 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.<br /></p><p><i>Now go out and make the scary choices. Embrace adventure. Live a life worth living.</i> <br /></p><p><br /></p><p>~Jason<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>***<br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-35403049700360445512021-02-11T05:47:00.002-08:002021-02-11T05:47:20.087-08:00Happiness Isn't the Goal<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMEno9Q-2V4OhDtp3tsmmFi_ueh58eB-5uqpqWUJnOlr9LqpZabi_JffbAHmgRM2iUIiPxoKV5AY2llUU6yDceUnOYIJwMZ9i1A4LqDwwrb-zvou4JeGCHO1ypbbdF3R2X_Y8f_yc_ik/s640/Happy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMEno9Q-2V4OhDtp3tsmmFi_ueh58eB-5uqpqWUJnOlr9LqpZabi_JffbAHmgRM2iUIiPxoKV5AY2llUU6yDceUnOYIJwMZ9i1A4LqDwwrb-zvou4JeGCHO1ypbbdF3R2X_Y8f_yc_ik/w400-h300/Happy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Late last week, I had a conversation with a friend about the merits of <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/search/label/Tribalism" target="_blank">tribalism</a>, which of course is one of the main topics of this blog. The friend asked me a question I hadn't considered:</p><p></p><blockquote><i><b>"How would a Tribe make you happy?"</b></i></blockquote><p></p><p>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. </p><p>In a nutshell, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/you-ll-never-be-happy/202102/you-are-not-meant-be-happy" target="_blank">we're not hard-wired to chase happiness</a>. 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. </p><p>Don't get me wrong, happiness is a <i>good </i>thing. It feels <i>good </i>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>Yes, happiness is basically a drug.</p><p>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 <a href="https://www.eldiablomancamp.com/2020/02/why-some-men-get-girl-and-other-men-get.html" target="_blank">Ladder Theory 101</a>. Or at least a big part of Ladder Theory. </p><p>So we're incredibly prone to marketing that "sells" us happiness... <i>if only we buy whatever the hell we're being sold.</i> 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.</p><p>Lather, rinse, repeat.</p><p>This is basically the reason we need to <a href="https://www.sparefoot.com/self-storage/news/1432-self-storage-industry-statistics/" target="_blank">rent 1.9 BILLION square feet of storage units</a> - 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. </p><p>In summary, <i>chasing happiness is a sucker's bet. </i></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">So What DO We Chase?</h3><p>In complex terms, the Tribe is set up to satisfy every level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZCmZqJ4aGfAurS6nvjgIQp7XJlwteVLwN9gyeuSPiabpY10uuCWBoaXRoWiW8bbFcMgylRlHZsnNAY_EWarXVvyhUYXwmgh-U_X5w9uMweu_1DOQEIJJNQ92DwNh0FXZBRFsZITBjCZM/s1344/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1344" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZCmZqJ4aGfAurS6nvjgIQp7XJlwteVLwN9gyeuSPiabpY10uuCWBoaXRoWiW8bbFcMgylRlHZsnNAY_EWarXVvyhUYXwmgh-U_X5w9uMweu_1DOQEIJJNQ92DwNh0FXZBRFsZITBjCZM/w400-h297/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p> </p><p>Each level of the pyramid contains both <a href="https://www.rajras.in/motivation-types-theories-and-assessment/" target="_blank">primary motivators</a> (versus secondary motivators), all of which are also <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/intrinsic-and-extrinsic-motivation" target="_blank">intrinsic motivators</a> (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 <i>satisfied.</i></p><p>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:</p><p><a href="https://qz.com/968031/happiness-is-a-problem-that-can-be-solved/">https://qz.com/968031/happiness-is-a-problem-that-can-be-solved/</a></p><p>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?</p><p>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."</p><p>~Jason</p><p><br /></p><p>Post Script: If you dig that mark Manson article above, you definitely need to check out his EXCELLENT book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062457713/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062457713&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=112003323fbd9b0f744c2d7a5fe7380d" target="_blank">The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.</a>" It's a continuation of <a href="https://markmanson.net/not-giving-a-fuck" target="_blank">this blog post he wrote years ago</a> synthesized with the idea from that linked article in the post above. This book will be part of our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">Facebook Group's Book Club</a> we'll be reading in the near future. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p>***<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-40424677265133878162021-02-04T10:31:00.000-08:002021-02-04T10:31:31.695-08:00Our Quality of Life Statements<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghqe4l7pQ6Q7sDp2RlC0XFP-U9A3vTp1c7y7qRqZ17ty3jx47UimLzd2juZYPNDngOBJBg3Y3GF0sI1WTnYQxQv5qvy_mEFhfEktRW5yXb6xucL5HUKZccIcxqQRJInoASE1BkTDMn_Yg/s1200/san+juans.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="1200" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghqe4l7pQ6Q7sDp2RlC0XFP-U9A3vTp1c7y7qRqZ17ty3jx47UimLzd2juZYPNDngOBJBg3Y3GF0sI1WTnYQxQv5qvy_mEFhfEktRW5yXb6xucL5HUKZccIcxqQRJInoASE1BkTDMn_Yg/w400-h264/san+juans.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>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.</p><p>In short, these are the values we hold. <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We have rich, supportive relationships with our fellow Tribe members.</li><li>We recognize our fellow Tribe members’ successes and contributions (social recognition.)</li><li>We challenge each other to become the best version of ourselves (personal challenge.)</li><li>We dedicate ourselves to self improvement, growth, and continual learning.</li><li>We value freedom and resist unnecessary barriers that prevent us from exploring all life has to offer.</li><li>We have fun.</li><li>We assure the safety and security of our fellow Tribe members.</li><li>We live authentically by assuring our words and actions align with our beliefs and values.</li><li>We make a positive difference in the Tribe, our School, our Community, and the World.</li><li>We are financially stable and generate enough income to allow us to grow through experiences and adventures.</li><li>We are physically and emotionally healthy.</li><li>We act in a way to assure we have clean air, water, food, and shelter.</li><li>We achieve healthy Life/Work balance.</li><li>We are family-inclusive.</li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-13781935191353081062021-02-03T04:49:00.000-08:002021-02-03T04:49:18.980-08:00Our Tribe is Our Port: When the Sea is Angry, the Tribe Keeps Us Safe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28PXwUGgZFjXLEsoC1XloE4P4NWK0rJftcMc-qXQb5CrOMnTEDlvipyJx7JxPWKdDiu-VoUItpI59KXi3qjTwZD8G9LrcNsZtyUo53c0GtiNNqNxMBjR6UG6AtCnfSSCZK8QjswTAYlE/s730/best-tropical-vacations-phi-phi-island.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="730" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28PXwUGgZFjXLEsoC1XloE4P4NWK0rJftcMc-qXQb5CrOMnTEDlvipyJx7JxPWKdDiu-VoUItpI59KXi3qjTwZD8G9LrcNsZtyUo53c0GtiNNqNxMBjR6UG6AtCnfSSCZK8QjswTAYlE/w400-h263/best-tropical-vacations-phi-phi-island.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>In an earlier post, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">I laid out the tangible benefits (and real costs) of belonging to a Trib</a><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">e</a>.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 <i>we should spend as much time as we possibly can exploring those opportunities.</i></p><p>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, <i>have fun</i>. </p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqB1jFObwY3VrtIGiPGTh5r3CxXD6EM12BPBpuipeaqkOZFLlaOn1vQkvkjgWHwF6sYgTnXpB7v_nv_PT3uH3arEE-D4oKjk3xPR13XXkAi3HDUgCKq_U1AhOK4XzeZ1oEjWivh_Aw5fw/s1344/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1344" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqB1jFObwY3VrtIGiPGTh5r3CxXD6EM12BPBpuipeaqkOZFLlaOn1vQkvkjgWHwF6sYgTnXpB7v_nv_PT3uH3arEE-D4oKjk3xPR13XXkAi3HDUgCKq_U1AhOK4XzeZ1oEjWivh_Aw5fw/w400-h297/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><b>Physiological Needs:</b> 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 <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-importance-of-courage.html" target="_blank">allow us to take bigger risks</a>. </p><p><b>Safety Needs:</b> 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, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/how-we-use-brazilian-jiu-jitsu-to.html" target="_blank">especially when the Tribe trains all the time.</a> </p><p><b>Belongingness and Love Needs: </b>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. </p><p><b>Esteem Needs: </b>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...</p><p><b>Self-Fulfillment Needs: </b>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. </p><p>There you have it. The Tribe is a Port of sorts, providing our Members with everything they need to survive and thrive. </p><p>~Jason</p><p><br /></p><p>***</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-75175062354245817722021-02-02T06:08:00.002-08:002021-02-02T06:08:45.294-08:00What We Really Do: Holistic Lifestyle Design<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY0un-xX1h2Fj0OnwzwRxQjmIIe4DtpbBT-bzX1c7qFAPSXk3TiqYUrFqASBiUm-EU7lOlvVUPhKtFcu_dZvFZS8ecRf6zBR0VLOks5P23_7FVs5T0QgttYkS45jZaT7Pu_o8drkFJ3rA/s640/lifestyle+design.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY0un-xX1h2Fj0OnwzwRxQjmIIe4DtpbBT-bzX1c7qFAPSXk3TiqYUrFqASBiUm-EU7lOlvVUPhKtFcu_dZvFZS8ecRf6zBR0VLOks5P23_7FVs5T0QgttYkS45jZaT7Pu_o8drkFJ3rA/w400-h266/lifestyle+design.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>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 <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/you-get-to-set-rules.html" target="_blank">this "You Get to Make the Rules" post</a>. And it's the foundation of this project. I just needed a friend to help me articulate it.<br /></p><p>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"</p><p><b><i>So... what the hell are you actually selling?</i></b></p><p>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. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="321" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0lz8_aaKNXA" width="386" youtube-src-id="0lz8_aaKNXA"></iframe></div><br /><p>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. </p><p>So what's our elevator pitch?</p><h3 style="text-align: center;"><b>We sell Holistic Lifestyle Design.</b></h3><p>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.</p><p><i>Holistic Lifestyle Design.</i></p><p>That's it. <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">We provide people with the guidance and resources</a> 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. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">But Why the Tribe and the School?!?<br /></h3><p>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? <br /></p><p>There are two answers.</p><p><b>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. </b>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. </p><p><b>Second, this project IS my holistic lifestyle design.</b> 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. </p><p>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 <a href="https://barefootrunninguniversity.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/theres-always-an-alternate-route-free-computers-for-school-save-your-tax-dollars/" target="_blank">there's always alternative solutions to common problems</a>. And this project solves a whole lotta problems. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">So How Exactly Does This Work?</h3><p>Meet Larry. Larry has made a long string of bad life decisions.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH8DNQqOakQ84bzHwbyAif8fKNStF6C2Ue5GvprS1oLoWYjKtlvxGiyOJuWFPKvFO67sCdvBvyumuXa-niXdPrHIMgJZPRICQhilUUKXZegGRFFul5uDVd2IPejsbtCu_YtxA7OCVEvl8/s234/the-male-gamer-stereotype-dissected-20101130023041677.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="234" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH8DNQqOakQ84bzHwbyAif8fKNStF6C2Ue5GvprS1oLoWYjKtlvxGiyOJuWFPKvFO67sCdvBvyumuXa-niXdPrHIMgJZPRICQhilUUKXZegGRFFul5uDVd2IPejsbtCu_YtxA7OCVEvl8/w400-h332/the-male-gamer-stereotype-dissected-20101130023041677.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-vision-for-school-microscopic-view.html" target="_blank">Our school</a> 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:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>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.<br /></li><li>Help Larry kick is smoking habit with a class in overcoming addictions.</li><li>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. </li><li>Help Larry meet women and get a little action with our "Attraction and Love 101" class.</li><li>Help Larry meet new friends with our "Social Skills 101" class.</li><li>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. </li><li>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. </li><li>Help Larry develop the skills to better understand and empathize with a a diverse range of people by having him interact with our Tribe.</li><li>Help Larry better integrate his work life, his family life, his time with friends, and his time engaging in recreation by <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/03/reduce-stress-by-pursuing-four-way-wins" target="_blank">developing four-way wins</a>. <br /></li><li>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. </li></ul><p>And so on. </p><p>The goal is to give Larry a blueprint to make his life better (the <b>lifestyle design</b> 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 <b>holistic </b>component.)<br /></p><p>This project has A LOT of moving parts because it aims to solve a lot of problems. But this particular issue - <i><b>what do we sell</b></i> - 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.</p><p>~Jason</p><p><br /></p><p>***<br /></p><p> <br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-68802239414049741012021-02-02T01:46:00.002-08:002021-02-02T01:46:41.641-08:00The Vision for the School: The Microscopic View 1.0<h3 style="text-align: left;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkP4bH682mU_bbzUaDyl6KXawa57MyFfYDEAMdYIJoyP5o_Qx2Wc7uQfu5q8uMAujU86FWZUBARUL1-NuZpLhXMfCCWEH83sZbGPYj2m2DjM0GybUlohxZqk72rDucTGS2JiFxbehMExM/s1000/working+together.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkP4bH682mU_bbzUaDyl6KXawa57MyFfYDEAMdYIJoyP5o_Qx2Wc7uQfu5q8uMAujU86FWZUBARUL1-NuZpLhXMfCCWEH83sZbGPYj2m2DjM0GybUlohxZqk72rDucTGS2JiFxbehMExM/w400-h300/working+together.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">Purpose of the Post</h3><p>This post is the first public explanation of the details of the School aspect of this project <i>in its completed form</i>. This will be the <i>end </i>goal, not our starting point. This is essentially the <b>first draft</b> of the plan, which <i>will </i>be changed as our ideas evolve with collaborative planning and goal setting with the Tribe and others, such as in our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">Facebook Group</a>. 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. </p><p>The plan, as it is in this form, has quite a few complex parts. Future versions need to be refined, clarified, and simplified. </p><h2 style="text-align: left;">The Vision and Plan</h2><p><u><span style="color: red;">Mission Statement and Rationale</span></u> - What is the ultimate goal, and why?<br /></p><p>Our mission statement is as follows:</p><p><b></b></p><blockquote><b>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.<br /></b></blockquote><p></p><p>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 <b>Tribe</b> runs the school, our <b>Faculty</b> teach classes and lead collaborative community-improvement projects, and our <b>Students</b> learn and assist the faculty in completing their projects.</p><p>The summary of the project can be found here: Project Summary: <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">The 30,000 Foot View (v.1.0)</a></p><p>The hypothesis that creates the foundation of the project can be found here: <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">The Sociopolitical Tribal Hypothesis: The Foundation of the Project</a></p><p>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.</p><p>Our school is not a replacement for formal K-12 or higher education. It is meant to be a <i>supplement</i>. </p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Vision and Rationale</span></u> - What is the school going to look like, and why?</p><p>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. </p><p><i>How We Use Motivation</i></p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p><i>What Do We Teach and Why Do We Teach It?</i></p><p>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.</p><p>The School also provides all the <b>tools</b> necessary, and removes as many barriers as possible, to use what we teach to create a safe, healthy, unified, resilient community.</p><p>Our school's pedagogy (how we teach) is heavily inspired by the Unschooling movement, benign neglect parenting, homeschooling, the apprenticeship model, and my own "<a href="http://hs-survival.blogspot.com/2010/11/organic-versus-synthetic-learning.html" target="_blank">Organic Learning</a>" experiential learning idea.</p><p><i>How do We Share Ideas?</i></p><p>Our school adheres to the principle of <a href="http://hs-survival.blogspot.com/2010/11/open-source-education-solution-to.html" target="_blank">open knowledge</a>, 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.</p><p><i>How do we build a sustainable and resilient Tribe, School, and Community?</i></p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p><i>How will we unite our Tribe, School, and Community to assure different people are all working towards the same mutually-beneficial goals?</i></p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Guiding Principles</span></u> - What are they and why do we have these specific principles?</p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>Principle #5: We will utilize intrinsic motivation and curiosity as primary motivators for the Tribe, our Faculty, and our Students.</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Organization -Structure and People</h3><p><u><span style="color: red;">Role of the Tribe</span></u></p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p><i>Tribe Members can also be Faculty or Students, and may take classes free of charge. </i><br /></p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Departments</span></u></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Faculty</span></u></p><p>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.</p><p>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. <br /></p><p>The total number of Tribe Members, Faculty, and Students will not exceed 100 per term.<br /></p><p>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.<br /></p><p><i>Faculty and their families can take classes for free.</i><br /></p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Students</span></u></p><p>Our students will come from our local community, and will include anyone with an interest in the classes being offered. <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Operations</h3><p><u><span style="color: red;">Curriculum</span></u></p><p><u><span style="color: red;"> </span></u><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">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. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">Our Founding Members of our Tribe are currently curating a list of possible topics to be taught. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">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.<br /></span></span></p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Scheduling and Cohorts</span></u></p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Classes</span></u></p><p>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. </p><p>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.<br /></p><p><u><span style="color: red;">Projects</span></u></p><p>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.<br /></p><p>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.) </p><p>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."</p><p>Department needs three successful projects done at zero cost before they can ask for funding, individual faculty need two.<br /></p><p><span style="color: red;">Campus (Homestead)</span></p><p>The Tribe will purchase land and build structures to support the Tribe and School. <br /></p><p>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. <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Finances</h3><div> </div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>Everything will be done on lowest budget possible (free if possible) ala <a href="https://barefootrunninguniversity.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/theres-always-an-alternate-route-free-computers-for-school-save-your-tax-dollars/" target="_blank">school computer lab idea from Kenowa Hills</a>.</div><div> </div><div>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.<br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">Spreading the Idea<br /></h3><div> </div><div>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. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3>Conclusion</h3></div><div> </div><div>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 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">join our Facebook Group here</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>~Jason</div><div><span> </span></div><div><span> </span></div><div><span>*** </span><span></span><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-1233430842144673382021-02-01T05:35:00.004-08:002021-02-01T05:41:18.468-08:00Using the Myers-Briggs and Holisitic Decision-Making to Build a Tribe<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6kPYQ9yHw2xxLya5cLBam50DXb37BKWR-PC01FORkY8E9zQZFU7kwQBqSkaLJLbPbXfz6Rm1Ng98kMSgnia9P_OzCnVScp7nwvrOFTWRrKauVR1s1PCb6YBZyjn16vgF6rRhWzt74PU/s1303/16-personalities.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1303" data-original-width="736" height="701" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6kPYQ9yHw2xxLya5cLBam50DXb37BKWR-PC01FORkY8E9zQZFU7kwQBqSkaLJLbPbXfz6Rm1Ng98kMSgnia9P_OzCnVScp7nwvrOFTWRrKauVR1s1PCb6YBZyjn16vgF6rRhWzt74PU/w396-h701/16-personalities.jpg" width="396" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>I've been using the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI) personality test (actually the <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/" target="_blank">16 Personalities variation</a>) 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, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">which is one of two major components of this project</a>. <br /></p><p>Now, before I go further, it's important to note <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-personality-tests/" target="_blank">personality testing itself is problematic</a> 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.</p><p>According to my <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">hypothesis about Tribes</a>, 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 <a href="https://savory.global/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/brief-overview.pdf" target="_blank">Holistic Management decision-making framework</a> in our Tribe... only we're applying it to our circumstances instead of reversing grasslands desertification), all of our major decisions are, by definition, <b>collaborative</b>. </p><p>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 <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types" target="_blank">the personality types on the 16 personalities site</a>, you'll see they represent a really wide range of people who typically play fairly specific roles within society. Or on a smaller scale, <i>within a Tribe</i>. Leaders, planners, logistical managers, nurturers, artists, rule-enforcers, mediators... and so on. Every important role is represented within these 16 personality types. </p><p>As we're assessing WHO will be part of our Tribe (<a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-3-what-does-our.html" target="_blank">using the questions from this post</a>), 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. <br /><br />One of the criteria we look for in that blog post I linked to in the last paragraph is "<b>Are they hungry?</b>" As a general rule, we're all hungry for <i>something</i>. 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 <i>Call of Duty</i> 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.</p><p> 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: </p><p><i><b><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto">Diverse people + Holistic Management Methodology = Excellent Creative Problem-Solving.</span></b></i></p><p>I've sort of used this kind of idea before in the classroom, but it was quite informal. But damn, was it ever<i> effective</i>. It should be even more effective in the Tribe environment. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p>~Jason</p><p><br /></p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Interested in this project? <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">Join our Facebook planning and idea group</a> that discusses these ideas in detail!<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-68930480468023538732021-02-01T04:12:00.002-08:002021-02-01T04:12:27.454-08:00The Importance of Courage<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAC4dL3m5ZkrtbtXESpa7j3E30UEQqGoOxIhhRfK699h61jttqH-gdwLyQjjkEaGE6JrLI5HftYfxXk_KKfskJ_10a_AjZsNK1SBduclCayZuCBAKqbA1G4Z1tluzpt2pte8C4-CKu6s/s2048/courage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAC4dL3m5ZkrtbtXESpa7j3E30UEQqGoOxIhhRfK699h61jttqH-gdwLyQjjkEaGE6JrLI5HftYfxXk_KKfskJ_10a_AjZsNK1SBduclCayZuCBAKqbA1G4Z1tluzpt2pte8C4-CKu6s/w400-h266/courage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Courage Requires Risk</h3><p></p><blockquote><p><b>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.</b></p><p><b>- Jack Donovan</b></p></blockquote><p></p><p>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.</p><p>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>I can't think of anything more sad.</i><br /></p><p>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. </p><p>Whatever it is, do it. Despite the fear.</p><p>~Jason</p><p><br /></p><p>***</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-34874322661309291652021-01-31T07:56:00.000-08:002021-01-31T07:56:36.340-08:00The Importance of Curiosity<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMcBOVzEUCYJCR7gp0MT6Oi8HUNz_9FZqYyLI4S3rrCQwNp083C8vPWR61VwHyV1Kvfyvw9qpLupx6xUCyvq2FdpGkfQKv5mR9osSbvBDmqr5y5fu4Ly3X6tpJlanj1GQJvV6iofqd1w/s760/curious.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="570" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMcBOVzEUCYJCR7gp0MT6Oi8HUNz_9FZqYyLI4S3rrCQwNp083C8vPWR61VwHyV1Kvfyvw9qpLupx6xUCyvq2FdpGkfQKv5mR9osSbvBDmqr5y5fu4Ly3X6tpJlanj1GQJvV6iofqd1w/w300-h400/curious.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><blockquote><b> “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”<br />― Albert Einstein </b></blockquote><br /><p></p><p>Curiosity just might be the most powerful force in the universe. It's the motivation that's never exhausted. Curiosity <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-curiosity-enhances-learning-marianne-stenger" target="_blank">is the engine of learning</a>. Curiosity is the driver of innovation and positive change. Great things, amazing things, are routinely accomplished through curiosity. Spark a person's curiosity and you give them the ammunition to conquer the world.</p><p>Or something like that.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5364176/" target="_blank">science of motivation tells us curiosity is one of the most powerful intrinsic motivators there is</a>. Humans inherently love learning. Our brains are the most complex structure in the known universe for a reason. Curiosity and that love of learning is what drives me to develop this project, and it's no coincidence it's a foundation of our <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">Tribe and our School</a>. <br /></p><p>I've long been interested in curiosity. As a public school teacher, I've long understood the sheer value of sparking curiosity in my students. It makes the entire school experience for students infinitely better if they <i>want </i>to be there because they're <b>curious</b>. Grades improve, retention and the ability to apply ideas and concepts gets way better, behavior problems disappear, students become empowered and have the ability to solve real problems, etc. <br /></p><p>Unfortunately, it's exceptionally difficult to spark curiosity in a public school setting, at least among every kid. Class sizes are simply too big, we waste too much time preparing for and taking standardized tests, and we have too many required classes and strict curricula. We certainly try; every administrator, teacher, and support staff knows the inherent value of fostering curiosity. The systems, just too big, too impersonal, and too structured. Curiosity requires freedom and maneuverability. Curiosity requires flexibility and the removal of barriers. Our schools can't provide this because we expend all our resources trying to meet totally unrealistic expectations. </p><p>Our School will utilize <i>curiosity </i>as a basic foundation of everything we do, from deciding which classes to offer to deciding who will teach them to exactly what students will learn. In future posts, I'll expand on this idea. <b>But curiosity is also hard-wired into everything we do</b>. Including our <i>Tribe</i>. <br /></p><p></p><blockquote><b>“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.”<br />― Roy T. Bennett </b></blockquote>Our Tribe (and our gym) is filled with genuinely curious people, which includes curiosity about each other. If you eavesdrop on any conversation at our gym, they're never like "so how's the weather" conversations. They're conversations about who were are, what we do, what motivates us to train, or other deeply-inquisitive questioning. It's clearly obvious we have a gym filled with people who <i>listen to understand</i>. <p></p><p>It's no surprise our gym is filled with people who experience grand adventures; their curiosity towards each other applies to a curiosity about life. And that curiosity about life is what pushes us to experience new, exciting things. It's what allows us to overcome fear and experience real adventure.<br /></p><p>It's rare in today's world, and it's one of the things I think makes us a little different. It's why I think we can make a real dent in the universe.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>~Jason</p><p><br /></p><p>***<br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-23105831283740565942021-01-31T05:59:00.001-08:002021-01-31T05:59:11.267-08:00Changing the World By Starting Local<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMejT-6HJmJM3341GyFcV0Cf-O3wNlvi0OBUJlHbSRonClkR11VVS7kQpsNDafxLxJolKSmPe3S9a10ZZFDhBMB5HYeS9JX4ZsiQT17mBYXHcNDgN5oA71H9HPfsr6rdm_4XImbNYfosY/s1024/community.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMejT-6HJmJM3341GyFcV0Cf-O3wNlvi0OBUJlHbSRonClkR11VVS7kQpsNDafxLxJolKSmPe3S9a10ZZFDhBMB5HYeS9JX4ZsiQT17mBYXHcNDgN5oA71H9HPfsr6rdm_4XImbNYfosY/w400-h266/community.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>If you spend any time watching <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks" target="_blank">Ted Talks</a>, you know there's a whole lotta people out there who have a whole lotta great ideas. Ideas that can literally <a href="https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/11-ted-talks-inspire-you-change-the-world.html" target="_blank"><i>change the world</i></a>. The problem, of course, is implementation. Most of the people I've met who care enough to make a real dent in the Universe suffer from the problem of <i>scale</i>. The world is a pretty damn big place. Where do you even start?</p><p>It's the classic "how to eat an elephant" conundrum that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu" target="_blank">Tutu dude</a> once talked about. As you stand there looking up at the elephant, the sheer size of the beast is absolutely overwhelming. The only way to approach it is to take one bite at a time. Same deal when I used to run ultramarathons. Running 100 miles is a daunting task. So you break it down into sections, each one a few miles long. As fatigue and abject pain set in at 3am and you're freezing cold and surrounded by darkness, sometimes you break it down to "that stick on the side of the trail eight feet in front of me." You do what you have to do.</p><p>When I set out to start this <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">goofy "School run by a Tribe" idea</a>, I had a pretty explicit goal in mind - I wanted to make the world a better place. The venomous divisions created throughout our society troubled me deeply, and I thought I had a pretty good solution. But one dude with a tiny team of passionate idealists, a crappy blog, and zero cash ain't gonna move the needle on the world scale. Or the national scale. Hell, even the <i>state </i>looks pretty daunting right now. </p><p>So I'm starting with our community. That's the goal. <b>Make Montrose, Colorado the best damn place to live on the entire planet.</b> If I can accomplish that, if we can figure out the blueprint for making this place amazing, figuring out what works here, <i>then we can get the momentum to take bigger bites</i>.</p><p>~Jason</p><p> </p><p>***</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-76586916655406904422021-01-29T05:44:00.000-08:002021-01-29T05:44:22.629-08:00The Flawed Martial Arts Model, Part Two: The Solution - Our Tribe and Our School<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG6dPAohADYH1mlb3ph-gAhg7WC8soa22tZ_N68Yzcb0EHphT1gGG4LPuk-YX90MBO_8235oD1w_tTOBYPy_g6P3Unh3ssnI_5bC4i8E_zy_mSYSQP2MeTwu9fDkjwyWR7I5PfwS1BFKU/s1650/Karate_ShuriCastle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1192" data-original-width="1650" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG6dPAohADYH1mlb3ph-gAhg7WC8soa22tZ_N68Yzcb0EHphT1gGG4LPuk-YX90MBO_8235oD1w_tTOBYPy_g6P3Unh3ssnI_5bC4i8E_zy_mSYSQP2MeTwu9fDkjwyWR7I5PfwS1BFKU/w428-h309/Karate_ShuriCastle.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>In the first post, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-flawed-martial-arts-school-model.html" target="_blank">I outlined the historical roots of the modern martial arts schools in the United States, and how commercialization has caused a litany of problems</a>. Read that post before diving into this one. In this post, I'll outline how our model solves these problems.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Brief Summary of Our Model</h3><p>Our gym offers two programs right now -Brazilian jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts, which includes an adult program and a kids program. We have about six coaches and somewhere in the ballpark of 25 students. The model we're building will eventually expand beyond martial arts into teaching other classes, such as primitive survival skills (among others), which is how we will expand to generate greater revenue.As such, I will refer to the gym as "The School."<br /></p><p>The School, instead of being run by a "Master" as we see in the typical martial arts school model, will be run by <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">our Tribe</a>. The Tribe will replace not only the Master, but also the Master's <i>Disciples</i>. While we haven't actually set up the framework yet, the Tribe itself will likely use a shared ownership model for the School. This diffuses the responsibility of running the School among a group of people, which allows us to leverage individual expertise to tackle the different roles needed to run a successful school. The School won't rely on a single Master acting as a jack-of-ass-trades, which will improve the health of the business. Got a Tribe member who's an exceptional salesperson? They recruit new students. How about a marketing expert? They sell the School to the community. Is there a Tribe member who's a financial geek? They handle the books. And so on.</p><p>The real advantage of the Tribe, however, comes from the diffusion of expertise. In the Old Commercial Model, the Master was THE expert. They were expected to know all the "secrets" of the martial art and slowly passed those secrets to their loyal, dedicated disciples. That model doesn't work when the entire operation is commercialized, which I discussed in <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-flawed-martial-arts-school-model.html" target="_blank">Part One</a>. The Tribe assumes this role, so expertise no longer resides within one person, but rather the collective. Different Tribe Members have their own areas of expertise, which can then be shared with other Tribe Members and, importantly, the School's paying Students. </p><p>This is kind of like the typical MMA gym is organized, where different coaches teach their different disciplines. Our model differs in that the Tribe is a closely-bonded social group, which will allow for a far more collaborative approach. In essence, the Tribe will have a vested interest in making each other better, thus increasing the sharing of knowledge while simultaneously decreasing the intra-team conflict that can sometimes occur among coaches. <br /></p><p>This model creates a clear divide between the Tribe and the Students, where the entire Tribe benefits from the financial success of the School and the Students pay tuition to learn from the School. This clear divide solves the litany of problems with the Old Commercial Model, which monetizes the Master/ Disciple relationship. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Adopting the University Structure</h3><p>In our model, the Tribe's collective knowledge is taught to Students in the form of classes offered through the school, but the classes offered would be limited to the knowledge base of the individual Members of the Tribe. This would limit the breadth and depth of classes offered to the collecting knowledge of the Tribe. We solve this limitation by also crating a group that would be analogous to university Professors. </p><p>University professors generally serve two roles within the university setting- they teach classes and they do research to advance their field of expertise. In our School model, our "Professors" would teach any classes that would appeal to members of the Montrose community. If someone knows what they're talking about and there's a market to learn those skills, we provide the space to bring those "Professors" and Students together. Initially, we'll probably focus on primitive survival skills because they're in demand, we have people who can teach them, and they're tangentially-related to martial arts. </p><p>Our school would also embrace the "research" role Professors fulfill by encouraging our Professors to collaborate with other Professors, conduct experiments, and develop their field of expertise. As an example, let's say we have two Professors who have knowledge about building shelter in survival situations, but have two differing philosophies. We would provide the physical space to give them the opportunity to collaborate to develop the best survival shelters possible. </p><p>Another example - let's say we have three jiu jitsu coaches who each have very different philosophies on teaching jiu jitsu. They could collaborate and experiment with different teaching strategies to develop better methods of teaching jiu jitsu. Because this model is inherently collaborative in nature, we also eliminate a great deal of the ego-related issues typically found in the Old Commercial Model. <br /></p><p>In this model, the Tribe and the School get qualified expert "Professors" for classes to deliver to our Students, the Tribe attracts more Students from a wider cross-section of our community (thus making more money), the "Professors" get an opportunity to develop their own expertise through collaboration and experimentation, and the "Professors" would make extra money teaching what they love. It's a great model for proving a mutually-beneficial environment for all parties involved AND will provide a clearinghouse of sorts for important knowledge within our wider community. In short, this will make Montrose a better place to live.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Real Benefit to Our Tribe</h3><p>This model creates a lot of benefits for a lot of people, but the most important benefit is it provides a safe, secure, well-equipped physical space for our Tribe to train and socialize. If we relied on the Old Commercial Model, as we have since we bought the gym, we're perpetually teetering on the brink of financial collapse. This is especially true given the realities of COVID. </p><p>If we were to continue with the Old Commercial Model, we would have to spend a great deal of time and money marketing to an ever-shrinking pool of potential students just to pay the bills. This also forces us to accept students who may not be a good fit with our culture (we project kindness, open-minded acceptance, and compassion, but also love hard, smashing, violent training... and also dick jokes.) Or worse, it might force us to accept student who are a danger to our current Students, which is ethically, morally, and financially unacceptable. </p><p>This model prevents this by giving us near-unlimited potential revenue streams, gives us the ability to really leverage cheap-but-effective word of mouth advertising, and allows our Tribe to make important connections with key members of our community who have specialized knowledge in a wide range of topics. And it allows us to maintain our physical facilities for training and socializing for the Tribe. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><p>This model is still in the development phase and is mostly a collection of theories and ideas. Ergo the somewhat fractured nature of this post. :-) In the coming days and weeks, our Tribe's Founding Members will begin discussing the ins and outs of this model with the goal of officially launching it by the beginning of March. As the ideas evolve, I will continue to post the details as they evolve.</p><p>If you want to learn more about the structure of the school, check out this post. And this post about the underlying theory. <br /></p><p>If you dig this project and are interested in helping develop the ideas, consider joining our Think Tank Facebook group, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">which can be found here</a>.</p><p>~Jason</p><p> </p><p>***<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-90565221865764506742021-01-27T04:18:00.005-08:002021-01-27T04:18:57.814-08:00Life Lessons, Revisited.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-BuwvL4FlYROG5akX645Fc79v6nFJrtuINIFBYC42_1YDqEld2vudPtoF4M9fIqtMoVGG5K1QNG_1C4KfnIGCmPvCebFR8OiWtxkp2AyG0ejdyamBCgeimdZduBfyJCaptGO3f3i30mk/s643/14963183_10100748599722352_5441509407007779004_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-BuwvL4FlYROG5akX645Fc79v6nFJrtuINIFBYC42_1YDqEld2vudPtoF4M9fIqtMoVGG5K1QNG_1C4KfnIGCmPvCebFR8OiWtxkp2AyG0ejdyamBCgeimdZduBfyJCaptGO3f3i30mk/w314-h400/14963183_10100748599722352_5441509407007779004_n.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Way back in 2012, <a href="https://barefootrunninguniversity.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/life-lessons/" target="_blank">I wrote a blog post about the life lessons</a> I had learned in the previous six or so years on a rather all-encompassing quest for self-improvement. Since that time, I've mostly striven to implement these nine lessons as often as possible. It's proven to be a pretty decent roadmap. <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The List</h3><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p><b>1. Help others.</b> If everyone spent time actively seeking out ways to help each other, the world would be a lot better place. Each of us has the power to change that if only we recognized just how much we have to offer to those around us. Whether it’s something big or small, strive to help others. Make a difference. <br /><b> </b></p><p><b>2. Figure out what you enjoy. Do it more. </b>Understand what brings you joy. In almost every case, humans crave excitement, not happiness. Once you understand that concept, living a fulfilling life becomes a lot Hell of a lot easier. Set up your lifestyle to experience excitement more often.<br /><br /><b>3. Figure out what you don’t like. Do it less.</b> What don’t we like? Most assume this involves avoiding pain whether it be physical, emotional, spiritual… whatever. While it’s not always pleasant, it’s not pain that brings unhappiness. <i>Boredom brings us unhappiness</i>. Understand what you find boring, then set up your lifestyle to experience less boredom.<br /><br /><b>4. Seek challenges.</b> Humans thrive on challenges. They may come in the form of the physical, mental, social, or emotional. They may involve work, lifestyle, exercise… whatever. Figure out what makes you uncomfortable, then do it with reckless abandon.<br /><br /><b>5. Learn from everyone.</b> <i>True wisdom is the realization that we’re a lot stupider than we like to think</i>. Every single person we encounter has lessons to teach us if only we accept our role as a student. You have two ears and one mouth; use them in that proportion.<br /><br /><b>6. Surround yourself with genuine friends. </b>Find friends that you can trust, will help you when you’re down, have the power to challenge your way of thinking, and can ignite your inner fire. The ability to make you laugh and play is important, too.<br /><br /><b>7. Embrace minimalism. </b>We surround ourselves with way too much stuff under the guise of security. We falsely believe our problems will disappear if we reach some imaginary line of material comfort. Instead of pissing away your days attempting to fill your life with more shit, embrace minimalism. Use your creative energies to develop unorthodox solutions to the minimalism. It makes life a lot more interesting. If you need to spend your cash, spend it on <i>adventure</i>. <br /><br /><b>8. Realize we can’t predict the future; act accordingly.</b> Too many people spend too much time plotting the course for tomorrow without really embracing today. Don’t miss the opportunity to make today special. In almost every case, you can make today special by <u>helping someone</u> and <u>doing something exciting</u>. Remember, you may die tomorrow.<br /><br /><b>9. Embrace change.</b> Some will tell you not to fear change. That’s bullshit; change is scary as Hell. Instead, <i>embrace that fear</i>. The exhilaration from the fear of change is what makes it so exciting, and we crave excitement.</p><p></p><p>~Jason</p><p></p><p>***<br /><br /><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-54374667288892672042021-01-26T03:53:00.001-08:002021-01-26T03:53:28.522-08:00You Get to Set the Rules.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiivdbtVQ7dcVgCr26P6W_h8PMtQ6O3cYYthZlq2ARcykwwY4XIXX4R70tK4FWJt3vhY0A-rT-uwCo2vo5g6re82O6Q_M1pMxGYT2DRhYC95ipPfiah_4JPKt0tu_Q1kVMHHQSRHw_UYwM/s660/if-you-obey-all-the-rules-youll-miss-all-the-fun-quote-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="560" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiivdbtVQ7dcVgCr26P6W_h8PMtQ6O3cYYthZlq2ARcykwwY4XIXX4R70tK4FWJt3vhY0A-rT-uwCo2vo5g6re82O6Q_M1pMxGYT2DRhYC95ipPfiah_4JPKt0tu_Q1kVMHHQSRHw_UYwM/w340-h400/if-you-obey-all-the-rules-youll-miss-all-the-fun-quote-1.jpg" width="340" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Years ago, I wrote a blog post on <a href="https://barefootrunninguniversity.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/advice-from-people-smarter-than-me-chris-guillebeau/" target="_blank">BRU about Chris Guillebeau</a>. His book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399536108/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0399536108&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=6d04c7c5aca9d8e00586a2418d926153" target="_blank">The Art of Nonconformity</a>" was one of the earliest influential books that, ultimately, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">got me to this project</a>. While Guillebeau talked about a lot of great ideas in that book (<a href="https://chrisguillebeau.com/files/2008/06/worlddomination.pdf" target="_blank">many of which are covered in this short PDF</a>), the one that suck the most was the kind of advice that's almost so simple, it never occurs to you:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>You don't have to live your life the way people expect you to. </b></p><p>When I first read that,<i> it was a mind-blowing revelation</i>. I took stock of every aspect of my life, and realized pretty much every decision I had ever made was because someone expected me to make that decision. Needless to say, the last decade has been one long string of pretty damn amazing adventures based on experimental lifestyle design. When you realize there really aren't any rules, you get to make your own. </p><p>That's kinda the point of this current project. Mix equal parts of the lifestyle myself and my family want to live with a genuine desire to solve some tricky social problems and... POOF! <i>We get this project.</i> But this post isn't about this project.<i></i></p><p><b><i>It's about making your own rules. </i></b></p><p></p><p></p><p>You see, society wants us to fit in. Put your head down. Do what you're told. Don't rock the boat. Because society likes predictability. Conformity. Follow the rules. </p><p>And if you don't? Society gives you stern, disapproving looks. Wags a finger. Society may even [gasp!] <i>talk behind your back</i>. And that's about it.</p><p>Turns out society is a bit of a passive-aggressive bitch. </p><p>Which is great you you and me. Because it means there's really nothing stopping us from making our own rules. The rules we want to play by. <i>The rules that work for us.</i></p><p>Yet so very few people actually take that plunge and live the life they want to live. Instead they follow the status quo. <i>And they're miserable. </i><br /></p><p>Why?</p><p>I think it's fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of success.</p><p>Part of the problem is we imagine this journey to an unconventional life is going to be a lonely journey. Just ourselves and our goofy ideas.</p><p>But that's not how it works. Not at all. </p><p>In "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591842336/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1591842336&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=48e2d41c9ed059a03ea89ce3789baf08" target="_blank">Tribes</a>" Seth Godin said "<i>The secret to leadership is simple. Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. People will follow</i>."</p><p>When you overcome the fear to try something new, when you venture past "safe" and into "exciting", there will be people, the right people, who follow. And that's your Tribe.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Two Distinct Reactions</h3><p>When I describe this project to people, I get two very distinct reactions. This one:</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawyzXP5deA7LQSCWmQ2baKPa8z3Y-QLc08XJzjYEntd03ofA5tMCqNKDks-uNGYlS-OcjCDNFH86lzYhE-rt5Ljz3R8IifocuyX3JDNQjn8iu2fVTqWcSKdPqFAoaCRzXTtrZsETAwv8/s1200/confused.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawyzXP5deA7LQSCWmQ2baKPa8z3Y-QLc08XJzjYEntd03ofA5tMCqNKDks-uNGYlS-OcjCDNFH86lzYhE-rt5Ljz3R8IifocuyX3JDNQjn8iu2fVTqWcSKdPqFAoaCRzXTtrZsETAwv8/w400-h300/confused.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <p></p><p>And this one:<br /> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jGYNXUEne27eFjw0B7A_qkuSyZhyphenhyphen614usO3QiYv5aK7jO9GNCqZlIggqNMEudW4Z7pbsj7EopxkpHL5LN1g5-TF2QsXcq71R1jELA7xWM-BZccBl-U7egSLMwxF7LuEUgnEpFH_T6pg/s1755/Excited-person1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1023" data-original-width="1755" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jGYNXUEne27eFjw0B7A_qkuSyZhyphenhyphen614usO3QiYv5aK7jO9GNCqZlIggqNMEudW4Z7pbsj7EopxkpHL5LN1g5-TF2QsXcq71R1jELA7xWM-BZccBl-U7egSLMwxF7LuEUgnEpFH_T6pg/w400-h234/Excited-person1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>There's <b>absolutely </b>no in between.</p><p>And that's okay. </p><p>One of the most valuable lessons I learned back in the barefoot running days is that the moment you start making your own rules, most people don't get it. But some do. And you have to trust those few who get it will be your key to changing the status quo. They will be the key to making your own rules.</p><p>So stop letting society set the rules that define your life. Become a heretic. Make your own rules. Live the life you want to live. Life is too short to miss out on all the fun.<br /></p><p><i>What do you have to lose? </i><br /></p><p>~Jason</p><p> </p><p>*** <br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-28128902793964412052021-01-25T08:18:00.008-08:002021-01-25T08:55:16.009-08:00How We Use Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to Curate the Tribe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg50jEZEjSNicvLU7VBkbICiABy7-r8avrLse48bpYaGk51fWtL0sERGRk15pVbgCtrHuOwQqO_ah96l72K1ZXsmDneeYGemmxCVtYFGYJ3ihatyAKJ7wZRWpj0YNks7qHqNXVL-YDadQ/s477/Keswick-Brazilian-jiu-jitsu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="477" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg50jEZEjSNicvLU7VBkbICiABy7-r8avrLse48bpYaGk51fWtL0sERGRk15pVbgCtrHuOwQqO_ah96l72K1ZXsmDneeYGemmxCVtYFGYJ3ihatyAKJ7wZRWpj0YNks7qHqNXVL-YDadQ/w400-h233/Keswick-Brazilian-jiu-jitsu.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>A few days back, we were <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-3-what-does-our.html" target="_blank">discussing this post on how we vet new members of the Tribe</a>. Ken, a long-time Facebook friend for whom I respect, asked why we used Brazilian jiu jitsu as part of the process. More specifically, wouldn't that unnecessarily rule out otherwise great candidtes?</p><p>Yes. Yes it would. </p><p>But. At the early stages of this project, It's more important to assure new members are a great fit than letting potential great members fall through the cracks. And there's no greater filer for our Tribe than jiu jitsu. Simply put, jits reveals a whole lot about a person in an incredibly short time.<br /></p><p>And yes, tolerance of calling the sport "jits" is one of the tests. </p><p>For the uninitiated, if you don't know what "BJJ" is, it's basically a sport where we practice breaking limbs and murdering while wearing sweaty pajamas with a lot of weird patches. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_jiu-jitsu" target="_blank">Here's a more detailed explanation</a>. <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Mats Don't Lie</h3><p>A popular idiom states "Martial arts doesn't build character. It <i>reveals </i>character. This is certainly true in jiu jitsu. Here's a rundown of the characteristics I'm looking for in students. Note this is what I look for in potential Tribe members. Just regular students don't need all of these characteristics, though the more they possess, the more intrinsic enjoyment they'll likely receive from training at our gym. <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>How do they interact with our team in a stressful environment?</b> Starting jiu jitsu is kinda scary. From the very onset in their first class, we can see how a new student interacts with the collection of diverse personalities that make up our team.<br /></li><li><b>Do they have a tendency to do harm? Do they have psychopathic tendencies?</b> This sport attracts people who want to learn or have an opportunity to hurt people. This is a dangerous sport where NOT harming each other takes effort. The folks who seem to get joy from harming weaker people are revealed almost immediately. And we DO get these people regularly. They're either actively or passively dismissed from the gym depending on their veracity and the degree of danger thy represent.<br /></li><li><b>Are they curious?</b> We're more interested in the curious than most gyms, mostly because we create a culture where learning is an extremely high priority. Curious people thrive in our environment. And I've found curiosity to be an excellent predictor of all kinds of other wonderful traits. <br /></li><li><b>Do they have anger issues? </b>When you start jiu jitsu, you lose. A lot. It's simply the nature of the sport - it's designed to use techniques and leverage to defeat strength and athleticism. As such, experience matters. No matter how big and strong a new student might be, they're going to get tapped by our higher belts. And quite often, even our kids. If you have anger issues, this ALWAYS reveals it.<br /></li><li><b>Do they have a huge ego?</b> This is related to the last point, but specifically determines if the new student possesses humility. Can they accept being at the bottom of the hierarchy, and can they accept being there for months and months?<br /></li><li><b>Do they have a capacity to teach and learn?</b> We use a collaborative learning model where everyone is encouraged to be both teacher and learner, which helps support our development beyond what our coaches teach. We use this model in part because we have a lot of diverse, applicable experiences among members, but it also supports <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">the "School" part of this plan</a>. <br /></li><li><b>How they related to women and kids?</b> This is a specific test for our new male students. As soon as a new student proves conclusively that they have enough emotional control and physical restraint, we have them roll (what we call live almost full-intensity sparring) with our older kids. Since most men generally don't like kids and get kinda weird about rolling with women, it gives us the ability to observe how tolerant they will be in relating to other Tribe members who are different than them. This is a subtle but important thing. <br /></li><li><b>How do they handle adversity?</b> As I mentioned before, new students lose. A lot. If a new student sticks around for six months in this sport, they usually have the drive and determination to tackle damn near anything. <i>We like tough people.</i> <br /></li><li><b>What capacity do they have for leadership?</b> This isn't a deal-breaker (bad leaders still play important roles in our Tribe), but we're always searching for people who possess the raw materials that would allow them to become great leaders. Personally, I habitually surround myself with leaders and generally avoid those who can only follow. My operational definition of leadership is basically what is described in "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250183863/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1250183863&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=117f93e5c997e9c456d24a9aa17f591b" target="_blank">Extreme Ownership</a>" and "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591844096/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1591844096&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=396330f52c35298b9d4531dcfc59590c" target="_blank">Linchpin</a>."<br /></li><li><b>Cooperativeness versus competitiveness. </b>We're insanely competitive. But we're competitive because we understand it's how we make all of us better, so the potential toxicity of competitiveness is balanced with strong cooperative tendencies. Off the mats, this is exceptionally hard to test. On the mats? It's evident almost immediately. <br /></li><li><b>Do they have a capacity for violence?</b> One of the hallmarks of our gym is a readily apparent culture of kindness and openness. We try to be genuinely good people who are helpful and supportive. But this culture is built on a foundation of most of our members being willing and able to use violence when necessary. This usually manifests when new people mistake our kindness for weakness, and we have to given them a brief glimpse behind the curtain. <i>"If you do anything to harm the team or an individual member of the team, we'll fuck ya up a bit." </i>Violence is always the foundation of civility, whether we're talking about our Tribe, our jiu jitsu team, or society.<br /></li><li><b>Do they understand honor?</b> "<i>Honor</i>" is one of Jack Donovan's Four Tactical Virtues of Masculinity as described in his excellent book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0985452307/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0985452307&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=4c3edea1f605c07bde60dca8e3a11c1a" target="_blank">The Way of Men.</a>" Basically, "honor" is the process of earning the respect of other men in your Tribe. Given jiu jitsu is a decidedly masculine endeavor (masculine, not male... women do just fine in the sport, but they, too, must understand "honor"), it is an excellent test of a person's capacity for honor. One of the simplest things a student can do to disqualify themselves as a potential Tribe member is to do something that dishonors themselves in the eyes of the rest of our team. <br /></li><li><b>Do they understand male hierarchies?</b> This is closely-related to the last item. Do new students understand how men organize themselves socially, and do they act accordingly? Jiu jitsu is interesting in that belt rank is a pretty decent visual indicator of the hierarchy in the gym context. </li><li><b>Do women relate to other women?</b> This one is specifically for the ladies. Our culture is kinda unique in that the women in our gym adopt a bit of the masculine hierarchy structure, but still maintain the dynamics of femininity. In the simplest sense, can women successfully navigate the <a href="http://www.sdmancamp.com/2015/07/frenemies-and-girl-power-fickle-nature.html" target="_blank">fickle nature of female kinship</a> in a way that doesn't harm the Tribe or the Team? While <a href="https://www.eldiablomancamp.com/2020/02/women-explained-everything-youve-ever.html" target="_blank">understanding women is a stupidly-complex topic that requires a small dissertation to explain</a>, jiu jitsu is a pretty decent way to determine if women can relate to each other. <br /></li><li><b>Do they have the ability to work as part of a team?</b> Jiu jitsu is a sport where you really need solid teamwork chops because we need to trust each other a great deal to avoid injuries as much as possible. As such, students who are not team players wash out quickly, which is super-useful because Tribes, by definition, require teamwork. <br /></li><li><b>Do they have a sense of humor? </b>We like to laugh, and serious people are a drag. If people don't like to laugh, or oftentimes-crude humor usually drives them away pretty quickly.</li><li><b>Do they like to have fun? </b>Along the same vein, we <i>really</i> like to have fun. "Play" is one of the foundations of not only our gym culture, but how we approach life. We take our art seriously, but we don't take <i>ourselves</i> seriously. Again, our gym culture weeds out the "chronically-unfun" quickly. <br /></li><li><b>Are they selfish? </b>Does a student only seem to think of themselves, or do they demonstrate selflessness? Selfish people who are only training for themselves are fine as students, but this is a deal-breaker for Tribe members. Jiu jitsu usually reveals this pretty quickly. </li><li><b>Are they passive-aggressive or otherwise emotionally immature?</b> Given jiu jitsu is a combat sport, conflict between members is bound to arise. How people deal with that conflict is an excellent indicator of their emotional maturity, especially when it comes to using passive-aggressiveness. Like selfishness, this is a deal-breaker. </li><li><b>Can they pass shit tests?</b> A "shit test" is a test that determines a few different things about a person. The basic framework involves men teasing each other. To pass the test, you tease them back. If you get pissy, defensive, or have any other sort of similar response, you fail. Usually, it's in the context of <a href="http://www.sdmancamp.com/2015/07/the-ultimate-guide-to-mastering-shit.html" target="_blank">women assessing the value of men</a>. But in this case, it's assessing whether or not men are tough enough to have each others' backs in dangerous situations. A "fitness test" of sorts. Men (or women) who fail this type of shit test cannot be part of the Tribe. This idea is tied to the reason <a href="https://www.sexpressionists.com/2015/04/why-we-teach-boys-not-to-cry.html" target="_blank">we teach boys not to cry</a>, <a href="http://www.sdmancamp.com/2015/07/how-to-really-stop-bullying.html" target="_blank">why men "bully" other men</a> (and why women bully other women. Spoiler alert... it's because they're viscous), and <a href="https://www.sexpressionists.com/2015/05/the-greatest-failing-of-feminism.html" target="_blank">why modern fourth-wave feminism kinda sucks</a>. <br /></li><li><b>How resilient are they?</b> Jiu jitsu is a frustrating, difficult sport. You're served up a regular serving of failure and disappointment. People who aren't resilient wash out quickly, usually after only a few weeks. </li><li><b>How willing are they to follow and/or police intra-tribal rules and norms? </b>We have rules of conduct, both explicit and implicit. The rules are in place to keep each other safe and to maintain our desired culture. Are students following these rules? And do they show an aptitude for understanding the nuances and motivations behind our rules? And in some cases, are they good at policing the rules in others? The first two are prerequisites for Tribal members. The last one is an added bonus. </li><li><b>How willingly do they accept challenges, and how do they approach said challenges?</b> If we give students what amounts to an <a href="https://www.eldiablomancamp.com/2020/02/dont-be-afraid-of-setting-impossible.html" target="_blank">impossible challenge</a> (like tapping out a higher belt who is clearly better than they are), how do they respond? Do they express self-doubt? Do they accept the challenge, but have reservations? Or do they take a "Hell yeah, I'll do my best!" approach? That latter one is what we're looking for in Tribe members.</li><li><b>Do they have "gameness"?</b> Gameness is a term used to describe a willingness to keep fighting. Literally and figuratively. It's best measured by a student's willingness to keep trying to accomplish something (like the impossible challenges mentioned in the last point.) Jiu jitsu itself is a sport that demands gameness because, no matter how long you do it, you will fail A LOT. </li><li><b>Do they understand the true nature of masculinity and femininity?</b> Even if they can't articulate it, do they have an intuitive sense that <a href="https://www.eldiablomancamp.com/2020/02/the-science-and-logic-behind-our.html" target="_blank">these constructs exist</a> and that <a href="https://www.eldiablomancamp.com/2020/02/masculinity-and-femininity-strengthens.html" target="_blank">they're complimentary</a>? While covering this topic in detail would cover several blog posts, the gist has to do with <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">the hypothesis that is the foundation of the Tribe</a> - we need ideological diversity, which starts with having both gender roles represented in adequate numbers. </li></ul><h3 style="text-align: left;"> Conclusion</h3><div> </div><div>So there's the list of all the things we can discern about someone who trains with us. It's a long-ass list, but the sport reveals a lot about people. We could use all kinds of different tools, but this one works exceptionally well for us. As an added bonus, it's also our primary form of recreation. Just training assures we maintain close contact with each other, which is often one of the biggest struggles of curating a Tribe of friends. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are countless activities that probably serve the same purpose for anyone interested in this Tribe idea. Many roads lead to Rome. This road just happens to work for us.</div><div><br /></div><div>~Jason</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>***</div><div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-3841485417997882092021-01-24T09:44:00.003-08:002021-01-24T09:48:16.245-08:00Abundance Versus Scarcity: The Simple Perspective That Makes the World a Better Place<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwytBn6SymYePgpwiw4tDvjK7jjbgkljwQfzNJ8hU8g0CdZ22uF4pJI0KwtZAKkW5s7Y-nc1eo-4OflU9r-5d6Q2DBDXTrZ8uIC7TWOpMegWhFftNwd1kgssDrJ5rD5b89qLJewozi0E/s688/abundance+versus+scarcity+mindset.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="594" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwytBn6SymYePgpwiw4tDvjK7jjbgkljwQfzNJ8hU8g0CdZ22uF4pJI0KwtZAKkW5s7Y-nc1eo-4OflU9r-5d6Q2DBDXTrZ8uIC7TWOpMegWhFftNwd1kgssDrJ5rD5b89qLJewozi0E/w408-h473/abundance+versus+scarcity+mindset.jpg" width="408" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Some people see the world as a collection of limited resources.<i> They have a <b>scarcity </b>mindset.</i> Hoard what you can. Don't share. Don't give. Screw everyone else; they're your <i>competition</i>. That's how they believe they'll win the game of life.</p><p>Other people see the world in a far different way. They see the world as a collection of unlimited resources. <i>They have an <b>abundance </b>mindset.</i> The more you share, the more you receive. Altruism and cooperation is how you win the game of life.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What is the Abundance Mindset? <br /></h3><p>Some nine years ago, <a href="https://barefootrunninguniversity.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/the-new-gift-economy/" target="_blank">I wrote about this idea on my BRU blog</a>, in the context of The Gift Economy, a concept I got from Seth Godin. I utilized the idea by giving away a PDF version of a book I wrote, then turned it loose on the Internet with directions for anyone who read it to then share it, too. While we took a financial hit immediately, the ideas spread like wildfire. Eventually, that was the single action that later provided us with the opportunity to bum around the country for two years teaching the ideas. That adventure would not have been possible without that initial act of giving. More importantly, the ideas allowed a whole lotta people to start running again after injuries, which allowed them to lead healthier, happier lives. </p><p>This is the same sort of dynamic I'm using with this project, which is part of the <a href="https://barefootrunninguniversity.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/unique-business-strategy-the-bru-method/" target="_blank">broader marketing strategy</a> I've been using for some time. In the near future, I'll write a post dedicated specifically to what that looks like.</p><p>Anyway. </p><p>The <i>abundance mindset</i>. This idea works because it allows us to look for opportunities to improve ourselves and others. Attention, being what it is, is pretty limited. If we're not looking for something, we're unlikely to just randomly stumble upon it. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2020/07/12/5-ways-to-go-from-a-scarcity-to-abundance-mindset/?sh=7dd9a2841197" target="_blank">This article explains the idea well</a>, and gives five really useful tips to put this into action. The second idea in that article - surrounding yourself with others who have an abundance mindset - is the reason I'm bringing this idea to our <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">Tribe</a>. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What It Is Not</h3><p>The idea of an abundance mindset often gets confused with "<i>The Law of Attraction</i>", which is a stupid self-help concept most recently re-popularized by the book "The Secret." This so-called "law" basically states that if you think positive thoughts, positive stuff will happen to you. While it sounds great, the idea is actually incredibly harmful as <a href="https://markmanson.net/the-secret" target="_blank">Mark Manson so eloquently explains in this post</a>. I've met a few people who practice this regularly. Their lives were pretty crappy. Their lives got even crappier after they tried this. <br /></p><p>The gist of the problem with "the law of attraction" is it gives you a delusional perception of reality that, ultimately leads you to become lazy and make really bad decisions. Conversely, the abundance mindset requires you to actually do work in order for it to work... that was Godin's point about creating what he called "art", which is then shared. YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY PRODUCE SOMETHING!</p><p>So there you go. This is another tool to make a real, positive change in the world. Play with this idea. Try out some of those things from the infographic at the top. You'll like the results.</p><p>~Jason<br /><br />***<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-43386961599802533932021-01-23T05:33:00.002-08:002021-01-23T06:45:44.526-08:00Why We Need a Tribe, Part 3: How Do We Assess Possible Tribe Memebers?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiECWrfCHRSSCkZ1FQZqhugjYn0_dDpxLq3Ss5e46BsV_scewkj0WaULruuicTWDzkqU6ykjNCObC4uWxei2i4q5wNRoRtZXPvJO8kYve7nCJQqmtvFuCd3pmYXVnEyyTsOY34JgFTXTZ8/s1024/RGM-head.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiECWrfCHRSSCkZ1FQZqhugjYn0_dDpxLq3Ss5e46BsV_scewkj0WaULruuicTWDzkqU6ykjNCObC4uWxei2i4q5wNRoRtZXPvJO8kYve7nCJQqmtvFuCd3pmYXVnEyyTsOY34JgFTXTZ8/w400-h266/RGM-head.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>In the first post in this series, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-one-why-your.html" target="_blank">I covered why modern society kinda makes our life sucky</a>. In the second post, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">I covered the objective pros and cons of a Tribe as a social construct</a>. In this post, I'll discuss OUR Tribe. Or at least my early vision of our Tribe.</p><p>Quick review - in yesterday's post, I mentioned what I called "pseudo-tribes", which are basically individuals or groups who use the collection of <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963#:~:text=A%20cognitive%20bias%20is%20a,powerful%20but%20subject%20to%20limitations." target="_blank">cognitive biases our brain uses</a> to make sense of the world in order to exploit us in some way. The formula they use:</p><p><b>Elicit emotion -> Attach way to resolve emotion to group membership = making of a pseudo-tribe</b></p><p>We need to avoid this trap at all costs! The solution is simple. We just use logic, reason, and a scientific methodology to designing, building, and running the Tribe. Simple. <i>Not easy</i>.</p><p>The reason? No matter how hard we try, we're not totally objective. Even hard-core objective <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/intp-personality" target="_blank">Logican</a>/ <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/entp-personality" target="_blank">Debaters</a> like me are prone to the likelihood that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2366118/" target="_blank">emotion drives cognition</a>. As such, and really effective Tribe probably needs a leadership team, not just one individual. This team needs to be science-minded (for objective analysis), diverse (to be able to <b>really</b> <i>understand</i> and <i>empathize</i> with each member of the Tribe's motivations, desires, skills, knowledge, experiences, goals, etc.), and be assertive enough to call each other out on their bullshit (as a check on emotional attachment to bad ideas or beliefs.) So that's how we prevent becoming a pseudo-tribe.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Tribe Members</h3><p>The value of a Tribe is a function of the members of a Tribe. It's important to carefully vet possible Tribe members to root out those who have a high probability of impeding the Tribe's effectiveness, or worse, sabotaging the entire Tribe. This is important because the idea of a Tribe will appeal to a lot of people who would be terrible Tribe members. Here's my hypothetical process developed from a lot of personal experiences, discussions with our Man Camp men's group, and with Brandon, one of our Tribe Founding Members.</p><p>The entire process involves asking a series of questions, explicitly or answered through observation of the potential member, to cull those who would be a poor fit. The next step would be to determine the ideal role they would play within the Tribe itself that. These remaining candidates would then go through a "prospect" period, followed by a "probationary" period. Finally, the Tribe would vote to add the potential member to the Tribe permanently. We would also need a mechanism to expel a member from the Tribe.</p><p>So what does this process look like?</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Questions</h3><p>The goal with these is to figure out IF a prospective member is a good fit for the Tribe. Before we begin the process, we screen for obvious mental illnesses that are incompatible with the social dynamics of Tribal organization. Schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, severe panic disorder or severe depression, pretty much any of the <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/personality-disorders-a2-425427" target="_blank">personality disorders</a>, etc. We would also screen for serious drug addictions for the same reasons. <br /></p><p>The first question is absolutely necessary: <b>Is this person <i>trustworthy</i>?</b> If this person is admitted to the Tribe, can we trust them to act selflessly to support the individual members of the Tribe and the Tribe as a whole? Are they helpful, or are they selfish? Do they have a history of exploiting others? Do they have a history of committing property crimes? Do they understand and display the concept of honor? If a potential member passes this test, they move on. </p><p>The second question: <b>Is this person <i>humble</i>?</b> Do they have a problem with ego? Do they think they are better than others? Do they have a <a href="https://www.bustle.com/p/7-signs-someone-may-have-a-superiority-complex-17006240" target="_blank">superiority complex</a>? How do they treat wait staff, retail employees, or others who serve them? Can they win with humility and lose with grace?</p><p>The third question: <b>Is this person <i>people-smart</i>?</b> Do they exhibit high emotional intelligence? Do they exhibit empathy and compassion? Can they manage interpersonal relationships well, or do they rub people the wrong way? </p><p>The fourth question: <b>Is this person <i>hungry</i>?</b> Have they exhibited a desire to work tirelessly towards a goal by intrinsically motivating themselves? Basically, this weeds out the lazy folks. </p><p>The fifth question: <b>Is this person <i>open-minded </i>and<i> curious</i>?</b> Are they accepting of ideologies, beliefs, and world views that differ from their own? We WILL be a diverse group; can they get along with people who may be different than them? Do they take diversity as an opportunity to learn and grow? Are they open to new experiences?</p><p>The sixth and final question: <b>Does this persona really understand and are they willing to be a contributing member of OUR Tribe?</b> This Tribe idea isn't for everyone, and our specific Tribe <i>really</i> isn't for everyone. Do they get the big picture, and do they genuinely believe this will be an environment where they will love contributing towards something bigger than themselves?</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Determining Roles</h3><p>Once a potential member makes it through this questioning process, we'll determine their ideal role within the Tribe. This would be accomplished by assessing their skills, knowledge, and experiences, values, and what they hope to contribute and receive from the Tribe. </p><p>We're all different. But we can categorize ourselves in different ways. I have an anecdotally-supported hypothesis that our different personalities evolved so we could fulfill various roles within a Tribe. For convenience, I really love the <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/" target="_blank">16personalities</a> variation of the Myers-Briggs personality test as a "guide" for determining intra-tribe roles. Each one of the <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types" target="_blank">16 different personality types</a> would, theoretically, play a specialized role within the Tribe. The more roles the Tribe can fill, the better the Tribe can solve problems related to surviving and thriving. It was true for our ancestors and it's true for us today.</p><p>To this end, part of this role determination process would include <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test" target="_blank">giving the potential member the test</a>. This will help determine HOW they fit into the Tribe. The goal is to give them a role that will allow them to reach their full potential, AND to maximize their contribution to the Tribe. The better job we do of making the right fit, the better it is for <b>them</b> <i>and</i> for the <b>Tribe</b>. Next, we actually test them in action as a "prospect."</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Prospect Period</h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCbU4TpujozB4E5E6VcqdK0l-Wz_Ig_cPsLd8WZrE11-apJ3DNq7fMz4LNvM9RoeBXyxfmu2PLfhCjirDKcJr3LGJxVf68dVY2J6qTfp9oMHrtoZ-EAtHzlROUwJ4ZQrrf2pWr5QqtKw/s2048/what+is+a+prospect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="2048" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCbU4TpujozB4E5E6VcqdK0l-Wz_Ig_cPsLd8WZrE11-apJ3DNq7fMz4LNvM9RoeBXyxfmu2PLfhCjirDKcJr3LGJxVf68dVY2J6qTfp9oMHrtoZ-EAtHzlROUwJ4ZQrrf2pWr5QqtKw/w400-h250/what+is+a+prospect.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /></h3><p>The goal of this period is to actually see if they fit in with the Tribe. If not, they can be dismissed easily. In essence, they have to prove their worth to the Tribe. This period would be rather lengthy, perhaps six months to a year, possibly longer. The Prospect would be given some or the rights and responsibilities of Membership, which would increase over time. This would allow the Prospect to slowly learn how the Tribe functions both internally and with the outside world. <br /></p><p>This period would also allow the potential member to find their niche within the Tribe. They could test out different roles and be given different responsibilities. This would give everyone a chance to maximize potential. </p><p>If, during this time, a potential member turns out to have lied or was acting in a disingenuous fashion during the questioning period, or if the individual or the Tribe determined the fit just isn't right, the Tribe could sever ties with the individual with minimal pomp and circumstance. This decision could be made by a simple majority of the current Tribe members.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Probationary Period</h3><p>Once a potential member completed their Prospect Period, they would be admitted to the Tribe as a Probationary Member. The Probationary Member would enjoy the full rights and responsibilities of membership in the Tribe. This stage would be one last test to assure the new member would be a great fit and contribute to the Tribe in a meaningful, impactful way. This stage could also last six months to a year or possibly more. If the Probationary Member is not working out, they could be dismissed from the Tribe with 2/3 of the vote of the Current members. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Types of Members</h3><p>One of the more vexing problems I've been trying to solve is how to deal with the issue of commitment. Threading the needle of how much commitment we need from members is a tricky proposition. Too much commitment and we run the risk of losing ourselves in the group, and trending too close to "cult' status. Too little commitment and we lose most if not all of the benefits of a collective group. </p><p>Further, different people in different situations might want different things, even if they're a perfect fit for the concept I've been describing. Maybe some people want to live in a communal housing situation where they share every aspect of their daily lives. Maybe someone wants their won space, but wants to live in close proximity to the rest of the Tribe. Maybe someone wants to live off-site and interact with the tribe on more of a part-time basis. Or maybe someone is totally down with the project, but their significant other isn't so keep on the idea. How do we construct a system that gives all these folks what they're looking for, while still maintaining that Tribe social connection? The solution to this problem seems pretty straight-forward - we just give people options. If the Tribe itself is organized as a for-profit entity, the Tribe can purchase the necessary properties and lease them to the members. Or something like that.</p><p>We also might encounter another situation where we encounter people we like, have something to offer the Tribe, but for whatever reason, aren't a good fit as Tribe Members. Or they have no interest in actually <i>joining </i>the Tribe. In this situation, it would be useful to have a formal category to clearly define relationships. For this purpose, we could define this group as "<b>Friends of the Tribe</b>." <br /></p><p>Friends of the Tribe could be people in and around our community who own a business we deal with regularly, friends and family of our Members, people who train at our gym but aren't part of the Tribe, or even people located outside our immediate geographic area. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><p>This is the proposed process we'd use to vet and define the people involved with the Tribe. Like every part of this plan, these are just my preliminary ideas of the logistics of this entire project, and will likely change once we start actual planning. <br /></p><p>~Jason<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>***<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-22740536222792886192021-01-23T01:45:00.001-08:002021-01-23T04:47:06.448-08:00Why We Need a Tribe, Part Two: How You Can Make Your Sucky Life Better<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7pSQPg6uU9eAfG2fUmnPKA7js5XmzHIuPeIsGLSG6-qXPTXQQcGh79L9GJKCkuPtvODlCjuGO17WF3Y31DWgZuYhwejBaSUD6vE8ZHLGayiw3VOjeI2SWdMto1egltIvwln7KafEsarI/s2048/ragnar-lothbrok-pictures.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7pSQPg6uU9eAfG2fUmnPKA7js5XmzHIuPeIsGLSG6-qXPTXQQcGh79L9GJKCkuPtvODlCjuGO17WF3Y31DWgZuYhwejBaSUD6vE8ZHLGayiw3VOjeI2SWdMto1egltIvwln7KafEsarI/w400-h266/ragnar-lothbrok-pictures.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p> In the last post, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-one-why-your.html" target="_blank">I explained how modern society, despite the fact that we're safe and prosperous, is deeply unfulfilling</a>. I went on to hypothesize this lack of fulfillment that manifests as stress, anxiety, depression, and a host of other problems, can be remedied by doing the kind of stuff our grandparents did. Or, going back farther in our history, our hunter-gatherer ancestors. </p><p><b><i>Primal shit makes us happy in a way the newest iPhone or a trip to the mall can't.</i></b></p><p>So what is the solution to this problem?</p><h3 style="text-align: center;"></h3><h2 style="text-align: center;">Tribes.</h2><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Big surprise, huh?</i> Now, before I get to the meat and potatoes of the hypothesis, I need to give an operational definition. What exactly do I mean by "tribes"? I'll define a Tribe <i>as a diverse group of people between five and 150 who are closely bonded socially and, potentially economically, who are are working towards a shared future goal or goals.</i> If you really want to dig deeper on the hypothesis that led to this definition, <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">read this post</a>. </p><p>In our modern society, this kind of Tribe is exceedingly rare. Maybe these exist in small fraternal organizations, or maybe in <i>some</i> religious groups or congregations. Maybe even in the military in "company" units. </p><p>I also need to define what ISN'T a tribe. This includes all kinds of organizations that feels like a tribe, and certainly bring out tribal behaviors. But they're not actually tribes. In fact, they're often organizations that are specifically using our brain's tribal bias against us so the organization can make money, gain power, or exploit us in some other way. Examples of these pseudo-tribes include:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Political parties - Democrats and Republicans. And even Libertarians.<br /></li><li>Sports team fans - Broncos and Cardinals fans. Lions fans are an exception.<br /></li><li>Cults - Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, #MAGA supporters</li><li>Multilevel marketing scams - Amway and Herbalife</li><li>Consumer products - Apple, Gucci, and Tickle Me Elmo<br /></li></ul><div>Generally, all of these groups use your emotions to exploit you in some way, usually by creating a sense of loyalty by playing on our <i>need to belong</i>. <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jenniferlerner/files/annual_review_manuscript_june_16_final.final_.pdf" target="_blank">Because emotion drives cognition</a>, we don't recognize how these kinds of organizations manipulate us. The formula is deceptively simple and stupidly effective:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Elicit emotion -> Attach way to resolve emotion to group membership = making of a pseudo-tribe</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If you need a real-world example of this, just look at how many people genuinely believe in that objectively-ridiculous "Q-anon" conspiracy theory. <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/shirtless-horned-qanon-supporter-says-184603025.html" target="_blank">And how that belief kinda ruined their lives</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, that's what a Tribe is and is not. </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">How Did I Stumble Upon This Idea?</h3><div><br /></div><div>I discovered the power of tribes kind of by accident. When Shelly and I started running long races, we developed a small group of training partners who regularly trained together, hung out together, and "crewed and paced" each other when one of us ran a long race. And it was awesome! Just being with the group and being a contributing member was itself deeply fulfilling. Eventually we all kinda went in different directions, but that group planted the seed.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few years later, Shelly and I picked up our next hobby - jiu jitsu. The same sort of thing happened. We developed a small group of regular training partners who trained and occasionally hung out together. We were kinda like a family. It was a completely different dynamic, but elicited the same feelings. </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, I started a male-only Facebook group based on some of the ideas I've written about over on my <a href="https://www.eldiablomancamp.com/2020/02/the-big-picture-who-we-are-and-what-we.html" target="_blank">Man Camp blog</a>. Because it was Internet-based, it had a very different feel than our previous "tribes", but it still had many of the same dynamics.</div><div><br /></div><div>That group led to the earliest version of <a href="https://www.eldiablomancamp.com/2020/02/tribes-could-this-be-secret-to-success.html" target="_blank">my tribal hypothesis</a>, which ultimately led to the idea of starting a real-life group that wasn't just centered around some random recreational activity, but actually trying to develop a tribe that emulated the kinds of tribes that defined our ancestors' societies. In the four or so years since I wrote the original version of that post, I've been on a path to make this come to fruition. Which is the <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">explicit purpose of THIS project</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the two goals of this project is to bring a group of like-minded, ideologically-diverse people together to help each other grow as individuals, help the Tribe grow as a collective unit, and help make our community a better place to live for everyone. If the idea works and others replicate it elsewhere, it really could have the power to make our entire world a better place to live. And maybe circumvent some of those psychological and emotional pitfalls <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-one-why-your.html" target="_blank">I discussed in the first post</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let's back up a bit, though. What are the positives of belonging to this kind of Tribe? How about the negatives? And why exactly is this Tribe idea potentially revolutionary? Let's get the negatives out of the way first.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Negatives of the Tribe Idea</h3><div><br /></div><div>This entire project comes with a few caveats, especially for people with particular personality types. While these are not deal-breaker issues, they should be considered in the event anyone reading this wants to try the idea.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>First, the members of the Tribe absolutely have to believe in the power of the collective over the power of the individual.</b> Lone wolves who cannot operate as part of a team will note face well in this system of social organization because this requires cooperative interdependence. Everyone has to play a role, and that role has to help the Tribe. So selfish people need not apply.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Second, the Tribe leadership needs to be open-minded, accepting, and have a superior ability to view the world as objectively as possible.</b> And leadership has to be willing to take decisive action for the good of the Tribe, even if it may not be the best decision for every single member. Because these individuals are rare, Tribal leadership probably needs to be made up of a small governing committee or have a single leader who is supported and advised by a trusted group of wise "elders."</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Third, the Tribe cannot have toxic members. </b>Members cannot have serious mental illnesses, excessive egos, or no sense of honor. Members cannot be lazy, stir up drama, or have destructive tendencies. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Fourth, the wrong tribal organization model can force you to be too involved.</b> Or not involved enough. Being sucked too deeply into a Tribe can cause you to lose your sense of self. Conversely, if the bond with the tribe is merely a superficial social bond, you won't get any tangible benefits from membership. Threading the needle has been one of my biggest challenges, which is part of the reason I've written about this topic extensively. I need every potential member of our own Tribe to understand what membership in the Tribe means to prevent either of those extremes. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Fifth, <i>the Tribe cannot fall into the trap of becoming a cult</i>.</b> This is a biggie, and perhaps the biggest danger to this entire idea. In psychology, we've long-ago identified how cults form, who forms them, and what methods they use. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-identify-a-cult-six-expert-tips/" target="_blank">Here's an excellent discussion</a>. Because cults and the charlatans who start and run them have always been an interest of mine, I've intentionally baked A LOT of safeguards into the design of this project. And if you have aspirations of starting a cult and you're using my info - <i>go fuck yourself.</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, so now the <i>good</i>.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Positives of the Tribe Idea</h3><div><br /></div><div>The Tribal organization model, if done deliberately and correctly, taps into our primal heritage like nothing else. A healthy, productive Tribe <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/202002/the-importance-belonging-tribe" target="_blank">has the power to transform every aspect of your life</a> from curing loneliness and giving you a regular social group that could, perhaps, saving you and your family's life in a catastrophe. So what exactly <i>are</i> the benefits?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Dependable mutual aid, support, and protection.</b> Think about how many people you have in your life that you could <i>really</i> rely on in an emergency? Odds are good that number is frighteningly small, especially if you don't have a lot of family members where you live. Now imagine having a whole Tribe of people you could call on for anything. Need a last-minute babysitter? Car break down and you need a ride? Need help moving that grand piano? Society collapsed and you need help protecting your stockpile of pinto beans from roving marauders? <i>The Tribe has your back.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Intimate kinship. </b>We're social animals, and we preform best when we're surrounded by a group of people who we're connected to emotionally. Close friends can be difficult to find, and even more difficult to cultivate and maintain. Especially in our busy, hectic world where work and family have to be high priorities. A Tribe provides many such close friendships. By virtue of the structure of Tribes, maintaining these friendships occurs naturally as part of the Tribe working together, which actually creates more free time for family, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Opportunity to contribute to a meaningful cause beyond yourself, and the ability to see the positive results immediately. </b>As much as Tribal membership GIVES, the real value is what it allows you to CONTRIBUTE. There are precious few things that feel better than making a real difference in people's lives, and a Tribe gives you the power to do just that, not only within the Tribe, but beyond. Better yet, the Tribe itself acts as a megaphone of sorts and amplifies whatever unique contribution you can give the world. As much as this sounds like a pie-in-the-sky hippie rant, I've personally experienced this and it is truly amazing. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Social network of people for fun and recreation.</b> I'm not ashamed to admit I love to <b>play</b><i>, even as a 40-something year old dude. </i><a href="https://www.playcore.com/programs/science-of-play" target="_blank">Science of play aside</a>, taking a playful approach to life just makes everything... better. And this is even greater if you surround yourself with people who love to play. Hell, this is the culture we consciously build at our jiu jitsu gym. A Tribe gives us the opportunity to spend a lot more time having fun with people we care about.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The opportunity to be your authentic self all the time.</b> <a href="https://barefootrunninguniversity.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/the-secret-to-success-be-yourself/" target="_blank">I've been writing about this idea for a loooong time</a>. Basically, life is too short to put up facades. If we can't be who we genuinely want to be, what the Hell's the point of living? Far too many people bury their real self under a pile of other people's expectations, fear of rejection, or other such nonsense. A Tribe allows to to be your real self. Your authentic self. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Employment network.</b> This isn't typically touted as a feature of Tribes, but damn is it useful. Our fellow Tribe members know us well, which can be great should you need a job. Through friends of friends networks, having a diverse Tribe gives you way more personal connections than you may experience as by yourself. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The opportunity for open, honest discussions. </b>The trust and intimacy enjoyed by the Tribe gives members the perfect platform to have real, sustained discussions on topics that are otherwise hard to discuss with relative strangers. Most therapy is really just a glorified version of paid listening. With a Tribe, you get real people you have a connection with as your conversation partner. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The opportunity to teach and learn. </b>Given our plan involves <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">running an actual school</a>, we're kinda taking this one to a whole new level. Tribe members have skills. Knowledge. Wisdom. The Tribe structure allows the Tribe members to share freely within the group to improve everyone's collective abilities. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Motivation and accountability.</b> Health and fitness "Tribes" are a thing for a very good reason - they help us overcome the inherent limitations we all have. This was one of the best benefits of the Tribes Shelly and I belonged to in the past - they pushed us and held us accountable if we didn't rise to the challenge. This was also a major perk of our Man Camp group. Simply put, humans do better when in groups <i>because</i> of the group.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Collective income generation.</b> Our Tribal model will be explicitly designed as a for-profit entity that benefits the Tribe financially. A beehive of smart people each working in their area of expertise towards a common goal is a powerful force, especially when applied in a way that makes our local communities better places. If that synergy (damn, I hate that word) can be used to financially benefit the individual members of a Tribe and the Tribe as a whole, that's just icing on the cake!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Recognition from people you respect.</b> In an era of participation trophies, real recognition for genuine hard work and actual accomplishment is rare. But getting authentic recognition from people who know and respect you is something that is so rare, many people today have never experienced it. And that's sad. Real recognition is among the most powerful intrinsic motivators. Tribes provide this in heaps. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Improved health. </b>This is a somewhat surprising benefit, but we have good data that strongly suggests being part of a real Tribe <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseto_effect" target="_blank">has significant health benefits</a>. This makes sense. In yesterday's post, I mentioned how our modern world leads to chronic, low-level stress, which we know is terrible for our health. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The power of the collective, especially for collaborative, creative problem-solving. </b>We all face a litany of problems as we navigate life. We do our best to solve these problems with the limited resources we have available. A Tribe and our collective pool of resources dramatically expands this problem-solving limitation. This specific function of tribes, after all, is THE reason you and I are here right now... every one of our ancestors solve the riddle of survival. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The opportunity for women to bond with other women and men to bond with other men.</b> This is another weird benefit we don't really consider until we look at the nature of male and female friendships. Men are simple. We have men in our Tribe and men from other Tribes. The biggest issue men usually face is simply not having enough time to dedicate to male friendships. <a href="http://www.sdmancamp.com/2015/07/frenemies-and-girl-power-fickle-nature.html" target="_blank">For women, it's complicated</a>. In both cases, though, the Tribe provides many opportunities for deep friendships often without the dumbass drama most us us experience without the Tribes. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Opportunity to reach your full potential while helping other reach theirs.</b> This collective self-improvement journey is one of the best life-enhancing aspects of a Tribe. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I did my best work when I was part of a tribe, and we weren't even explicitly trying to help each other beyond finishing races or getting better at choking each other out. </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><div><br /></div><div>There you go. Those are the pros and cons of Tribes. This was the social organization that allowed our ancestors to survive and thrive, and this is the social organization that will do the same for us. </div><div> </div><div><p><i>Primal shit makes us happy in a way the newest iPhone or a trip to the mall can't.</i></p></div><div> </div><div>In a future post, I'll talk about the actual dynamics of the Tribe, because we don't need to destroy civilization to capitalize on all the perks listed above.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>~Jason</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>***</div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-8844927336614822542021-01-22T05:26:00.003-08:002021-01-23T05:20:29.822-08:00Why We Need a Tribe, Part One - Why Your Life Sucks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4W9B3ZKUCiJLiEdampc_mOJ1iYLcVT4Zgp1yAs9uTFvO7nmSiQ9l5oDLL0ionh7R6FMIaWDJ0CkqzXTSjausU0C_1-VElS2Az-4gmALzrYLXYppbAjlqHvNbFSd-y814azcZIEo-SIwQ/s1500/modern+life.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1500" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4W9B3ZKUCiJLiEdampc_mOJ1iYLcVT4Zgp1yAs9uTFvO7nmSiQ9l5oDLL0ionh7R6FMIaWDJ0CkqzXTSjausU0C_1-VElS2Az-4gmALzrYLXYppbAjlqHvNbFSd-y814azcZIEo-SIwQ/w400-h215/modern+life.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>The "Tribe" aspect of this project came about because our modern society has become so individualist, we basically live on a social island in the middle of the ocean. We just kind of bumble through life, alone. Some of us may have a partner, and maybe a friend or two we hang out with once every few months. For most of us, though, our social world is a barren desert. </p><p></p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://giphy.com/embed/1l7GT4n3CGTzW" width="480"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p>There are quite a few reasons for this, but the main culprit is simple - we live in a ridiculously safe, prosperous society. We don't NEED other people. Take a look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs from the bottom up:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0PslzjsDtI-uaXfryrhfxrBh9EfUZFz356E3lC3GSV1TMucieJML-7I5rH6nY6Ag23Wu4YIyOzUMoZJaXe0Twmr7XApMvOUE14W_CF3oSDBxbiN97radiDyupUq8UKAe1G5HpMpTRcNs/s1344/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1344" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0PslzjsDtI-uaXfryrhfxrBh9EfUZFz356E3lC3GSV1TMucieJML-7I5rH6nY6Ag23Wu4YIyOzUMoZJaXe0Twmr7XApMvOUE14W_CF3oSDBxbiN97radiDyupUq8UKAe1G5HpMpTRcNs/w400-h297/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p> </p><p>Here in our small town of Montrose, we have three grocery stores, a Walmart, a Target, A Dollar General, a Family Dollar, and a host of other small convenience stores and gas stations. The biggest struggle we have to get food is deciding which store we're going to buy it from. </p><p>We get an unlimited supply of clean water from the faucet. If we're concerned about what's in the water, we can buy 872 different varieties of filtered, flavored water from the aforementioned stores. Have been in the water aisle lately? WATER has become a lifestyle brand. Le Croix if you're a hipster, Smart water if you're an intellectual, Aloe water if you have an internal sunburn, BLK water if you don't own an RV... it's insane. </p><p>Warmth and rest? The biggest challenge there for most of us is figuring out which setting on our electric blanket is "just right" while we stay up too late trying to figure out if "<a href="https://youtu.be/lCgz9915wHw" target="_blank">That bitch Carol Baskin</a>" really did kill her husband. </p><p>What about security and safety? Well, we can look at the date and see we're currently living in the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/steven-pinker-this-is-historys-most-peaceful-time-new-study-not-so-fast/" target="_blank">safest society in the history of humanity</a>. But we're emotional creatures, not logical. The fact is, we carry a device in our pockets that can, if needed, summon law enforcement in a matter of seconds. Or that we have doorbells that record everything that happens around our houses and beams a feed to that same device. Yeah, violence and other crime still happens, but we sometimes take for granted that we don't have to worry about our personal safety 99% of the time. When we do, it's usually because we've made a stupid decision. </p><p>It's safe to say all but the most down-trodden have all their basic physiological needs met all the time by our technologically-advanced society. So much so, most of us have no idea how any of the things we rely on come to be. Where does that quinoa come from? Where was your weighted blanket manufactured? What's the name of the police officer who routinely patrols your neighborhood at 3am on the weekends? </p><p>What about those psychological needs? Intimate relationships, friends, a sense of belonging, prestige, a feeling of accomplishment... where do we get those? Some of us have partners, and maybe a few friends. Maybe we belong to the Gold's gym down the road, and maybe we got "employee of the month" a few years back. But when we take stock of our social world, it's usually pretty... sad. For our grandparents and their grandparents, they had tight-knit towns or neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone else. Kids played in the streets until dark. Neighborhood parties were a thing.</p><p>Today, we're lucky if we could recognize the family who lives two doors down if we saw them in the store, and <i>we've lived here for a decade</i>. </p><p>Why?</p><p>Again, it's probably modern society. Technology. Whatever device you're using to read this blog? That's what we can blame. We meet and interact with friends on social media. We win prestige and feelings of accomplishment by winning arguments about politics with memes and Tik Tok vids. We find true love with Match.com. And more temporary love with Tinder. In essence, The Internets provide for all our psychological needs. </p><p><i>Or do we? </i><br /></p><p>It's not to we get to self-actualization, the top of Maslow's pyramid, that we really start to see modern society is really a bit of an illusion. It's way too hard to be creative for most of us. It's way too hard to actually make a positive difference in those around us. It's way too hard to make our world a better place. When we try, it feels forced and is usually fleeting. There's an internal resistance. There's hesitation. There's self-doubt. </p><p>Yeah, we DO actually have all those physiological and psychological needs being met, but is it really quenching the thirst of those needs? The more you examine your own life, the more you realize just how unfulfilling and unsatisfying all those things modern society provides really are. WHY isn't much of a mystery. It's all <i>manufactured</i>. Artificial. Fake. But it's convenient. And easy. <i>We like easy</i>. Laziness helped our distant ancestors survive by saving precious calories, and that inherent laziness is still hard-wired in our brains today. <br /></p><p>Don't believe me?</p><p>Try this experiment. Pay attention to how you feel right now. Notice how you feel kinda tense, sort of like you have low level anxiety. Maybe you feel kinda "blah." Now go for a walk in nature. if it's possible, take off your shoes so you can feel the ground under your feet. Get away from buildings, traffic, and noise. Breathe in the air. Notice the trees and how they sway in the wind. Listen to the sounds. </p><p>When you return, notice how you feel now. That tense feeling disappears. That nagging stress kinda retreats. You feel... better. Happier More fulfilled. </p><p><i>Why does nature have that effect on us?</i> It's pretty simple, actually. Our brains, whether we consciously recognize it or not, are <b>exceptional at judging authenticity</b>. Modern society is a drug that makes us feel good in the moment, but our brain knows it's not real. It's a cognitive process our brains likely developed to determine if strangers were potentially dangerous. Our distant cave man ancestors had to figure out if Kevin, the cave dude from the neighboring tribe, was actually a nice person or if he was just pretending to be nice so he could club us over the head the moment we turn our backs. Basically, our brains don't *trust* our fake, manufactured society we come to rely on to meet all our needs. And it stresses us out. </p><p>And really, our brains aren't wrong. Look how quickly those social connections broke down on social media over the last few years as we argued about our president. Look what happens when the electricity goes out in the middle of winter. Look what happens when it turns out our municipal water supply gets contaminated with lead from 200 year old pipes. Look what happens when a global pandemic hits and everyone hoards toilet paper. <i>Our brains are right to be skeptical of our modern, artificial lifestyles</i>.</p><p>Since my late 20's, I've collected a weird set of pursuits. Hunting. Barefoot running. Ultrarunning. Male-only groups. Fighting. Each and every one of these pursuits had an undeniably positive effect on my <i>soul</i>. When I was immersed in any of them, I felt a feeling of fulfillment and completeness that can't be described with words. It was like each of these pursuits satisfied a primal hunger I didn't even know I had. </p><p>THAT deep sense of fulfillment allowed me to actually reach the top of Maslow's pyramid - they allowed me to reach my potential. And holy shit, is that awesome! The absolute best work I've done in my life, great work, work that helped people become better versions of themselves, ALWAYS occurred when I was fully immersed in these "primal" activities. In psychology, we call this a "flow" state. But even these moments have been temporary. As soon as I stop the activity, that low-level anxiety of modernity returns. Getting and staying in that zone has been a puzzle I've been trying to solve for years. How can I get there and stay there, and how can I get others there? And can I surround myself with those people? I've been able to do things in my life the younger version of me would never have imagined. What could I do if I surrounded myself with smart, motivated, open people who were also in that flow state of primal fulfillment? What could WE do?!?</p><p>Then, by complete accident, <i>I stumbled upon the answer</i>. </p><p>Which I'll describe in Part Two. If you're skeptical that your misery is the result of modernity, <a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html" target="_blank">give this Cracked article a read</a>. Yeah, yeah, it's that same Cracked we read as kids. Well, some of us, anyway (fist bump to Gen X.) I'll give this teaser - it doesn't involve abandoning Starbucks and Netflix to move to the desert and live in an adobe hut.</p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">Check out the next part in the series here.</a><br /></p><p>~Jason</p><p><br /></p><p><br />***<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-58589154036986112842021-01-21T04:15:00.003-08:002021-01-29T03:38:04.970-08:00The Flawed Martial Arts School Model: Part One - The Historical Root of the Problem<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKSlCf9vEL1Nqrk4tcJvyhpY5vYVUZRksGsiU6QP-YFIDuavLdnq3BO7TYLqSv-1gdceZ9gi75ZKtOSmMfnY2AIhPZaNydT7OTwwY9ckHhK-5iHq_Odf-5fdcIN1Uu5o1mapVPi0yIe0/s444/Teller.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="444" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKSlCf9vEL1Nqrk4tcJvyhpY5vYVUZRksGsiU6QP-YFIDuavLdnq3BO7TYLqSv-1gdceZ9gi75ZKtOSmMfnY2AIhPZaNydT7OTwwY9ckHhK-5iHq_Odf-5fdcIN1Uu5o1mapVPi0yIe0/w464-h261/Teller.jpg" width="464" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The business model we use for martial arts instruction in the United States, today, royally sucks.</b> Since taking over ownership of a Brazilian jiu jitsu gym in September of '19, I’ve been fully immersed in the joys and pains of the industry. And the typical model we use has a lot more pains than joys.<br /><br />After a good deal of research, experimentation, and synthesizing of past experiences and new ideas, I’ve come to the conclusion that a great deal of the pain caused by gym ownership is a direct result of the business model almost all of us use in some capacity. In short, martial arts businesses, including jiu jitsu gyms, use a model that attempts to marry the traditions and structures of ancient Eastern martial arts with modern American business practices.<br /><br /><i>And it’s not a happy marriage.</i><br /><br />Every gym owner I know struggles with the same issues, which I’ll detail later. But these problems inevitably cause gym owners to experience significant burn-out, lose friendships, lose interest in the art they love, and in many cases, lose money.<br /><br />So what’s the cause of these problems? To fully understand WHY the system we use causes so many problems, we have to do a bit of digging into history.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">How Martial Arts Used to Be Taught</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><br />Martial arts used to be taught for war (ergo the “martial” part.) It was training that would help you beat your opponent on the battlefield. As such, martial arts instructors and their training was subsidized by the military or government. If you were a soldier in the military, you’d receive martial arts training as part of the overall military training. <br /><br />Martial arts would also sometimes be taught to civilians for self-defense purposes. In this case, the “business model” was somewhat similar to that which we use today in the US. You’d have an expert (a “master”) who had a long-standing, strong reputation within their communities. This may have been because their families had passed the art from generation to generation, or it may have been based on their particular culture. Because each culture only had one or a very small number of different “arts”, masters were rare. <br /><br />The generic situation under this model worked something like this. If you wanted to learn a martial art, you would get instruction from a local master for a period of time. If you were really good OR had interest in learning the art to the point where you yourself would become a master some day, you’d petition your master to accept you as a “disciple.” If your master accepted you as a disciple, you’d enter into a special long-term relationship defined by trust, loyalty, and mutual obligation.<br /><br />The nature of this relationship was much more involved than that of a teacher/ student relationship. It became much more like a parent/ child relationship. The master would guide and teach their disciple (or disciples) in every aspect of the art, and the disciple would in turn help take care of the master and support them by providing things like food, housing, etc. This was generally a lifelong commitment. THIS is the model that American martial arts businesses attempt to replicate.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIctdo7Z1QV3oJkgpeD5pxbXjV6qKhMQgcvf9pLh6hN1RQCtZ5RfpMYHmjwotITkl2S6cVwzoZu-f4T_c2oBCzZuGWWMM99zIdhpOJ_ZMyM9Ou18qGJh2CwS2ueUono7OpiL70eDyPcI4/s734/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-season-10-splinter-turtles-bowing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="734" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIctdo7Z1QV3oJkgpeD5pxbXjV6qKhMQgcvf9pLh6hN1RQCtZ5RfpMYHmjwotITkl2S6cVwzoZu-f4T_c2oBCzZuGWWMM99zIdhpOJ_ZMyM9Ou18qGJh2CwS2ueUono7OpiL70eDyPcI4/w450-h334/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-season-10-splinter-turtles-bowing.jpg" width="450" /></a></div><br /><br />A critically-important key to this model - the MASTER holds the power in the relationship, not the DISCIPLE. The disciple must seek and earn the approval of the master to reach disciple status and must continue to earn the approval of the master to continue their journey. The goal of this process is to essentially assure the art is only taught to individuals who have the character to use the art for noble, virtuous purposes. You don’t want to teach serial killers how to get better at killing. <br /><br /><p></p><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">So Where Did This Model Go Wrong?</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><br />When martial arts started exploding in the United States in the late 60’s and early 70’s (due to World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the explosion of martial arts TV and movies), there was a sudden, powerful demand by the American consumer to learn these martial arts. So the earliest instructors (“masters”) to open schools in the United States had to adopt a particular business model that would solve a critical problem - since there is no familial or cultural knowledge of martial arts in general or instructors in particular that gave the instructors a positive reputation, these early instructors had to create their own reputations. <br /><br />To accomplish that, they had to sell themselves to their prospective students. Martial arts transitioned from a cultural staple rooted in a culture’s historical warrior class passed down through deeply-connected master/ disciple relationships to a commercialized service industry. This shift, which seems rather trivial, was critically important in explaining our current problems because it shifted the power dynamic.<br /><br />Instead of the well-known, well-respected master granting qualified, motivated individuals to become loyal disciples, now unknown “masters” had to sell themselves to prospective students who were free to pick and choose any instructor they wanted in any art available at any time. <br /><br /><i>Capitalism 101. </i><br /><br />Normally this is a good thing. Competition leads to improvement as service providers battle to provide the best service value for their students. Unfortunately for the martial arts industry, the very nature of martial arts included all kinds of customs and concepts that were mostly incompatible with a system where the student controlled the power dynamic of the relationship. So this new hybrid model produced all kinds of problems.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">How This Hybrid Model Brought About the McDojo Problem</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><br />The early martial arts masters in the US were selling a recreational service that competed with every other recreational service business in their area. They had to sell themselves to prospective students, then provide quality service in a way that retained the students as long as possible. For every student lost, a new one would need to be recruited. All to pay the bills. <br /><br />It didn’t take long for the martial arts masters to realize the commercialization of martial arts causes all kinds of problems. The master/ disciple relationship had changed because the master was no longer the power broker. In the old system, disciples were essentially bonded to their master through good and bad through cultural tradition. Under the American commercialized system, the disciples were free to leave at any time for another master, another art, or even a completely different recreational activity. They were, after all, paying customers. <br /><br />In the old system, the martial arts masters were irreplaceable cultural icons to be revered and respected. In the United States, teachers of any kind are viewed as replaceable cogs in a big machine. Even martial arts masters.<br /><br />Under the threat of constantly losing paying customers, martial art school owners had to start generating revenue through other streams, like requiring specific uniforms purchased from the school owner, testing fees for belts and the creation of more belts, a lowering of standards of the art, and, because it became important to recruit as many new students as possible, deceptive advertising. This also led to the proliferation of echo chambers where really stupid ideas flourish (like “death touch” techniques.) Essentially, this commercialization of the martial arts model forced owners to make compromises that are not in the students’ best interests in order to pay the bills. </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="332" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kIL5nD2PQ0Y" width="400" youtube-src-id="kIL5nD2PQ0Y"></iframe></div><br /><br />Despite the obvious problems this hybrid business model creates, the commercialized recreational martial art model has been used for pretty much every martial art that has been brought to the United States. Including Brazilian jiu jitsu.<br /><br /><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">How BJJ Adopted the Model</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><br />Back in the late 70’s, Rorion Gracie was primarily responsible for bringing a commercialized version of Brazilian jiu jitsu to the United States. It’s an interesting story, including the back story to the development of the modern day UFC mixed martial arts promotion. His primary goal was simple - bring the art here to America to make cash. Which he did. <br /><br />In the process, Rorion set the tone that would shape the development of BJJ here in the US, which was the same tone other martial arts had previously followed - Jiu jitsu businesses became commercial recreational martial arts businesses. <br /><br />Today, we see the effects of this on almost every jiu jitsu school in the country. There will be one “master” (usually a black belt) who is responsible for disseminating information to the rest of the school, which is often made up of students ranging from first-day noobs to gristled veterans. Dissent is discouraged; the master is assumed to have all the answers. Authority is not questioned. Collaboration with others outside the school (or lineage) is strongly discouraged and oftentimes punished. Loyalty to the master and the school is a must; people who show disloyalty are branded a “creonte” and socially-shunned. Innovation is limited to the degree of open-mindedness of the master. When students reach a certain degree of proficiency, they’re often expected to assume an instructor role. And so on.<br /><br />This system creates all kinds of issues like intra- and inter-school drama, ego issues, high turnover, and the problem of students leaving to start their own schools and taking students in the process. It forces owners to spend a disproportionate amount of time generating and following up on leads for new students, teaching a re-teaching the same boring basics to the constant flow of new students coming through the door, teaching too many classes at inconvenient times, constantly having to chase students down to collect payments, and a host of other problems that make school ownership pretty shitty.<br /><br />The real problem, though, is this commercialized recreational service model is poorly-designed to maximize the potential of the information age. The old master/ disciple model worked in part because the knowledge the master held was incredibly rare. Given we have the Internet, this is no longer the case. There are approximately 275,000 videos available on the Internet about arm bars alone, and many of these videos feature knowledge from the very best competitors and instructors in the sport. <br /><br />Like pretty much any knowledge today, knowledge about jiu jitsu is abundant and free. KNOWING the information is now virtually worthless. The real value is being able to FILTER the information to determine what is useful and worthless. The real value is being able to synthesize the information. The real value is being able to teach this synthesized information. Anybody can now access WHAT to teach. What we need today are people who know HOW to teach. And our business model is terrible at that. Severely impedes it, even.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Solution</h3><p style="text-align: left;">Our <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/project-summary-30000-foot-view-10.html" target="_blank">School/ Tribe model</a> was partially designed to remedy this entire issue. Our jiu jitsu classes (and to a lesser extent, our mma classes) are sacred in that we really need them to survive. The physical and mental benefits our team derives from those classes is one of the more important parts of our lives. As such, this was among the highest priorities in designing the framework of this plan- WE NEED A PLACE TO TRAIN.<br /><br />The gist - the Tribe will essentially run the program, replacing the "Master" and "Disciples." This diffuses the weird power gradient that simply doesn't play well as a business model. Because the Tribe is already, by design, a closely-connected unit, there's no weird "loyalty" crap. The Tribe is free to use expertise from any and all sources because the entire operation clearly, explicitly benefits both the Tribe and the Students.<br /></p>Psychologically, this simple distinction of "Tribe" and "Student" creates much clearer roles, and should eliminate a lot of the common problems we see in the current models. In future posts, I'll go into great detail on HOW this could be implemented. <br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">~Jason <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">***<br /><br /><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-71222119517113624592021-01-20T01:59:00.003-08:002021-01-20T02:02:24.107-08:00The Logic and Reasoning of the Blog: The Ten Steps to Dominating Niche Markets<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPOFAm48MYDzWXx0rDmAvo6gfr6ToYxK-f-JIVOWyV4iMdQBwmOeN8R_YIQ7gPbluwFjeWhLdISnt9Gh_tUm6kI7V8_JcxpI2GEFaMjQKeVR7Hix9vOLfAkg_Ah6utcwA-qvTu30Byuw/s450/cat+typing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="450" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPOFAm48MYDzWXx0rDmAvo6gfr6ToYxK-f-JIVOWyV4iMdQBwmOeN8R_YIQ7gPbluwFjeWhLdISnt9Gh_tUm6kI7V8_JcxpI2GEFaMjQKeVR7Hix9vOLfAkg_Ah6utcwA-qvTu30Byuw/w400-h300/cat+typing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><i>So what's the point of this blog? Aren't you trying to start some kind of School or something?</i></p><p>I got this question recently, and I decided it would make a good post. Pretty much every detail of everything I've done and will continue to do with this project is deliberate and planned. Including starting a blog and all the seemingly weird details. Like the fact that I'm using BLOGGER. And the name is an obscure psychology joke within an even more obscure psychology joke that's really more amusing than funny.</p><p><i>Here's the plan I'm following.</i> But first the back story.<br /><i></i></p><p>For those who don't know me well, I tried my hand as a "professional" writer back in the day, and have written recreationally for years. While my actual writing is just kinda "meh", I have been an extremely prolific writer and did find a moderate degree of commercial success. I've written five books I self-published, two of which were eventually published by real publishers and between the groups, sold around 50-60,000 copies in four languages. I've also written six or seven articles that appeared in magazines, and have written a who mess of blog posts across about twelve or thirteen different blogs. At last count, I think I'm up to around 1,500 posts containing about 1.3 million words written and published online, which have been read somewhere in the ballpark of 800,000 times. The point isn't to brag (a lot of the writing really does objectively suck... just read the Amazon reviews or blog comments), but to highlight that I have a pretty solid foundation of using the written word to share my ideas. I've thrown a whole lotta pasta at the wall, and I'll be damned if some of it didn't stick.<br /></p><p>The entire process has been a lot of trial and error. Heavy emphasis on the "error" part... which is part of the reason all that work hasn't made me rich or famous. But wishing to be rich and famous is a fool's errand. But that was never the goal, so it's okay. Every single book, article, and post served a purpose - <b>help others</b>. This is likely why I've had the relative success I've had; <b>the goal has always been to share knowledge people could apply to their lives in an actionable way that would lead to objective improvements in their lives</b>. Didn't matter if it were barefoot running, trail and ultrarunning, teaching, traveling in an RV full-time with kids, helping people understand relationships, helping men learn how to get better at being men, or this project right here. </p><p>That "helping others" idea serves another useful purpose - it gives you a reason to write other than getting famous, making a ton of money, getting a ton of readers, or getting that book publishing deal. Not only are each of those things extremely difficult, but every one of those things, once you achieve it, is hollow and usually creates more problems than you believe it will solve. It's just like the people who start jiu jitsu for that black belt. If that's why you're doing it, you'll quit soon after getting to blue. Extrinsic motivators suck. That's a post for another day. <br /></p><p>Anyway, this project is essentially the sum of all those efforts. I really do believe this Tribe idea has the potential to make a real, significant difference in the world, and can be a tool to help solve some of modern society's more vexing problems. Even if my specific application of the ideas crashes and burns (I'm supremely confident it won't; but I was also supremely confident spending hundreds of dollars on Jeff George rookie cards would be the key to early retirement), I'm confident people smarter than me CAN tweak and apply these ideas with loads of success. But the only way that happens is if I can effectively <i>spread </i>the ideas. Ergo the blog.The best part - EVERY part of this can be done at ZERO cost. <br /></p><p>Here's how I do it step-by-step, and the logic behind it.</p><p><b>Step One: Choose the platform.</b> I use Blogger. It's old, feels old, LOOKS old, and isn't especially versatile. But it's a Google product, so content gets a bit of an SEO boost. It's free, has good sharing options, and allows you to easily implement Google's ad system to run ads on the site. If the blog develops a lot of traffic eventually, that can be an excellent passive income stream. And, honestly, I like my writings to be stripped of aesthetics. That assures people are reading it for the content, not because it looks pretty. For purposes like this project, <i>that's important.</i><br /></p><p><b>Step Two: Choose the name.</b> I like weird names with a slightly offensive bend. Like the URL of this blog. The title of the blog is benign, but the address? Not so much. The weird names make projects a little more memorable, and the offensiveness acts as a filter for the prudes. Outside of the classroom, I don't like to filter myself. Neither does Shelly. We save everyone a lot of time and angst if we can keep the easily-offended at bay from the beginning. You may have other reasons, but choose your title deliberately.<br /><b></b></p><p><b>Step Three: Define the parameters of the subject matter.</b> Finding the right "bandwidth" of ideas is tricky as it varies by topic. I start narrow, then widen with time. Start too wide and you'll have trouble developing a core of dedicated readers. <br /></p><p>For example, my original barefoot running blog only dealt with learning how to run. By the end of its life cycle, I was discussing topics like the merits of using information from the S&M community to learn how to deal with the pain of running ultras. </p><p><i>As a slight sidebar</i> - Long ago, I discovered the value in always presenting the most authentic version of yourself as you possibly can to anyone who matters. This assures you attract like-minded people and, more importantly, repel the people who eventually won't like you. When people put up facades, it never ends well. This is also why all my works are filled with dumb, obscure, and/or inside jokes. <br /></p><p><b>Step Four: Set up methods for readers to easily share the content.</b> Subscribe and Share buttons are your friend. This IS a relative weakness of Blogger; the social media sharing is only so-so. They're there, but they're not great. Again, though, the people who really connect with the ideas will find a way to share them. <br /></p><p><b>Step Five: Write <i>a lot</i>.</b> This is usually the hardest part. Doing anything worthwhile takes FOREVER. Doesn't matter if it's jiu jitsu, college, or building a blog audience. Writing one post a day for the first year is usually my early blog goal. That takes discipline and persistence, which usually determines who succeeds and fails. It's important to understand this one rule:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>There is no such thing as an overnight success!</b><br /></p><p>I have the advantage of leveraging my existing, curated audience, so I can get 50-100 posts the first day I post something. But when I started, it took something like two years of writing before I cracked 20 daily hits. But growth is exponential, not linear. By year three, I was getting 1,000 daily hits. By year four, 25,000 daily hits. The hard work pays off, but you gotta resist eating the marshmallow. </p><p>If you've read any of my work, you've probably notices it's poorly-edited. That's by design. It's actually not edited at all other than the red squigglies for misspelled words. First, I HATE editing. Second, I'm too lazy to use the online tools used for grammar usage, which are excellent. Well, maybe not lazy so much as writing tends to be a manic-like activity for me. I will go months or even years and produce virtually nothing, then go through six months to a year of writing A LOT. Finally, it's one of those authenticity things I mentioned above. It effectively weeds out the OCD grammar Nazis. I've found they're usually not the kind of people I want in my social circle. Or, as sometimes happens, they appreciate the ideas enough to ignore the crap writing. <br /></p><p><b>Step Six: Analyze the data to determine the audience, then use it to tweak your writing.</b> Once you get some posts written and you start getting some views, you can look at the blog post data to determine what kinds of posts and topics are resonating with your audience. THIS DATA IS PURE GOLD! Use it to apply Pareto's Principle. Keep doing what works, quit doing what doesn't.<br /></p><p><b>Step Seven: Add affiliate links.</b> <a href="https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/" target="_blank">Amazon Associates</a> is an awesome program. Any time you mention a product, link to it. Review products related to your blog topic, then link to those. At the height, I was making several hundred dollars per month doing this, and each link took like 45 seconds to create. It's a great passive income stream.<br /><b></b></p><p><b>Step Eight: Add ads. </b>I haven't done this for a very long time because all my newer blogs were either too controversial OR didn't get a critical mass of traffic. But running ads is another very good passive income stream. <br /></p><p><b>Step Nine: Write a book (and/or develop other media channels like video.)</b> Once your blog has a degree of success (usually about when you have 100 regular readers or about 300 hits per post), start considering producing some sort of information product. Amazon's <a href="https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/" target="_blank">Kindle Direct Publishing</a> is what I use. Market it to your True Fans. They will promote it to their friends, and those friends will promote it to their friends, and so on. It creates a sustained, growing passive income stream that requires no money and virtually no time.</p><p>Another benefit of the blog and the accompanying data - it'll tell you what you should add in the products you produce. It's a long story, but "Never Wipe Your ass with a Squirrel", probably the best book I've written, was written, edited, and published in a frenetic 36 hours. We were a few days away from financial catastrophe after some miscalculations when bumming around the country in an RV, and I needed cash immediately. After selling my body only produced $3.50 and a half-drank can of watermelon Four Lokos, I was able to just use the sixty or so posts on the accompanying blog to organize and write the book in a way that I knew would resonate with that project's True Fans. It sold hundreds of copies the first day it was sold. It saved our asses. <br /></p><p><b>Step Ten: Sit back and collect the checks.</b> If you follow these steps, you should end up with a good sized audience who is very similar to you, willing to buy and promote the stuff you produce, and you have multiple passive income streams. That then frees up a whole lotta time to either really immerse yourself in the project OR pivot to a new topic (which is what I tend to do.) </p><p></p><p></p><p>For this particular project, though, I designed it in such a way that the entire Tribe will contribute and benefit from this process, AND it gives me the freedom to explore all kinds of interesting topics that will then use this project as a foundation. I've learned my lesson on how to make this system sustainable. </p><p>Now, this project does take time and effort. Writing ain't always easy. But if you adopt this Tribe model I'm presenting in this project, recruit people who like to write. Every other aspect of this process can be delegated to people who actually enjoy doing that kind of thing, which is one of the HUGE advantages of creating a deliberate tribe. </p><p>~Jason<br /></p><p><br />***<br /></p><p><br /><b></b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-38224913863038305782021-01-19T08:04:00.000-08:002021-01-19T08:04:07.878-08:00The Logic and Reasoning Behind the Facebook Group: Leveraging Social Media to Make the World a BETTER Place<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Mqc3cTAVKB3QL2GdPMhUWBIzHuql0dOdlLp0KTeEvKoT7lfM0kKE-4r-5qSoedrp4CXtay0EGgVFRzLoOeATaPhqMll2QfjrAYyBcpv-on-FXm0VVZQl8M5eFSqIZ_EeWZl6aapZAPY/s713/social-media-students-713x523.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="713" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Mqc3cTAVKB3QL2GdPMhUWBIzHuql0dOdlLp0KTeEvKoT7lfM0kKE-4r-5qSoedrp4CXtay0EGgVFRzLoOeATaPhqMll2QfjrAYyBcpv-on-FXm0VVZQl8M5eFSqIZ_EeWZl6aapZAPY/w400-h294/social-media-students-713x523.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>When setting up this project, I took two steps to communicate ideas to the "outside" world: Started this blog, and set up a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">Facebook Group, which can be found here</a>. This post explains WHY I did this, and WHAT PURPOSE the Facebook Group serves. </p><p><b>Reason #1: I have a lot of Facebook friends who have been discussing my idea for years, which are usually just ideas that come from them that I stitch together in weird ways. </b>I've spent years curating a diverse set of social media friends who are equal parts creative, objective, and skeptical, and most of which have no problem telling me exactly why any given idea I synthesize is stupid. Given their brains kinda work like mine, just from vastly different perspectives, their input and feedback is incredibly valuable. They understand what I'm trying to do, understand my motivations, and have the ability to inform me of the inevitable blind spots I have based on my limited perspective. They're objective outsiders who get the big picture enough that they don't immediately reject the ideas. </p><p>This is important. To paraphrase Hugh MacLeod, "Good ideas have lonely childhoods." Meaning, the more "out there" an idea is, the fewer people there are who will <i>get </i>it. That's part of the reason so many good ideas die a premature death. Luckily I'm used to trying bizarre ideas without any real support (thanks, barefoot running prior to <i>Born to Run</i>!) But the real problem is a lack of feedback. If people don't get your idea, they can't really offer any kind of feedback. The people who join this Facebook group are the precise people who CAN give me feedback right now, today, because they've been with me long enough to see my other seemingly stupid ideas succeed. <br /></p><p><b>Reason #2: It provides an infusion of ideas from sources outside our little world.</b> Not only can outsiders give feedback on the ideas we're testing, but they can be a great source of NEW ideas that we don't consider. Back in the aforementioned barefoot running days, this was absolutely critical to developing good methods to teach people to run without shoes. In many cases, that new info came from people who had some legitimate knowledge about advanced biomechanics, which was far superior to my half-assed knowledge from college anatomy and physiology class. Which I barely passed. <br /></p><p>This project, while pretty simple, involves A LOT of pretty complex social dynamics AND involves bringing together a diverse set of people to act as a singular unit. Until we get enough Tribe members to fill out each of the types of people we need, the Facebook Group folks can and will serve an important role. </p><p><b>Reason #3: It can be used to recruit potential new members.</b> It's fairly unlikely someone would move to Montrose, Colorado just to be part of this experimental group, but you never know. In this sense, the Facebook group is kinda like a national or even international recruiting tool.</p><p><b>Reason #4: It can be used to "seed" other similar groups that members of the group may start themselves</b>. This is probably more likely than #3, and has happened with all my other experimental projects. This is especially valuable because this idea SHOULD be able to be deployed anywhere by anyone, but that's just a hypothesis. Actually testing that hypothesis would be incredibly useful.</p><p><b>Reason #5: The Group provides a starting point to market and sell any products we produce. </b>This is tied to my last post about the rationale behind this blog. If this project turns out to be successful and I write a book about it, this is the group most likely to buy the book initially, and recommend it to their friends. <br /></p><p><b>Reason #6: The Group will eventually give us some idea of the kind of people who would not work well in this kind of tribal environment.</b> There's a weird effect that happens when ideas start to grow and spread. You reach a critical mass, then all of a sudden all kinds of people want to join the movement. But they don't usually really understand what you're doing, or WANT to understand. To paraphrase Hugh M. again, "They just want to be on the winning team." Once they join the team, they tend to sabotage the original idea. Sometimes they're only there to take and are not willing to contribute. Or they're only there to sell us crap. Or they're just looking for pictures of your dirty feet. Yeah, that happens. </p><p><i>A lot.</i></p><p>I call it "The Law of Annoying People." </p><p>The Facebook Group offers some good "reconnaissance" to figure out how to identify these people, because their characteristics vary based on the project. But every project that reaches a certain degree of success has them. Because the threshold to join the Facebook Group is so low (all you have to do is send a request), you'll see these people showing up there way before you start seeing them show up in person. Once you figure out what they look like, you can set up safeguards to keep them away from the actual real life Tribe. </p><p>Some people have asked me in the past why I basically scare these people off when I could be selling my crap to them and making a quick buck. In short, I've learned the hard way that it's not worth the money. Isn't it kinda mean to push people way? Yes. Yes, it is. Part of the difficulty of leading projects like this is making the tough decisions that are ultimately good for the health of the group you're leading. You don't let them into the circle for the same reason you don't put the injured deer in your back seat.</p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="312" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QbSFxlfuf9s" width="375" youtube-src-id="QbSFxlfuf9s"></iframe></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">How is the Group Being Utilized?</h3><p style="text-align: left;"> As of right now, I will utilize the Facebook Group by posting these blog post AND a "Topic of the Day." Both are meant to both disseminate information and receive useful feedback, which is accomplished through respectful, productive, open discussions. </p><p style="text-align: left;">IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING YOU'D DIG, join the group and contribute your expertise from your unique perspective!<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><p>There you have it - the six primary reasons I started the Facebook Group. For the folks who may eventually read this and decide to start their own tribe, the platform doesn't really matter. I use Facebook because that's where all my important friends spend their social media time. </p><p><br /></p><p>~Jason<br /></p><p>***<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187848723046020289.post-19746096434533908822021-01-18T04:50:00.006-08:002021-01-24T09:06:30.601-08:00Project Summary: The 30,000 Foot View 1.0<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8IMnvK6soOTwGOX5geUuvPwLc8wA2TWhpoyDwdCWzelZvCdd8-Zk89g13UM5QNUthCCMnzFdIWxMqe_1w-vqcscs-E9zIHgZNCikvxVlq-gQkFr-yA92_8hsfq28SrAo-mVF2fCkyT8o/s640/beautiful-views-from-the-plane-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8IMnvK6soOTwGOX5geUuvPwLc8wA2TWhpoyDwdCWzelZvCdd8-Zk89g13UM5QNUthCCMnzFdIWxMqe_1w-vqcscs-E9zIHgZNCikvxVlq-gQkFr-yA92_8hsfq28SrAo-mVF2fCkyT8o/w400-h266/beautiful-views-from-the-plane-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>This is a brief summary of the actual project that outlines where we are right now, and where we're heading. This will be the official "start" of the project. That direction we're heading will likely change a bit, so I'll update this plan with other versions.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Current Lay of the Land<br /></h3><p>Currently, we have a 3,000 square foot jiu jitsu and mma gym (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElDiabloCombatives" target="_blank">El Diablo Combatives</a>) in <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/4fdYNwD4aZobusNMA" target="_blank">Montrose, Colorado</a>, which has been operated by Shelly and I for about 16 months. Montrose has about 20,000 residents in the town and another 15-20,000 in the surrounding county. We're located about half way between Denver and Salt Lake City, an hour south of Grand Junction, Colorado, and about 45 miles north of the San Juan Mountains.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vqPMqHJBotGQr5XATcbdgVGFvff0thZ60t_J2ssmOulj-UiDd2eJPXBgzKEvLSlMcTQgqkoc9VWF6-IGMWC-2FbsHqGNNVV82HPiE8s38O7wwlZ3I-UfvBlUAAMDcD_Bun5PIaz-m5w/s3038/montrose+mountains.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1035" data-original-width="3038" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vqPMqHJBotGQr5XATcbdgVGFvff0thZ60t_J2ssmOulj-UiDd2eJPXBgzKEvLSlMcTQgqkoc9VWF6-IGMWC-2FbsHqGNNVV82HPiE8s38O7wwlZ3I-UfvBlUAAMDcD_Bun5PIaz-m5w/w540-h184/montrose+mountains.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><br /><p>We operate the gym with a fairly standard martial arts school model where we offer yearly, six month, and monthly memberships for individuals or families (parents and their minor children.) We also sell ten class punch cards. </p><p>We have <b>six coaches</b>, but we embrace a "share what you know" collaborative model that encourages everyone taking on teaching and mentoring roles. We have about <b>twenty-five students</b>, most of which have been with us since the beginning. Our student numbers are slowly ticking up, but COVID is still suppressing our numbers. Part of the rationale behind this project is to dramatically expand our student base by offering a wide variety of classes, workshops, and seminars. Based on market research, we have just under 1,000 <i>potential </i>students in our area.</p><p>Financially, the gym has not been profitable since we shut down for three months last winter/ spring due to the pandemic. We're getting closer to the black, though. Aside from COVID, we were also negatively affected by our last two buildings being sold, which forced us to move twice in three months. <br /></p><p>We have two other ju jitsu gyms in our town. While it reduces our student base, it gives our community several options as each gym has a distinct culture.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Who is Involved</h3><p>Currently, our team consists of myself, Shelly, and three other members, which we designate as the "Founding Members." Since we haven't formally launched the project, I won't use their names until I get their permission. Prior to bringing the other three folks on board, I had mostly done the planning and testing of ideas on my own, though I regularly solicited advice and ran ideas by two of our coaches and a few other members. </p><p>The new additions to the planning team has been a hugely important development as it's brought a lot of really good ideas to the table. Importantly, this has allowed me to solve some problems without having to run experiments, which is incredibly time-consuming.</p><p>We <i>may </i>add more people to the planning team, but because the Founding Team is also the beginning of the "Tribe" (discussed below), we carefully vet who we involve. While we haven't developed a formal vetting process, it will involve utilizing the "Humble, Hungry, and People Smart" model explained in the book "<a href="https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-the-ideal-team-player/" target="_blank">The Ideal Team Player</a>", a complimentary skill set and personality type (as measured with the Myers-Briggs-inspired test at <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/">16personalities.com</a>, and most importantly, people who express an interest in socializing with each other. After all, we'll be spending a lot of time together. I discuss this in more detail below.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What are the Elements and Goals of the Planned End Product<br /></h3><p>The project will consist of two primary elements: The School and The Tribe. These two entities will have a symbiotic relationship. The School provides for the Tribe, and the Tribe administers the School. <br /></p><p><u><b>The School</b></u></p><p>We chose a School as the cornerstone of the project because knowledge is a flexible, versatile, valuable commodity that has infinite scalability and many opportunities to develop passive income steams. It can provide immediate, tangible, inexhaustible value to the Tribe and the wider community, will bring people together from diverse backgrounds, and can be used as a tool to unify people socially. Given the present state of the country, this is something we desperately need. Finally, this is an industry we know inside and out.</p><p>The school will differ from other "schools" in that the primary focus will be on practical skills more than academic skills, though we'll likely develop some geeky stuff, too. The practical skills will cover life skills that are useful to survive and thrive in the modern world, and may cover anything from how to create a resume to how to do basic car maintenance. Part of the motivation for this stems from my experiences as a public school teacher. As we've increased our academic focus, more practical skills have fallen by the wayside. We will fill that "<i>Why didn't they teach me that in school?!?</i>" void. </p><p>Aside from modern skills, we will also teach more primitive skills that our society is quickly losing, such as food preservation, raising animals, gardening, and so on. Part of the motivation stems from a genuine desire to preserve the work of those who came before us, and part of the motivation stems from a desire to make our community in general and Tribe in particular more resilient. We're engaging in disaster preparedness, but doing so in a way that addresses the most likely reality. If we study the history and psychology of social collapse, circumstances rarely if ever play out like a typical "prepper" believes. If the shit really does hit the fan, our world will look less like "Mad Max" and more like "Little House on the Prairie."<br /></p><p>The School will be an extension of the jiu jitsu and mma gym we're currently operating. We'll expand the classes offered in the beginning to include a few classes that will be taught by members of the Tribe. We all have expertise in specific subjects outside the martial arts paradigm, so these will be the classes we offer initially to test things like scheduling, duration, payment plans, different ways to utilize our physical space, etc. The school will use a variety of different educational models ranging from universities to public schools to homeschooling. The ideas borrow heavily from community life enrichment schools and the free school movement. </p><p>The school will be the primary revenue stream for the project, which will pay the bills, fund future expansion, and provide an income stream to the Tribe Members. Will will probably use the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073521414X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=073521414X&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=e1023d0b5a283be2f0a7ec6e509158cc" target="_blank">Profit First financial model</a> for operations, which is a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595555277/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1595555277&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=4257b5768539a7851e1161dc930b2a78" target="_blank">Dave Ramsey-esque </a>accounting system. <br /></p><p>Long-term, the goal is to acquire land to develop the new aspects of the school that we cannot do in our current downtown location. Specifically, it will allow us to teach a wider variety of primitive skills and develop an infrastructure that will assist the Tribe in social bonding and provide resources in difficult times. </p><p><b><u>The Tribe</u></b></p><p>In the most simple terms, the 'Tribe" is just a collection of people who like each other enough to spend time doing stuff together. The purpose of the Tribe is to provide for the five different things humans need to maximize our potential (<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html" target="_blank">yay Maslow!</a>) Based on what we've discovered from fMRI brain data, we're pretty sure 'tribalism" is hard-wired in our brains. It's what allowed our ancestors to survive as cooperative social units. As I discussed in my <a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">Tribal Hypothesis post</a>, forming the right kind of Tribe with the right kind of members can solve a whole slew of problems we face as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. In short, forming tribes is <i>probably </i>the answer to solving the bitter divisiveness that occurs as a function of the relative safety, comfort, and technological advancement of modern society. </p><p>I've spent A LOT of time studying the history, psychology, and sociology of tribalism, and I've spent even more time observing different types of "tribes" and how they affect the members and their wider communities. I've also spent a lot of time observing people who do not have tribes. Without reservation, I can confidently say almost all humans absolutely NEED a tribe. The problem with our modern world is a great deal of the options we have for tribes are piss-poor. Many are simply poorly-disguised marketing plays (think "people with Apple stickers on the back of their car), quite a few are toxic (#MAGA and Amway), and a few are cults (Jonestown and Heaven's Gate.) Some are generally <i>good</i>, like most church congregations, fraternal organizations, or intentional communities and communes, but they're inherently ideologically exclusive. As I explain in the Tribal Hypothesis post linked above, that seriously limits their ability to survive and thrive, or even provide what is necessary to address all five of Maslow's fundamental human needs. <br /></p><p>The other major problem with most of our tribal options in the modern world is leadership that ranges from mediocre to god-awful. Good leaders require a host of skills, which Jocko Willinck addresses in his excellent book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250183863/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1250183863&linkCode=as2&tag=theultrstor-20&linkId=d8f5b2b8daafd09b9f3af1c51a488fd2" target="_blank">Extreme Ownership</a>." But one skill in particular is absolutely essential to lead a tribe - the ability to really empathize with each and every member of the tribe. If an effective tribe has the required ideological diversity, the leadership must understand everyone. The reason is simple - every decision made has to be both good for the tribe and good for every member. If that's impossible and a decision negatively affects the tribe in general or an individual member in particular, the leadership needs to be able to a) actually make that hard decision with compassion and kindness, and b) explain the rationale behind the decision to the member or members who are negatively affected in a way that doesn't destroy tribal harmony. This is no easy task, and really good leaders also need to be willing and able to enlist as much help as they need. For our ancestors, good leaders were apparent as they matured from childhood to adulthood. For us, identifying good leaders is a far more difficult task. </p><p>Taking all this into consideration, how do we build THIS tribe? As it turns out, a Brazilian jiu jitsu gym is a wonderful social filter. For our tribe, we're looking for a few very specific characteristics:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We need people who have a <b>sense of humor</b>, <b>prioritize having fun</b>, and <b>aren't overly prudish</b>, hence our gym's name and goofy chicken logo (if people know the joke, they're always "our people") and the URL of this blog. This means we need to avoid the overly politically-correct and the people who don't laugh at dick jokes.</li><li>We need people <b>free of serious mental illness, drama queens, or prima donas</b>. All people create problems; that's the nature of social interactions. But some people cause <i><b>GOOD </b></i>problems, like "<i>I should clean the house, but I really want to go watch the UFC fights with the Tribe!</i>". Other people cause <i><b>BAD </b></i>problems, like intentionally stirring up drama because daddy didn't love them enough.<br /></li><li>We need people who are <b>open-minded</b> enough to accept ideological differences. While we can improve acceptance over time, people who have an emotional attachment to extreme ideologies, which includes belief in conspiracy theories, is a non-starter. It helps that I personally tend to identify and scare off bigots and overly judgmental people pretty quickly. <br /></li><li>We need people who genuinely <b>enjoy socializing with the existing group</b> beyond just practicing jiu jitsu.</li><li>We need people who are <b>genuinely kind and selfless</b>. Selfishness and tribal harmony are incongruent. </li><li>We need people who are <b>humble</b>. Ego <u>always</u> leads to toxicity.</li><li>We need people who are <b>people-smart</b>. They need to be able to read the room and absolutely cannot have grating personalities. Sometimes we call this "emotional intelligence." </li><li>We need people who are <b>hungry</b>. Specifically, they need to understand that the benefits they receive from tribalism is directly tied to their personal contributions to the tribe. The more you put in, the more you get out. And the better the tribe gets. With the right tribe and the right matching of skills, personality, and roles within the tribe, contributing to the tribe and receiving recognition from the tribe is incredibly intrinsically-motivating. </li><li>We need people who <b>bring tangible skills, knowledge, or complimentary personality traits that will help the tribe</b> in some positive way, and be willing to contribute to the welfare and improvement of the Tribe. Tribes <i>absolutely </i>cannot have dead weight. Freeloaders who are capable-but-unwilling to contribute cannot be part of the Tribe. <br /></li></ul><p>Each and every one of these traits can be discovered after training with someone on the mats for a few months, usually far less. In general, people can be good training partners, but may not necessarily be good tribe candidates. As such, our vetting process will end up being rather extensive. It's important to note not all students in jiu jitsu classes are Tribe members; jiu jitsu is merely one of the vetting tools we'll utilize to find and assess potential Tribe members.<br /></p><p>If you're reading this with the goal of maybe starting your own tribe, note these are the traits WE look for. Shelly and I have spent a long time meeting a lot of different kinds of people. It also helped that Garrick, the guy who started the gym before we bought it, had already started recruiting a lot of people that had those very characteristics. We're intimately familiar with the kinds of people we love spending time with and what kinds of people we need to avoid. The exhaustive list is a function of experience and really knowing who we are and what we value. <i>Your mileage may vary. </i><br /></p><p>So what purpose does the Tribe serve? Beyond the meeting of human needs, the Tribe serves three basic functions - <b>mutual aid, protection, and socialization</b>. We help each other when help is needed, we protect each other when we face any kind of threat, and we have fun together. These three dimensions cover <i>a lot</i> of territory, so I won't go into the intricate details here. But generally, in good times, the Tribe helps each other navigate the little shit, often logistical in nature, that pops up. Like maybe picking up another Tribe members' kids from school because they had a minor emergency, or dog-sitting while another Tribe member goes on vacation. Fixing a leaky faucet. Giving advice on how to cook macaroni. Stuff like that. </p><p>And of course, <i>socializing</i>. We're building the Tribe with the kind of people we want to be friends with,which creates a really cool, fun group. Making friends in the modern world, once you leave school anyway, is one of the more difficult aspects of adulthood I would not have anticipated. While we train with each other <i>a lot</i>, we've found adding in social events gives our group the opportunity to really get to know each other, which is a tremendous tool for developing new, lasting friendships. <i>This is especially helpful for spouses and significant others who may not train. </i><br /></p><p>In the bad times (think "complete breakdown of the social contract"), the Tribe functions more like the tribes that allowed our ancestors to survive. As I mentioned above, the reality of what this would look like is likely wayyyy different than what most prepper-minded people imagine. We're not likely going to have a scenario where we're holed up in a fortified bunker we have to defend against roving bands of marauders. While there is always an aspect of protecting your resources against bad people, the reality is the vast majority of society would organize in their own tribes, and those tribes will mostly work cooperatively. There would be occasional bad people and there would be some bad tribes. But humans under stress don't turn on each other en mass for the same reason animals rarely if ever kill their own species - self-preservation is baked into our DNA. We wouldn't be here if our survival instinct led the majority of us to be ruthless killers. </p><p>Having said that, the organization of the Tribe does factor in the aspect of power. If the shit hit the fan, it would be better to be the most powerful tribe instead of the weakest tribe. Given the "power" of a Tribe increases as a function of the individual members' ability to work cohesively in specialized tasks, the tribe that has the most practice at this will be the most powerful. Further, if that tribe is benevolent and already has a great working relationship with the surrounding community, that tribe has an awesome capacity to lead the entire community in a way that would maximize survival. Thrive, even. Further, any community that consists of a collection of united tribes would be an incredibly powerful check on dangerous, malevolent tribes or individuals. That's kinda the meta-strategy of the development of this Tribe. <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><p>As I said at the beginning of this post, this is a <i>tentative </i>outline. The collaboration with the Founding Members will likely tweak aspects of the plan, or even change major elements. In the coming weeks, we'll have A LOT of conversations about these topics. New perspectives will give me new insight. New, better ideas will likely replace that which I've planned. We have a group of smart people with a lot of different areas of expertise working on this project, and we have even more smart people in our Facebook Group who may have thoughts and ideas. If this entire concept interests you and you'd like to be part of the conservation, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelabmontrose" target="_blank">join the group</a>!<br /></p><p>~Jason</p><p> </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Relevant Links</h3><p>These are the posts I've written explaining more aspects of this project in greater detail.</p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sociopolitical-tribal-hypothesis.html" target="_blank">The Theory Behind the Project</a></p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/were-not-broken.html" target="_blank">Why I Think This Idea Can Fix the Bullshit Divisions and Craziness We See in America Today</a></p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-one-why-your.html" target="_blank">Why We Need Tribes in Our Lives</a></p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-two-how-you-can.html" target="_blank">How Tribes Can Make Your Life Better</a></p><p><a href="https://waldensixtynine.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-we-need-tribe-part-3-what-does-our.html" target="_blank">The Process We Use to Find the Right People for the Tribe</a><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>***<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0