Jay Matthews

"When you make that shift internally, what happens is, you release the ego from having to cling to that belief, right? Models should prove things. And models also need to be tested, right? Because you always want to see if you're right or not." — Jim

This essay is a combination of personal reflection on the self and identity labels, the restrictions that label-based belonging imposes and the discomfort that freedom can bring. Included are good mental models, praise for values-based life navigation, and interpretations of popular culture.

“I ask you, dear sir, to have patience with all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves, like closed rooms, like books written in a foreign language. Don’t try to find the answers now. They cannot be given anyway, because you would not be able to live them. For everything is to be lived. Live the questions now.... See more

Proposition 6. Institutionalized organizations seek to minimize inspection and evaluation by both internal managers and external constituents.

Sir Patrick Geddes emphasized the need for transdisciplinary education as a facilitator of cultural change. He advocated ecologically and socially appropriate practices, and stressed the need for an integration of human settlements and livelihoods into the natural conditions of their particular region. According to Geddes, appropriate local action... See more

In summary, the key Geddesian impulses that still deserve further attention in the contemporary context of sustainable development are: the bioregional planning approach that integrates ecological, socio-cultural and economical considerations at a regional scale; the emphasis on transdisciplinary education as a prerequisite for informed civic... See more

Psychological-mindedness (the propensity to take responsibility for one’s problems and to look within oneself for the solutions) is considered by many to be an important criterion for analyzability. Historically, these criteria have operated to exclude many who might otherwise have seemed to be potential beneficiaries of psychoanalytic treatment.... See more

Platform: network of users and developers; multi-sided feedback loop between those users, developers, and platform itself creates flywheel effect increasing value for each of those groups. Network that can be programmed, customized, and extended by outside users. (often meets needs and creates niches not defined by original developers at the... See more

Peter Kropotkin spend 5 years observing animals in the wilds of Siberia, and having read Darwin, sought to replicate his opersations of the competitive struggle of species in the wild.