Starting a Learning Tribe

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prognastat
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by prognastat »

Plus public transit/rail is a lot better in that area too making it much easier and cheaper getting around. It's easier getting to another country there than it is getting across the state here using public transit.

jacob
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by jacob »

I don't think what I'm proposing is that outrageous or unusual. It's essentially like a Book Club where people agree to read the same book and then meet and comment on it. Except the project is not reading a book but building something. This could be an electric bike as @ffj suggested or a lathe like @Toska2 suggested.

I have actually previously thought about ERE meetups that focused on a small project. What has discouraged me from this is that I know from experience that either the project has to be really small or the presenter has to be really experienced and likely prepare a presentation of some sorts in order to pull it off within the span of the 4-6 hours of a typical meetup. For example, I believe I can electrify a bicycle. However, I don't think I would be able to ensure that I've ordered all the right parts and that everything will go together the first time while I have 7-12 people standing in a circle around me. In addition, I think there's a larger than I like chance that people who are not that interested in electric bicycles would stay away from that particular meetup. In particular, if I compare to ERE meetups where we mostly just hang out and discuss our goals and plans (no homework required), the returning visitor fraction is not that high. The majority of people only show up once. The few that show up every time are also local friends outside the meetups.

I think quarterly, annual, or faraway meetups would compound this issue.

I have thought of running it online in a thread here, perhaps documenting and discussing as we go. I would likely make the thread private. Again, noticing what happened to the book club---it died---this would be to install some of the band-rules^H^H^H^H^Hattitudes that Jin+Guice mentioned.

Point taken that it's probably going to be near impossible to start this with a full compliment of people ... and that if I want to start "Jacob's club for making things out of other things" it will have to start with 1-2 members and a "founding" project before others join in. Perhaps this is the first step or two on the ladder. But I'm definitely interested in a collaboration that goes beyond doing something solo with the help of youtube or doing project X with friend 1 which leads to project Y with friend 2, etc. I'm thinking more like a motorcycle club except instead of wrenching motorcycles, people are wrenching projects.

For the possibility of what I have in mind in terms of groups of people collaborating on new projects that keep changing, see
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjgpFI ... kh9H1muoxQ (hacksmith industries)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfIqCz ... ssCoHq327g (HTME)
These have obviously been going for a while (several years), but they started somewhere.

suomalainen
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by suomalainen »

My reaction to this is it sounds like you're trying to start a friendship circle where only people who like all the things you like can join - in other words, your list of requirements for what a new friend must be is quite...unique. This is the problem I see with your vision of starting such a club:
jacob wrote:
Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:28 pm
I think there's a larger than I like chance that people who are not that interested in electric bicycles would stay away from that particular meetup.
This means your choices are thus: 1) filter for all the people who like all the projects you like (N=1?) or 2) filter projects and do them with the people who like doing them. 1 seems to be what you'd like to do so that you have continuity of people (i.e., a friendship circle). 2 is what you should do if you are rather focused on the doing of the projects (albeit different folks for each project). And if 2 is acceptable, then you can go out and find existing clubs to fill that need. And perhaps through that avenue you could make friends with someone and maybe they'll want to check out this other hobby you're working on (i.e., motorcycle guy goes to soap making class with you).

There's only so much bandwidth that most people have (what they find interesting, what they have time/energy/money for). To put some perspective around it, what is a project that someone could suggest that you would think "egads, no thanks"?

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Ego
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by Ego »

suomalainen wrote:
Tue Apr 16, 2019 11:17 pm
There's only so much bandwidth that most people have (what they find interesting, what they have time/energy/money for). To put some perspective around it, what is a project that someone could suggest that you would think "egads, no thanks"?
Being in the middle years of life I find it fascinating to look back at any particular success I've had and decipher the twists and turns that delivered me to it. Often this involved the ability to ask a not-so-dumb question and participate in a conversation with someone who then unlocks a whole new world of possibilities. This is entirely dependent on the fact the our Wheaton levels where bridgable.

How does one get out of the Wheaton basement for any particular skill? Reading, studying and youtubing are valuable for interests that I already hold but they are self-directed so I can press pause or stop reading when the subject turns away from my area of direct interest.

What about the interests that I don't know enough about to understand why I should continue watching? If I press pause I remain ignorant to the world of possibilities. If, on the other hand, I am a committed member of a group who shares my interest in Renaissance Man skills and several members believe that .... a particular type of dance opens an area of the brain to being more creative in unusual ways... My commitment to the group makes pressing pause impossible and I gain a new insight.

I am willing to commit the bandwidth because I know that what I am likely to learn from the group may not always take me directly where I want to go but will usually take me somewhere I didn't know I would enjoy.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I think it must be true that there can be a subtle line between very low and very high level of interest in any project or set of projects, because I love HTME , but the Hacksmith site is of negative interest to me. My internal dialogue reaction to it went something like " I already spend too much time and energy watching boys hit each other over the head with transformer toys." If forced to endure creation of some sort of Star Wars saber project, I would feel naturally compelled to force something like this upon other members of group, the next time the baton was passed to me:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUZnUxcd0Bo

tsch
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by tsch »

It seems to me that getting the underlying structure of such meetups would have a big impact on their success.

I am a little fascinated by how well a tightly-run 12-step meeting works. Set aside any notions about the content of 12-step meetings, that's NOT this thread, but look at how successful (ie. well-attended) ones are structured:

- There is a meeting script that a facilitator literally reads. This script welcomes newcomers, states the purpose of the group, and provides for any administrative tasks (service positions to fill, decisions to be made by the group, etc.), and explains concepts important to the group (eg. in 12-step - anonymity, cross talk, the steps, the traditions). This explains concepts to newcomers and continually reinforces the precise definitions for oldtimers.

- The facilitator (typically the "secretary") position rotates regularly, usually every 6 months.

- The facilitator turns the meeting over to the speaker for a set period of time

- Meetings start on time and end on time

- Members are expected to fill service positions (making coffee, setting up the room, cleanup, literature table, secretary, treasurer, etc.). This keeps the meeting running but also ensures that people show up; there's a strong sense that you don't flake on a service position.

There's a lot of other background to what gets people into meetings and coming back. But these little bits of framework appeal to me. The last thing I typically want to do is go to anything described as a "meeting", because usually that means I'm going to sit around at the mercy of whichever blowhards talk the loudest. Good facilitation puts a stop to that. I'm not sure what that would mean in terms of what a meeting of a learning tribe would look like, though.

enigmaT120
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by enigmaT120 »

7Wannabe5 wrote:
Wed Apr 17, 2019 8:38 am
I think it must be true that there can be a subtle line between very low and very high level of interest in any project or set of projects, because I love HTME , but the Hacksmith site is of negative interest to me. My internal dialogue reaction to it went something like " I already spend too much time and energy watching boys hit each other over the head with transformer toys." If forced to endure creation of some sort of Star Wars saber project, I would feel naturally compelled to force something like this upon other members of group, the next time the baton was passed to me:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUZnUxcd0Bo
Nah you could demonstrate permaculture techniques, probably give us lessons in digging holes for compost or something. I expect this would be located on your property...

7Wannabe5
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Eh, I mostly just podge about in my garden. On some level my interest in permaculture is just an excuse to be slow and messy in my progress. I do hope to be able to write gardening essays someday. The great thing about a gardening essay is you start out writing about something in your garden, and then you just keep writing about anything else at all that relates to it, then you circle back round into your garden again.

JamesR
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by JamesR »

Is it me, or is this thread bizarre? I can't believe how many people jumped in with their weird warped perspective/assumptions of what the idea means, and then proceed to object to it, and explain why it won't work, etc. RUDE.

EdithKeeler
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by EdithKeeler »

I just happened to see this today in our local news.

http://www.highgroundnews.com/features/ ... FpxNwY3BoE
The Whitehaven Library hosted its first How-To-Festival on Saturday, April 27 at 4120 Millbranch Road, where Memphians learned to expand their skill set. Classes for do-it-yourselfers spanned a range of diverse topics like natural hair care, sheetrock repair, car oil changes, pickling and photography.

While the event was a first for the Whitehaven community, how-to programming is trending at libraries across the country with events planned in Louisville, KY to San Diego, CA. The Whitehaven event was inspired by the Germantown Community Library which is getting ready to host its sixth annual How-To-Festival on Saturday, May 18.

Jason

Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by Jason »

Germantown usually indicates that the area was settled by Mennonites or Quaker families so its not surprising there was a DIY impetus. My deep research on this particular Germantown community indicates that it was settled as a Utopian settlement for emancipated slaves to teach them a trade. So it seems to fit.

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Ego
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by Ego »

Anna Gát just started a learning tribe from scratch with a post on Medium. Likemindedness is not as important as quality with regard to real life contacts.

https://medium.com/@the_i_i/were-a-nich ... 61f662e127

Tyler Cowen's comments
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginal ... -know.html

7Wannabe5
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@Ego:

Very interesting. Obviously, I nodded my head up and down in response to most questions in the poll.

J_
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by J_ »

Report of a Dutch ere-meeting about Starting a Learning Tribe

Saturday, June 15, 2019, at 10.15 am.
It is still raining as we met on a little motorboat in a town in Noord Holland. So we sit inside for coffee and a delicious chocolate cake made by one of the 4 ere-forum-participants. One woman, three men. Two of them have met before, two of them are only known from the forum. The advantage of such a little but different group, shaped/selected already by participating in the ere-forums, is the openness to discuss freely about things which in bigger groups often stay only on the surface. During the day we learn to know each other better. We all appear to have an active knowledge about healthy food, we have all already made our financial situation comfortable. That means big financial buffers, enough or even high income and (very) low expenses.
But different phases in life: one with two young teenagers, one couple without children in their thirties/forties one in his seventies. And as it appears: all with a very broad scope of general knowledge as well as specialized knowledge. Two of us are entrepreneurs, two of us are salaried. All of us have a technical basis education (industrial design, electronics engineer, building engineer, computer/education) .

We have a loosely defined agenda today, with subjects as boating, energy, about being/forming a learning tribe, and whatever we want to discuss today.
We start about boating. The rain stops slowly, the owner of the boat shows how well the lay out of such a (former) sailing ship of 26 feet is arranged and organized. With use of every space. You can easily live on it with one or two persons or even with one or two little children. The simple electricity system with motor-dynamo and a start-and service-battery, the water tank with foot-pump, the frugal kerosine heather, the new inboard two cylinder diesel motor, its maintenance and cooling is showed and briefly discussed before we sail away. We sail out of the city on canals, along meadows seamed by reed. We anchor in a quiet little creek to have our potluck lunch. Other boating types like kayaks, rowing- and sailing-boats and the newest S(standing)U(p)P(addleboards) hype are discussed under the aspect of using your body. The sun starts to shine but wind and water are still rather cool, so the swim ladder stays unfolded.

Via other canals, partly lined with live-on-board and house boats, we return to the city center. There is a little harbor where the boat has its own box. The boat is steered by a novice but thanks to the slow speed she steers, after some practice, effortless.

We have discussed the topic of forming a learning tribe during lunch. Are we as forum not already a learning tribe? All of us feel that way, but meetings like this, where we learn to know each other specialties, help to deepen the possibilities to learn from each other. Two of us are emerging themselves in permaculture, kitchen gardening, bacterial possibilities, fermenting food, having a lot of supply of greens and fruit from their gardens. Two of us are skilled in the use/creation of real estate as income source, one of us is very skilled in hard/software set ups, one in risk management, one is to become a jewel maker as well… So we conclude that it is enough to meet perhaps some other time but that we always can ask each other if we want to make use of each others skills and knowledge.

We walk from the boat to the home of one of us. That home is a restored, ancient and listed house built in 1570 and town garden. The restoration process has been organized and partly done by the couple who owns the house now in 2004 and 2005. The wife joins our group now too. The restoration was an intensive project, partly done by themselves partly by hired service men. Juggling with requirements of a monument, to keep the costs at bay and the requirements of making the house energy friendly, was a battle with bureaucracy. Mostly by ignoring the remarks of the officials and just doing what made sense (from the view of the owner/user/payer-of-the costs) but also paying respect to the good old parts. Interesting additions to the house were a gutter in the hallway for storing fresh fruit and vegetables (mostly) eliminating the need for a refrigerator and in a wall niche a DIY bed for guests which folded can then also be used as a standing desk.

Last year the tilted and flat roofs were ‚after’ insulated over the copper cladding (the tilted one) and bitumen (the flat one) with xps insulation boards and over those a layer of weather and u.v. light resistant material. And a part was insulated with sedum-plants. Result: the rooms thereunder don't heat up much in summer and keep much better their warmth in winter. Now, with double HR++ glass, insulation of the attic (from the inside under the very old roof-tiles) and some outer wall and the placement of an insulation curtain in the staircases, the house is better insulated than those build until 2000. We compare the heating costs of all of our own houses, and of course one of us has the best results because, like Jacob, he wears in winter 5 layers of cloth and the thermostat on 10 C! (when his girlfriend is not home, haha).

In one of his reactions Jacob has mentioned a design of a human powered generator. This spring one of us has built such a generator inspired by the (bought) plans of David Butcher <davidbu@www.los-gatos.ca.us>. He has made it cheeper/firmer than Davids model, by adapting the frame of an old bicycle, instead of new steel struts and a new pedal set, handle bar and saddle, but further according the plans.
And now we are really experiencing how much effort it cost to pedal the flywheel and generator to make some watts! The strongest of us comes to a result of 57 Watt, for a short time! Panting we realize what kind of (enormous )effort it would require to produce even one thousand ( one Kilo) Watt. And thus how stimulating it is to reduce our use of electricity. We discuss what all of us have done so far to reduce electricity. One of use has even his router on a timer, so that at night nothing in the house uses electricity….And we see that a lot of electricity using stuff use energy absorbing adaptors to reduce and change the 110/220 AC current to 12 - 19 volt DC current (radio, laptop, mobile, led-lamps, not too big flatscreens) can easily be fed by a 12 volt system, using (car) batteries and solar panels. Would it not be wise to fit (new) houses with a 12 volt net, and here and there some 110/220 volt power outlets (for cooking or a washing machine)?

We use the rest of our potluck meals to have diner and at 7 pm there is a train to catch and a car to start before the parking-site closes. A wonderful day, with lots of knowledge shared/exchanged and above all: seeing how creative each other in real life makes his/her choices to live life with joy and care.
Like the earlier meetings in the Netherlands, the many shared interests but also (large) differences in our personal situations made it an interesting and inspirational meetup. 

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Ego
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Re: Starting a Learning Tribe

Post by Ego »

Topos House is an interesting model. It appears they offer free housing (I may be wrong) to a handful of people who then act as the facilitators of the learning tribe.


https://topos.house/#mission
At Topos, our goal is to create the optimal environment for life-long learning. Whatever your age and whatever your stage, we aspire to be your greatest supporter in your learning goals. We're thrilled to work with learners from 5 yrs old to 90+.

To start, we created Topos house which brings together 6-12 scientists from deliberately disparate fields of science and art with the hope (now supported by strong evidence) that the greatest collaborations start over the kitchen table instead of conference table or even lecture tables.

We're now trying to bring our approach to a broader community.
https://topos.house/house.html
Physical Building

Our SF house is 4000 sq ft with 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. The middle floor is dedicated to collaborative learning while the top floor is a quiet library for common study. Most bedrooms have private en-suite bathrooms and views of the Bay or the Ocean.

Convenient Living

All your basic amenities covered from kitchen appliances to genetic sequencers.
Easy Transportation 5 min from BART. 40 min drive to Palo Alto. 18 min to SF Downtown. Ample parking nearby.
Lab Equipment

Oscilloscopes, nanopore sequencers, GPU server rack, etc... Make your equipment request and we may be able to make it happen!

Amenities, Large industrial kitchen. All appliances included (coffee machine, blender, cast-iron pans etc...). Washer/dryer built-in.
Backyard

Large outdoor dining area and garden.

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