The Goal

Become comfortable 1) doing something specific 2) in a time-sensitive, high-pressure environment 3) with a high level of consistency and confidence.

Do this with reasonable time and effort.

Avoid misery.

Recognize the spectrum of knowledge and understanding

The unknown unknowns: The things we are blissfully unaware of. We don’t worry about these.

The known unknowns: The things we know exist, but don’t know. Most things exist in this space, and that’s okay.

The unknown knowns: Those bits of knowledge we forget even exist within our brains. These surprise us on rediscovery, yes, but these should move very quickly to the next category upon recall, until they eventually fade back here.

The known knowns: Things that are just on the periphery of knowledge. These require some concentration and time to bring to the surface. These require patience and coolness of mind. Most academic knowledge will sit here, especially if recently reviewed.

The internalized: That which can be instantly recalled, comfortably and reliably. Still vulnerable to unforced errors in stressful situations.

The mastered: That which could never be confused or mistaken, even in the worst of circumstances.

The Process

The Realm of Knowledge: Articulate and categorize everything there is to learn. Make a clear line between the unknowns and knowns. Compile all of the essential information into one spot-- this can be a reference, like a textbook, manual, or video, but it can also be an expert you trust.

Try to bring as much in to the known knowns as possible. These should be the basic rules of thumb, formula, and mnemonic devices that stick around without much trouble.

Study List: Identify which questions make you uncomfortable or slow you down, and determine the concepts that are troubling you. Compile these into a Study List. 

One at a time, eliminate the items from your Study List by gaining a better understanding of the concept.

Seek help concerning the subject: 1) primary reference material (e.g. textbook), 2) surface-level internet search, 3) generic website (e.g. Wikipedia), and 4) a trusted expert.

Drill List: Keep a clear record of any unforced errors that keep you from mastering a concept. The easiest way to test this is to practice in a distracting, stressful, or otherwise suboptimal environment. See what kinds of mistakes you start making and make a Drill List. Avoid repeating items from your Drill List at all costs.

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This is the first of a specific type of post-- the Articulation--I want to make here: a quick, organized overview of a basic idea, put into words for future reference. These aren't meant to be original, innovative, or even interesting. 

An Articulation says something that a lot of people inherently understand, but most have never stopped to really put into words.

An Articulation reflects the spirit of those friendly late night tumblr blog posts, those meant to educate some lost soul out there who doesn't understand something very basic but useful.

An Articulation often comes off as trite, like an immature writer trying and failing to say something impressively deep or poignant. But it in fact is written in complete earnest, meant not to fascinate, but to inform.

An Articulation might be helpful to people who have a hard time reading between the lines.

An Articulation can cover anything, but I'd like to categorize them as such:

Philosophy [Anything that covers critical reasoning, morality, and the human experience]

Nature [Natural sciences, but with the fun twist of a complete lack of formal education]

Culture [The things that make groups of humans unique and joyful]

Craft [Woodworking, technology, electronics, etc]

Education [Academic, moral, cultural]

Society [Institutions, governments, and the theory of everything in between]

Storytelling [Books, television, movies, and folk tales]

#philosophy #Articulation #education

So you've found your way onto my website. Let's keep it simple-- this is my digital sandbox, where I'm messing around with self-hosting a bunch of different things. I'm here to try new things, learn, log my efforts, and ultimately create something that can face the public in some way. I want this to be worth visiting for our family and friends-- maybe not every day, or every week, but every once in a while, just to check in.

So what do we have here? You'll notice six buttons on the front page at carudan.net.

1) The first is audiobooks. I'm building my own audiobook/ebook library to share with friends and family through audiobookshelf, which allows you to listen, sync, and download anything I have to your own device. It's basically Amazon's Audible, except just for my library. The secret is you can ask me to get basically any book, and I'll probably be able to get my hands on it one way or another (i.e. at no cost to you (or me, probably)). In fact, I can automate it to hook up to your Goodreads "Want to Read" shelf so it just appears without talking to me at all. This last automation function is. . . still in testing, so please be patient with me :) Right now, the library is primarily Agatha Christie, fantasy, new Star Wars, and romance novels hahaha

2) The second is study solis. This is my self-hosted writing experiment, powered by Typemill, where I'm publishing the rough draft chapters of my book as I write them. Caroline knows I am terrible at making progress, so this is my way of trying to keep myself accountable. And I want to connect with anyone who's interested in my writing! The first novel is called a young-ish adult, new adult (maybe??) fantasy story called The Huntress, and I'm on chapter 7 of 52 right now. I'm posting raw, basically from my phone, pre beta. Once I finish my first draft, I'm going to ask people to beta read the whole book and give me thoughts on plot, characterization, and other broad strokes, and then we basically begin building towards the rewrites that will become the "final draft". Of course I'll listen to any feedback anyone has in the meantime, but right now I'm just trying to churn out words.

In other words, it's in an alpha state, so don't expect too much, but it's a fun time!

3) The third is the postboard, which is what we're on now. This is powered through Known, which has been really easy to work with. I'm intentionally siloing this postboard from my story "blog" because I want this one to be more social. This might seem ambitious, but I'm imagining a nano-network, composed of less than a few dozen people who are all interested in. . . I'm not sure. Being cool with us? HAHA. 

Look, it'll start off as my own little blog, where I chat about this and that, get things started. But I hope that eventually others will find value in sharing their own thoughts about whatever seems relevant. It's not about cultivating some clique of smart minds, but fostering a community during a time when it feels increasingly difficult to do so. At the end of the day, I want to hear from everyone.

So what am I (and eventually we) writing about? I have a lot of ideas to begin with: gardening (duh), native ecology (of course), cooking, music, games, pop culture, woodworking, housekeeping, crafts, writing, and Atlanta. I'm not exactly avoiding the "serious" stuff, like law and social policy, but I guess I don't see the value in writing about those things for me right now. But obviously there are those of you out there from whom I'm dying to read a 10k word rant about whatever.  But for now, I'm just trying to get the ball rolling. Hopefully I'll keep things neat and organized enough.

4) The fourth button is requests. This is the Ombi Request Hub, where you can ask me to acquire any television series or movie that's. . . not lost to time. If you don't understand the point of this, feel free to ask me!

5) The fifth is network. I honestly don't have the greatest idea for what this is going to look like-- obviously it's not set up yet. At the very least, I want a communal calendar where Caroline and I will be able to keep track of the garden. Or something like that? I'm really not sure yet. But basically, I want it to be a way for us to connect with our friends and families about our garden.

Once I get Nextcloud figured out, which shouldn't really be that bad, I'll have a better idea of what I should make this. Let's have it done by spring.

6) The sixth is the garden. Now that I think about it, this might be the same thing as the fifth. But maybe I'll just make it a mediaboard for the garden? I don't know!!! Maybe this is the blog for the garden anyway, so I don't need a separate site for the garden? But I do want to host a resource for the hyper-specific niche that we're learning about at home, in terms of building a natural landscape and sustaining wildlife. Basically, if Caroline and I can create a natural woodland and wildlife sanctuary in our backyard, I want to document and share what we learn with others who are interested. And I want to share the information without necessarily tying it back to Caroline and me (i.e. if it can generally be anonymous that'd be nice) so I'll probably share through Google Drive and call it a day. And maybe this button will simply be a link to the drive folder.

If you're wondering, the information I have so far amounts to-- my list of a few hundred plants that are worth considering as native specimen for the piedmont region, with plenty of details on their preferred conditions; a collection of plant guilds and combinations that might make sense, obviously still a huge work in progress; and a bunch of random thoughts on how to get started on a sustainable garden, i.e. water-wise, wildlife-supporting, and ecologically responsible. 

Anyway, it's all still a work in progress, but I hope this gives an idea of what's going on here. If you want to join this postboard, there are no real rules. Just speak your mind and work towards the "good". We'll figure out what that really is together.

#meta #website