The Education of Axel Heyst

[theanimal]

Great pics and nice idea on The Burrow, if just for not having to dig and chip through that rock anymore.

[Western Red Cedar]

Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing. One of the great things about early morning, human-powered commutes are opportunities to see the splendor of the built and natural environment in a different light.

I spent the first 11 years of my adult life without a car, and it provided me an opportunity to see some truly stunning sights on my way to and from school and work.

Also - you are well on the way to what I assume with be the first triple digit journal (and thread?) on the forums. Congratulations!

[delay]

The orange glow is really beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

[Scott 2]

If you walked me to that bus stop, and said "just trust me bro", I'd call you a liar the entire time. Incredible the public transit is available.

I wanted to commend you on making space for the transition between skillathon and side hustle. I know you put a ton of effort into planning the year. It takes humility to accept the new option.

[AxelHeyst]

Also - you are well on the way to what I assume with be the first triple digit journal (and thread?) on the forums. Congratulations!

I couldn't stop myself from checking: yep, no other triple digit journals (although maybe if you stuck all of @7's separate journals together they would be? ). I suspect there are some triple digit threads in the forum Dungeon but didn't feel like wading through it.

I wanted to commend you on making space for the transition between skillathon and side hustle. I know you put a ton of effort into planning the year. It takes humility to accept the new option.

Thanks Scott. I'm going to drop skillathon altogether this year. The original idea was that Skillathon was going to be my big "achievement" oriented activity for 2024. Now that I've chosen to go all in on side hustle, I don't need any other kind of achievement-heavy thing on my plate. It'd be too much.

Also, I like doing things at a high level of intensity. Skillathon was fun because I set the dial to "a bit much". The idea of downgrading it enough to fit around the side hustle has no appeal. Even though I only did two months of Skillathon, I learned a lot both from the actual skills themselves, and in the process of designing and operating intense skill acquisition projects. No regrets. I am for sure going to be using what I learned and meta-learned in the future.

..
Freedom-To
I've been thinking about how to design in a new mode to my life, one aimed at capturing a certain positive experience I've had in the past. Over the past couple years I've gotten xp at the following modes:
-Solo in QH. (projects, builds, writing, reading, working out, exploring the desert, etc.)
-Multiplayer in QH (Fest, guests, 'EREsidencies', working on builds with people, etc). I'm taking steps to spend more time in this mode.
-Solo Travel (bikepacking, workawaying...)
I'm very happy with these modes in and of themselves, and will be tuning and tweaking my approach to them.
-In a month I'll do my first Multiplayer Travel, bikepacking with @Bicycle7, which I am very excite about.

The new mode I've got in mind came from doing an exercise where I list all the most positive experiences in my life and look for patterns. A *lot* of my positive experiences involved the following themes:
-Being outside
-Doing stuff (having an objective)
-With other competent people
-Where we relied on each other in some fashion

Examples: WFR training, marches and actions I did with Occupy, a grand canyon river rafting trip, weddings, long-weekend mtb/camping trips with 6+ friends, climbing trips with 6+ friends, and some shared house situations I had in my 20's where everything was a bike ride away and interesting friends were always coming and going. This last was less of a singular 'event' and more of a situation/scene that I have fond memories of.

I think it's possible to construct/invite much of this vibe into QH, and that's probably at root *why* I want to build a 'place' for people here at QH. I wanna do things with friends, often outside.

That said, there's an argument for going out into the world looking for this mode as well.
1) I expect it to take some time to spin QH up into something that creates these experiences consistently and reliably. That's appropriate, and I don't want to rush it.
2) QH will never have anything like the 'shared house in NW Oakland with Occupy going on down the street' vibe I had back in the day.
3) QH is a people filter. I don't want to only be exposed to the kinds of people who pass the QH filter. (In Boydian terms, I don't want my Orientation to corrupt because I'm keyholing information flow through Observation. I want to experience the world broadly.)

I'm still early in my thinking of how to get after this new mode. Some ideas:
-Seasonal trailwork or guiding job (spend weeks in the backcountry, doing something, with other people.)
-Find activist hotspots/campaigns (high risk of getting sucked into it and it taking over my life)
-Establish an ERE second home base in a place that ticks a few boxes that QH does not: e.g. bikeable, better cultural fit, etc. Bend, near mF, near JnG, sodatrain's place, and wherever ERE City happens are places that come to mind.

I envision settling on one place or gig that I return to frequently, but not necessarily.

A template seasonality to my life might be
3-6months QH (solo and/or multiplayer).
1-3months Travel (solo and/or multiplayer)
1-3mo second home base
1-3mo 'group events' ? (trailwork or activism or ...)

[7Wannabe5]

Your seasonality template rather resembles my poly-homerous ideal, with important difference being your much higher level of Vigor, and the fact that I'm more towards balanced Indoorsy/Outdoorsy for peak experiences. Maybe it's the sort of design most folks who like doing projects and exploring would prefer? Some sort of home base(s) where your project tools/space exists, but also relatively low maintenance/commitment at home base(s), so reasonably free to roam. For example, one problem I had with owning vacant lots in the city was that I had to keep the sidewalks free of snow and the grass/weeds mowed down no matter what/where else I had going on. OTOH, north woods acreage requires pretty much zero ongoing maintenance obligation dictated by others. OTOH, my adventure in extreme minimalism made me notice that not owning stuff can also be a PITA. So, a modular design is appealing.

[AxelHeyst]

Maybe it's the sort of design most folks who like doing projects and exploring would prefer? Some sort of home base(s) where your project tools/space exists, but also relatively low maintenance/commitment at home base(s), so reasonably free to roam.

Yes, that's a good way of putting it, and of articulating the tension I've been playing with for a few years now. After some time of building and projecting in one place, I yearn to explore. After some time exploring, I want to build. And there is overlap - ways of mixing the two. Iterating towards a rhythm that works for me is fun.

I owe you thanks, by the way: I'm halfway through my first Stephanie Laurens. Adding it to the stack of books I'm sending back to my younger self in a time machine...

[7Wannabe5]

I'm sure you know this, but romance novels should be interpreted with the same sort of filter as porn. Like if I were to ask about porn, "Is this really what heterosexual men like?", the answer would be "Yes and no." and this holds analogous for romance novels. It has just been my experience that many young men don't even grok the sort of behavior many/most heterosexual women prefer. Having a bit of Devil Cynster in one's social multi-tool kit would likely be even more useful than having a bit of "Dumb" Blonde. Although, it is the case that a bit of "Dumb" Blonde is worth at least approximately 1 free dinner out per week = $1500/year=.04 X $39,000. So, a bit of Devil Cynster would likely result in at least that much savings per erotic encounter, and this rule-of-thumb would hold true even within long term committed relationships.

[sodatrain]

Although, it is the case that a bit of "Dumb" Blonde is worth at least approximately 1 free dinner out per week = $1500/year=.04 X $39,000. So, a bit of Devil Cynster would likely result in at least that much savings per erotic encounter, and this rule-of-thumb would hold true even within long term committed relationships.

Omg this is hilarious and one of my favorite ERE quotes!

[AxelHeyst]

It has just been my experience that many young men don't even grok the sort of behavior many/most heterosexual women prefer.

Yes, and the trial and error approach isn't at all fun for anyone involved. Books like these would have at least pointed my 20yo self in the approximate correct direction. I did the equivalent of traveling from SF to NY by heading west in a dinghy...

[7Wannabe5]

Many of us don't know what we are doing in that realm when we are young. For instance, I would describe much of my youthful behavior as being akin to that of a Dodo Bird in relationship to boys/men. It's difficult to change, but at some juncture I at least managed to level up to Cautious Squirrel in Urban Park in relationship to Grouchy Old Men on Park Benchs Shaking Bags of Nuts in My Direction.

[RoamingFrancis]

Any TL;DRs from the recent reading? Key takeaways?

[mountainFrugal]

Maybe it's the sort of design most folks who like doing projects and exploring would prefer? Some sort of home base(s) where your project tools/space exists, but also relatively low maintenance/commitment at home base(s), so reasonably free to roam.

@AH and I chatted about this when I visited him. Thank you for the succinct summary. If the home systems are set-up at the outset to run with relatively low input from you or to be powered down prior to hitting the road for a spell then I think it is the best of all worlds. A place to go deep, but also not so many immediate maintenance costs that you are "stuck" there.

[AxelHeyst]

Any TL;DRs from the recent reading? Key takeaways?

Key Takeaway #1: Sprinkle the flow of books with bodice-rippers, and don't post whatever strategic insights you might glean on public internet forums.

[AxelHeyst]

A place to go deep, but also not so many immediate maintenance costs that you are "stuck" there.

This is a key consideration in my (slowly evolving) permaculture plan. I am not ready to trap myself here by a bunch of herbs.

[Slevin]

Shade buffer + frost buffer + SIP planter + gravity fed water storage + powered timer for watering seems like it would probably last for an ungodly long time while you are away (basically until the water runs out or the batteries run out on the timer). Based on buffers you could easily get ~3 months or more (would want someone to come by and check it / harvest food every once in a while). You can do without the SIPs, they are just water efficient in deserts / etc, meaning that even if the timers break you have 1-3 weeks of water buffer in there. Hugels might also work in the same way.

[AxelHeyst]

I love the idea of building systems like that. Definitely on the list. Mom is currently building a 20'x10' hugelpit expansion to her garden, I'm excited to see how that turns out.

[AxelHeyst]

Continuing the theme of designing for Freedom-To...

Elements of An Ideal Year

• 2-3 months dirtbagging (bikepacking, overlanding, thruhiking, climbing)
• 2-3 months build season at QH (structures, systems, gardens, earthworks...)
• 2-3 months Second Place (either residing in a populated area, or spending time with a group of people Doing Something (trailwork, activism, guiding, working a barista job in a mountain town, workawaying, etc)).
• 2-3 months focused effort on creative knowledge work (e.g. side hustle, publishing push for a book, etc)

It occurs to me that my folks are independent now but that could change any time, requiring more constant presence at QH from me. So I'm more inclined to yolo out into the world a bit while my only constraints are fake (aka self-imposed). Also it's spring and I always want to get out in spring.

Community.
I spent the last five days hanging out with my Longmont friends. This morning I dropped them off at the airport and they're going to spend a week and a half visiting an intentional community (IC) they're seriously considering moving to. They've visited something like a dozen so far, have lived in community earlier in their lives, and are pretty deeply networked for people who aren't yet currently living in one. They're very interested in ERE (via me) and in particular they sense something important in the (currently totally theoretical) intersection between the intentional community world and ERE world. A few themes we returned to repeatedly:

• Acknowledged the difficulty of pulling off IC and the very high failure rate, and the common reasons (poorly executed consensus processes leading to toxic people driving out non-toxic people; money stuff; people not being on the same page; the huge amount of work that leads to burnout; etc)
• How dominant culture fails to support the nuclear family raising young children--my friends have a 2yo and 5yo and a primary motivation is to find a place that will be able to provide a more distributed caretaking environment with e.g. lower-friction alloparenting built into the environment design etc.
• Consensus-based vs central leader based community, e.g. Wheaton Labs. I bought and read Wheaton's Permaculture Thorns draft ebook, all about his experience with consensus communities as well as his experience at his own place. Very interesting. This podcast ep is a decent intro. Wheaton's governance model is "independent though/consensus/evil dictator" hybrid, which I translate as "~do-ocracy for most of it, consensus when do-ocracy fails, evil dictator when consensus fails."
• My sense that a lot of the difficulties that ICs face could be mitigated with solid postconsumer praxis. It is my uneducated perception that ICs tend to consume $ and resources at a higher rate than is necessary considering their values, and that a bit of ERE skillz could go a long way towards alleviating the stress/burnout that ICs face.
• I paraphrased Jacob's line that "a common problem with communities is that the competent people do stuff and the not-competent people talk about stuff and have opinions about things, and eventually the competent people get resentful, feel taken for granted, and can't stand the everloving neverending meetings, and leave, and the community collapses because no competent people are left to actually do the stuff" and she said "yes! That's the common problem!". Not surprising to have that corroborated, but still,
• My friends might be on a path to approach a workable community from the IC side, whereas I'm more inclined to approach a workable community from the ERE side. Meaning, my friends are more willing to put up with the BS of consensus, and I'm more willing to put up with not being enwombed in the loving embrace of community. I been alone a long time, I can handle a few more years of it. My friends feel they're in an urgent situation (with the young ones) and are willing to move quickly and take what consequences may come.
• I think part of this is that I have this clear yet still abstract path in my head of stepping from having a functional WOG of my own, to getting my WOG proximate to other WOGs, to consistently and carefully building and strengthening the connections between those WOGS, etc. The full path is abstract, but the next few practical steps are clear and I'm engaged in the work of executing them, so onwards I go.

In other news, I continue to find ERE devilishly difficult to explain even to people who are eager to understand it.
...

Project TTM5K, which I'm actually taking seriously this year: TTMCOL is $9,300 but YTD annualized COL is $5,037, so I'm headed in the right direction with no obvious money traps in the future. I'm likely to spend a couple thousand during QH Build Season, but I'm going to split buildx out and report TTMCOL both with and without. Numbers are just a game, yall.

Relatedly, I just did a mad week's worth of enjoyable-to-me work helping one of our clients get a project out the door... and earned 1.5 years of living expenses. During that week I also made 2 months living expenses in passive income from the couple of small assets I've posted online so far.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: VLCOL is magic.

[berrytwo]

Community.

• Acknowledged the difficulty of pulling off IC and the very high failure rate, and the common reasons (poorly executed consensus processes leading to toxic people driving out non-toxic people; money stuff; people not being on the same page; the huge amount of work that leads to burnout; etc)

Yep! Another big one is not having feedback/communication systems in place, with actual follow through.

[*]My sense that a lot of the difficulties that ICs face could be mitigated with solid postconsumer praxis. It is my uneducated perception that ICs tend to consume $ and resources at a higher rate than is necessary considering their values, and that a bit of ERE skillz could go a long way towards alleviating the stress/burnout that ICs face.

There is a huge range both between different communities, and in my experience, even within one itself. Depending on the infrastructures in place, there are opportunities to have a significantly lower impact. There can be a higher concentration of ERE type folks that have created systems for innovative practices that can be shared. When some, but not all have this value and/ or skill it can create issues when you are sharing resources. Even when systems are in place, there can be gray areas and misuse. This has been one of the big reasons I am leaving my community. I think about DB quote from our mastermind group:

At a high level, it seems like would-be community designers might want to answer the question: along which axes do you want to select for similarity vs diversity vs don't care?

[jacob]

In other news, I continue to find ERE devilishly difficult to explain even to people who are eager to understand it.

We're In over our heads. IC will remain a grind for a while---it's still a lot to ask because it still belongs to the future. Probably best approached from the abstract top and the concrete bottom until there are enough personal examples to copy to establish a bridge. So theory and examples converging. (I suggesting focusing on examples to copy because theories are a dime a dozen.)