ERE Skillathon 2024

[7Wannabe5]

@Jupiter:

Yes, to all your observations. I'm still mucking about a bit, but some notes I made for myself so far:

1) Metrics can't sub in for values clarification and reflection.
2) Principles, practice, pattern language. Principles like "close loops" or "obtain a yield" and Patterns such as "bedroom with an east facing window" or "wide front porch" may not directly lend themselves to spread-sheet analysis.
3) Mental health is ground 000 for self-aware self-care.
4) Freedom has more to do with healthy boundaries than dominance or the dysfunctional type of self-discipline we engage in when we sub-conciously fear the dominance of others or overly fear natural consequences. As in "Somebody has to be the asshole in the room in relationship to me, so better me than somebody else."
5) Align practice/schedule with cycles whether natural or rigid, but be aware of which you are dealing with. Best case scenario, every item on your ToDo list or schedule just strikes you as a helpful reminder. Remind yourself of blatantly enjoyable possibilities too.

[jacob]

Here's a [WOG] way of organizing and proceeding in a more structured and integrated way.

Instead of having a list of skills, consider having a list of projects.
Instead of having a list of projects, look at each life-focus (WOG node) for something to make or do that improves the node.

This should sort itself out as a tree. This way the skills to be learned won't just be a collection but will specifically aid to finish projects at the branch level and improve living at the trunk level.

[7Wannabe5]

Instead of having a list of skills, consider having a list of projects.
Instead of having a list of projects, look at each life-focus (WOG node) for something to make or do that improves the node.

And sometimes we may benefit from reflecting on our life-foci and considering a hard prune or a gentle redesignation as our "vocabulary" increases. Skill-acquisition can often be sorted out with a spreadsheet, because as our skill increases our efficiency improves. Projects can, obviously, be sorted out with project management software, even if you are the only labor Resource available to be managed by yourself. Maintenance routines can be similarly scheduled. Here we are maximizing the tools of modernity as they can be applied to our lifestyle. So, from the perspective of modernity, "freedom" is somewhat akin to no longer being compelled as an entry on anybody else's .mpp. But, when (to the extent it is possible) we move "beyond" (or regress "below") modernity, the life-focus node or core value being clarified which is designated "freedom" will experience paradigm shift in meaning.

OTOH, it is entirely possible that I am making too much of the "Ah hah" moment I experienced recently when something mature within me (as opposed to the usual oppositional-defiant juvenile rebel voice ) firmly said "No." to once again applying the "skill-set" of "dieting" which I first learned at age 13. My only inkling that I might be on the right path would be that the word "intuition" is associated with Level Turquoise (holistic) in spiral dynamics.

[AxelHeyst]

(Life-focus/WOG nodes): project/something to make or do that improves the node

(Gain competence at designing human life support systems that are decoupled as much as possible from flows of industrial resource flows) + (build out Quail Haven as one such LSS for myself/family as well as learning project): make a permaculture plan for QH.

(Explore rural transportation strategies) + (increase ICE repair competence) + (clear out stranded assets from my possession/don't be a broken machine hoarder): Fix motorcycle and either sell it or use it.

(Decouple 3d design-thinking and communication capabilities from computer dependence) + (Do More Art): Begin a daily sketching practice, produce drawings for the burrow project, and begin a hand drafted drawing design set for the permaculture plan of QH.

I like it.

[Scott 2]

The trade off working your problem space top down, is falling into local optimization. Those random, unconnected skills can reveal paradigm shifts. Maybe there's a linchpin for industrial Independence to feel amazing, for instance.


I don't think it's a case of right vs. wrong, but rather recognizing where life is. My own development was scattered last year. That was wonderful and informed my thinking a great deal. This year - my focus is narrow. I'm doing less, with fewer people. That feels right too.

Imo, as an individual, attempting a "do both" approach doesn't work very well. Jumping between the search and build mindsets is too hard. When organizations do this, they split the work between people and teams.

[7Wannabe5]

@Scott2:

The way I handle this is that one of my Renaissance lifestyle categories is "Meta-Lifestyle Design/Organization" and another is "Novel Experiences/Input." Even bottom up design that starts with brain-storming a list of skills will not be random or promote novelty without integrating some technique towards randomization/novelty. For instance, I sometimes randomize my selection of books at the library by 2nd case, 4th unit, 5th shelf, 11th book or similar. Another technique might be printing/cutting up a list of 200 Common Human Values and then creating a skill-based goal/project based on whatever value you choose from a hat. For instance, I just randomly picked Commitment from a list of values. F*ck, that's going to take me a minute...

[jacob]

I don't think it's a case of right vs. wrong, but rather recognizing where life is.

Imo, as an individual, attempting a "do both" approach doesn't work very well. Jumping between the search and build mindsets is too hard. When organizations do this, they split the work between people and teams.

The top-down [project] approach requires being consciously-incompetent at the detail level(*). One needs to have a good idea of what "the question" is---the conscious part--- in order to figure out "the answer"---the incompetent part. I agree that this approach is very likely not noob-friendly. For example, I would like to get into metal working and welding, but I don't even know where to begin. Conversely, for the Arduino projects, it has mostly just been a question of filling out the blanks.

(*) An not choose a project where one's incompetence is so overwhelming that no progress is made.

[7Wannabe5]

It's also very difficult to estimate time/energy commitment as a noob. That's why the best practice in project management is to ask those who are competent for time estimates, even though as employee subject to your managerial dominance they are likely to over-estimate. There's actually a rule-of-thumb formula to compensate for that form of over-estimation.

Okay, evidence that I do to some extent appreciate the value of Commitment would be that I am not quitting the stupid tech grad degree program I got myself into when I was very sick even though I don't even know what use it will be for me and external rewards such as grades make me feel angry (likely because I have gone feral.) It's just like "F*ck, I am somehow found myself 3/4 done with this marathon, so just gonna complete it." OTOH, entirely possible this is just dysfunctional manifestation of Sunk Cost Fallacy rather than functional manifestation of Commitment. Dunno.

[Slevin]

Project based learning has boundaries and edges, and projects can actually be completed. The value of this cannot be understated.

Project based learning also has a better incentive structure; you need to complete the project because it needs done, and you had an original incentive to start doing the work in the first place, so it has intrinsic value to getting done. Compare this to learning for the sake of learning, with things like homework. The insights and knowledge gain aren’t as sticky when not learning for an actual purpose / implementation. I’m guessing this is because concrete purpose is attached to the project based learning.

[jacob]

Compare this to learning for the sake of learning, with things like homework. The insights and knowledge gain aren’t as sticky when not learning for an actual purpose / implementation.

Also, during my mid-twenties I began to notice that learned skills are not strictly accretive. It's almost as if the brain has a maximum capacity, which once reached, automatically starts dumping (forgetting) unused skills. While the basic memory-structures seem to persist on account of "forgotten skills" being more easily reacquired, they have left "active (conscious) memory".

In that sense, the brain acts very much like a muscle or rather a set of muscles.

[7Wannabe5]

you need to complete the project because it needs done

The current contents of my knitting basket would give lie to this statement. It's perfectly possible, although in many ways inefficient, to have any number of open projects cluttering up your life/space/schedule. This is one of the benefits/drawbacks of minimalism.

The insights and knowledge gain aren’t as sticky when not learning for an actual purpose / implementation. I’m guessing this is because concrete purpose is attached to the project based learning.

Yup. My last attempt at a grad degree was in Economics. I enrolled in the program after having already run my own business for around 5 years, and I was kind of gob-smacked by how not-real-world it seemed, even though the theory did reflect my "real world" experience in some interesting ways. For instance, coming to the realization that the theory that the more competitive entrepreneur will outbid the less competitive entrepreneur for resources was exactly what happened to me when the guy who sold marijuana growing supplies took over some of the warehouse space I was using for rare books, because he was willing/able to pay the landlord more money. OTOH, I learned about the abstraction of swales/water collection in permaculture before I attempted it in a real setting, and the reality was definitely a bit of an eye-opener.

Likely there is some good rule of thumb for how many books you should read on a topic before attempting real world project (widely defined.) Some of my best adventures have occured when I've become so excited by the first book I read on a topic, I jumped right into doing it. Still, when Jacob (above) indicated that he didn't even know how to get started on Metalwork, my instant thought was "Go to the library and get a book entitled something like, "Beginner Metalwork", duh."

ETA: Maybe I should devote a Skillathon month to something like "Learning without Reading." Although, I will note that my fellow ENTP, Benjamin Franklin, even taught himself how to swim by first reading a book on the topic.

[Slevin]

The current contents of my knitting basket would give lie to this statement. It's perfectly possible, although in many ways inefficient, to have any number of open projects cluttering up your life/space/schedule. This is one of the benefits/drawbacks of minimalism.

Projects without necessary incentive to finish don’t need finished. Thus you need to build an incentive mechanism into the planning / project management.

You’re a *NTP. Thus your basic dysfunction in finishing projects is opening up new projects because of all the good ideas you have, and thus not working on the open projects you need to finish, because those are “boring solved ideas”. It’s always going to be a struggle because your brain absolutely loves new cool ideas. This should be a primary thing you solve by closing doors / setting a max number of open projects at a time, and working on them until completion. Basic project management.

Generally, I’m not arguing you can’t be dysfunctional doing project based learning. There are infinite ways to be dysfunctional. You just need to hack around / fix your them as they come up until your system is *reasonably* functional.

Also, you can minimize extraneous nonsense for basic projects by replacing reading books with YouTube videos / TikTok videos. YouTube is the maybe greatest source of free high quality information in existence, and video format conveys 10x the information books can for many subjects. As always, the primary problem is generally finding high quality sources of information / signal in the noise.

[7Wannabe5]

You’re a *NTP. Thus your basic dysfunction in finishing projects is opening up new projects because of all the good ideas you have, and thus not working on the open projects you need to finish, because those are “boring solved ideas”. It’s always going to be a struggle because your brain absolutely loves new cool ideas. This should be a primary thing you solve by closing doors / setting a max number of open projects at a time, and working on them until completion. Basic project management.

Yup. That's why there are self-help books like "Refuse to Choose" and "The Renaissance Soul" written for true generalist, scattered-tendency humans who dysfunction in this manner. That's why I said a concept like Skillathon 2024 is too much like crack for us. INTJs are more like Serial Masters, so I guess something like odd gaps in functioning/skill-set might be more the problem there, and/or giving self permission to move on to the next mastery.

I do watch videos for topics that are inherently more visual, but they are too slooooooooow for me otherwise. Reading is quicker if you already have a basic gist of some topic even for a simple project. For instance, it took me maybe 1 minute to read about a particular plumbing repair I had to do the other day vs. watching some guy go on about it with musical background for 10 minutes for somebody who has no clue. Also, videos don't lend themselves to generalization.

[Jin+Guice]

Yes. My epiphany is that rules and metrics suck. My happiness meter has gone up so much since I started my Gentle Nutrition/Intuitive Eating practice that I am rethinking my entire notion of goals within my meta-planning. IOW, I am asking myself how I can approach more matters from a gentle intuitive perspective rather than a strict measured perspective.

Ok, I'm really into my therapy bullshit right now, but I think paying attention to emotions, "stoke," insecurities and needs is better than metrics. My theme for this year is capacity. One of those capacities is work capacity, where I almost always try to pack too much into a day/ week/ month and then am constantly disappointed in myself. Another capacity is food, where I have struggled with weight (currently in winning pretty hard, but historically that will change).

For food, what's helping me is paying attention to when and why I overeat (this is usually the problem) or eat poorly (sugar) and how I feel during those times. My old strategy was to measure and set boundaries on myself, both of which I dislike and has an element of shame.

I also think there is an inverse relationship between optimization/ efficiency and exploration. If you're enjoying something, efficiency is rarely the goal. Efficiency comes in handy for the parts of the project that are no longer fun or when you're stressed and lacking in some critical resource (usually time). The process of making something efficient can be fun, especially if you hit it in the golden period when the part of the project you are optimizing is transitioning from fun to mundane.



For me, the key to project/ WoG based learning is to solve problems/ upgrade your own life in a more ERE manner. My reason for doing things in a more ERE manner is they are more interesting. I posit that making something is always more interesting then buying it and the true limit in a world chock full of oil slaves is our own time and energy. Outsource the less interesting/ easily mechanized bits to the industrialized machine while keeping the fun bits for yourself. Figuring out which bits are interesting and which boring bits can be easily and cheaply outsourced is a process in and of itself. Without the temperance of frugality this strategy could get out of hand, but thankfully it easily aligns with eventually building an even cheaper existence, which will almost definitely align with building an environmentally less impactful existence.

The next step is making the outflows of one project the inflows of the next. I don't focus too heavily on going up the WL scale because each step takes time, but knowing which direction the table points in has been massively useful to me (I wouldn't have considered that the next step after optimizing for $$ would be to learn a bunch of skills).

[7Wannabe5]

For food, what's helping me is paying attention to when and why I overeat (this is usually the problem) or eat poorly (sugar) and how I feel during those times. My old strategy was to measure and set boundaries on myself, both of which I dislike and has an element of shame.

Yup. This is basically where I'm at too, but I am also striving to equate over-eating with how my body feels rather than number on scale, and same goes for food being "good" or "bad/poor." Caveat here being that I am metabolically healthy although overweight. I wouldn't eat food, like peanuts(anaphylactic shock!) and lima beans (closest relative to peanut), which I know are particularly unhealthy for me, as opposed to general population.

I also think there is an inverse relationship between optimization/ efficiency and exploration. If you're enjoying something, efficiency is rarely the goal. Efficiency comes in handy for the parts of the project that are no longer fun or when you're stressed and lacking in some critical resource (usually time). The process of making something efficient can be fun, especially if you hit it in the golden period when the part of the project you are optimizing is transitioning from fun to mundane.

For better or worse, I have a tendency towards bringing/allowing more naturally "efficient" types on board with my major projects when things get mundane, or I'm otherwise "stuck." Unfortunately, I can't just drop them back off at the Home Depot like a power tool rental . This isn't even an analogy. Like I'll be in Month 14 Observation Mode of a project, whacking down weeds with a hand tool, and then somebody shows up in his truck and takes me to Home Depot to rent a power tool, and then lots of work gets done very quickly, but not exactly as I had envisioned it. You know all those options eNTPs like you and me like to always keep open? Power tools are permaculture option closers, especially when combined with concrete.

I posit that making something is always more interesting then buying it and the true limit in a world chock full of oil slaves is our own time and energy.

I very much agree. Unfortunately, in my experience, there is at least one other limit which is The Law Green Anarchy Now!

The next step is making the outflows of one project the inflows of the next.

This is just kind of like combining vertical and horizontal integration in a business. Activity 1: I run a book business. Activity 2: I dumpster dive for food. Integration A: I also dumpster dive for cardboard from which I make shipping boxes for my book business. Activity 3: I have a vegetable garden. Activity 4: I join social group. Integration B: I bring fresh vegetable salad to social group meeting.

[AxelHeyst]

We need more graphs. Oh here's one!

[Jin+Guice]

I realized I am inadvertently participating in skillathon despite my protests about adhering to the month-by-month structure.

My theme for 2024 is capacity.

My initial plan for WL6+ skill development is to work on skills in a permaculture style model. I started with zone 0 (my own body) and am now moving on to the physical spaces I inhabit. As such I am working on setting up spaces in a functional and aesthetically pleasing manner. I don't know anything about interior design or design in general so I'm learning a lot but also stuck not knowing exactly what I need to learn.

I'm thinking about recognizing the capacity and use of each space that I have access to and control over.

In a more skillathon manner, I've been learning how to write electronic dance music, specifically house music. I've been enjoying this project for several reason:

1) Lots of finished products
2) I don't know anything about edm, so I get to have beginners mind again, but I know a lot about music and production tools so I get to benefit from all of this previous knowledge.
3) I don't like or care about house music so I am free from my own ego (this is my fav part).
4) EDM production combines a lot of my renaissance man music skills, where I'm pretty good at a lot of stuff but not THE BEST at anything.

I have a more methodical approach to this

General areas of focus (in order):

1) Song writing/ Production
2) Sample selection/ sound design
3) Sound Engineering

In each of these areas I'm focusing on (in order):

1)Drums
2)Melody and counter melody
3) Arrangement and energy/ tension building/ release
4) Bass
5) Rhythymic Harmony elements
6) Pads and ambient layers
7) FX

I'm running through each of these 7 elements through the lens of the first 3 focus areas. I first research each element focusing through the respective lens I'm working on and then write 1-4 new pieces adding what I've learned while incorporating what I've previously learned.

I'm currently on the song writing focus and the melody/ counter melody element, moving to arrangement and energy build/ release soon.

For the first focus I'm only including the elements I've worked on (all songs rn are just drums and melody). Not sure if i'll keep this when I move to the other focus areas or not.

There is a live performance/ interactive musician element I'm hoping to incorporate at the final stage of this product, but I can't do any of that without understanding and writing decent enough edm first.

For other skills I'm taking a more ad hoc approach, mostly building on skills I already have or learning things that I need to based on circumstance.

[AxelHeyst]

Update/Reflection
An opportunity to pursue a side hustle flared up out of left field and I've significantly dialed back the ambition on my skillathon plan. Some observations:

People have something like 2-5hrs/day of focused Deep Work/Deliberate Practice in them per day.

My initial plan was to spend 1hr DW on writing and then the rest on Skillathon, 5days/wk, for the whole year. This is what I did in January and most of February. I enjoyed the pace and intensity for those months, but I don't think I could have sustained it for a full year.

A big reason for this is the research and prep that goes into designing a skill chunk. You can't just pivot on a dime, and there's nothing so frustrating as wanting to work intensely on it but not being prepared for it, and thus not feeling like your intensity is being spent effectively.

If I were to attempt a year-long Skillathon at high intensity again, I think I would try a tempo like:
December: Research and Plan.
January: Intense skill chunk.
February: Rest, research, and plan.
March: Intense skill chunk.
etc.

I'd only do 6 skills, but I think my likelihood of actually pulling the endeavor off would be higher and I wouldn't feel stressed/hounded by needing to research for next month's skill chunk while still trying to pull off *this* month's skill.

While I only got two skills in, a major win is I feel like I know how to execute a successful monthlong skill acquisition project. You can learn a lot in one month, and I now know how to go about it, what it feels like, and what it requires.

--

When I realized I could choose between "intense skillathon" and "side hustle opportunity handed to me on a silver platter" but not have both, I chose side hustle and dropped attempting anything for March.

I'm now deciding whether to continue a much reduced ambition skillathon for the rest of the year, or to shelve the idea for later.

I really liked the intensity of my first take, and I don't have a great track record with executing things at a moderate level. That was sort of the whole point of Skillathon for me: it was the primary focus for the whole year and I was going to significantly level up in X skills. Doing moderate yet structured skill development in the background of everything else I'm doing feels unappealing - it honestly feels like how I used to approach learning skills, which is to say, very ineffectively. And I'm more conscientious than ever about the consequences of setting up a likely lose loop. I'm going to take the rest of March to decide if and how I'm going to pursue skillathon 24 from here.