• Stayed home & played new Pokemon

• 5 family members at Thanksgiving

• Now a Meow Wolf SF alum!

  • Reminds me of Fluxus Labyrinth = [LV: w t f]

  • Did leave inspired about how we create experiences

• 2°C in Santa Fe

• Low energy session today because of wrist pain from yesterday's accident

• Thinking 1 week of recovery time

• Looking at the French Studies programme

• This old pal of Joe's was very fixed on being a professor and went through the French Studies route

  • Natural progression of work with programming? In History, NLP is being applied a lot; in anthro as well, in literary studies. I went to a short workshop at the library on this kind of stuff.

  • Another relevant person working in digital humanities: Barbara McGillivray

• We didn't hand out the roles among the participants this time

• I grew a little disenchanted with the project

• 2 weeks ago I knew what I wanted to do with my life (e.g., back then I was just making great progress with programming)

• Now I've reopened Pandora's box about feelings; the programming stuff is what taught me to be rigorous! I love being curious, but I particularly love it in the context in which the code works?

• Joe added some reflections from 6 & 20 years ago

• NA: I find it's more political, if there's nothing else going on I could have finished my PhD. That stuff didn't help me.

• JC: Worried that the higher up you go on the ivory tower the more political it can become

• LV: Friend says that the department is all leftist thinking...

• NA: Are they open in terms of interdisciplinary work?!

  • If you say you want someone from Digital Humanities or Libraries on your committee... how would they react. In my experience they are very siloed. Can you get them to meet you where you? And French Studies has the potential to be very niche.

  • Are the professors boomers...?

    • Keep this in mind: you'll get some pushback.

• Also look at programs in information schools, e.g., you can bring in the philosophy stuff.

• LV thinking of applying to PhD programme in Princeton

• However LV was previously set on doing corporate programming or consulting

• So this is a bit of a crossroads

• Pain

• Maybe the patterns (in general) are comprise

Context: Conflict X HOWEVER Y [Kaiju] Rationale: xxx BECAUSE zzz [Analyst] Solution: www therefore ppp [Designer] Action: Specifically ... [Historian]

• We started w/ passion for research etc

• We then talked about the worldview in academia

• The systems of research (e.g., including politics)

• The specific things that Leo should take into account

• I had assurance in my mind that I was going to be turning myself into a software developer

• Now I am dealing with my previous trauma in academia and this is making me think, can I retreat into comfort —

• The Princeton path is high-risk high-reward

• Systems view would be coming up with a plan; litany could be, envisioning what this looks like

• But I find myself closer to wanting to bail, out of self-preservation

• NA: If I was considering this thing and people said this is going to turn like shit b/c of all of our trauma... but you're only being overwhelmed with information.

• LV [...] : I enjoyed removing myself from the need to become a professor! Now, I find that I still want to be a teacher & still want to be curious. What would allow me to go back to the system layer: "Those are 2 great options, apply whilst having a great profile & pursuing software development." If I make a choice between 2 great projects, I'll end up with something great. What if I just consider it to be a job?

• Can I focus more on the impact system wide?

• We've almost created an element of disorder through new information that needs to be dealt w/ or filtered, and Leo hasn't (yet) engaged w/ some of this b/c he previously disengaged from academia

• So the previous model didn't really accommodate this

• Magic mushrooms: sandcastles can be reset, what does the landscape look like then? What does it feel like when you're trying to scaffold

• JC: It's a psychological workout; is it a useful one?

• LV: When my Princeton friend suggested this, eventually one new tree nubilates me — it takes all my attention. It's potential roots below the surface make me nervous.

  • Pragmatism would solidify things in the system layer; it doesn't have to change anything other than this, it's just another map on the bigger constellation

• Now the problem is that I have a constellation that's remote from what I've been (previously) doing in humanities

• I moved from a map w/ 100 nodes, now I am considering 300 nodes all together!

• Do I want to trim some thing, e.g., supervisor trauma?

• I'm now like the witches that cut lives of dead people — Charites

• JC: maybe you need a phase of consolidation

• Working in a micro-pilot with Leo as subject matter expert

• Let's not be lazy about how we involve the body

• I'm glad we had this exercise with Leo b/c it made me consider how do we facilitate when people are overwhelmed with information in Phase 2? I want to think about this more?

• Do we decide the scenarios beforehand or pick up from Phase 1?

  • You can also have sub-scenarios?

• LV: I did feel vulnerable about talking about personal stuff, ego, etc., but now I can look at it with fresh eyes. The choices here won't change who I am; but I need to think a lot.

• This meeting has led me to understand: if I felt confident before, what was it about this tree that caused me to feel nervous?

• I feel less stress

• The patterns & roles are something that we have to work on as facilitators?

  • "Aha, you've used the Kaijū Communicator pattern?"

  • But if they didn't use the pattern then how can we prompt it?

  • How can we scaffold the return from the myth layer, in a way that feels light for the participants?

• All I've been doing in programming, I owe only to myself... with university, I did it within a set setting for learning; at university you're supposed to learn — it feels almost like a different person did this. It's one of my many lives... — I find it difficult to identify with this past body, and here I feel more in control; I may need to maintain the same stance that has made me sane & has allowed me to make regular progress, and I should focus on the things that work in this

• Maybe rather than putting all the cards on the table, we expose the cards as people use them?

• Imbrication of aha moments

• Could we get people making little tricks of HOWEVER, BECAUSE, THEREFORE, SPECIFICALLY, constituting new patterns

• There might be a (serendipity) pattern here: "What nurtures opportunity for you?"

• There are docs to review on the github

• Ready for lunch (per usual)

  • JC: :-)

• Will commit notes

• Let's try to deploy Noorah's "bring a question" pattern for next time

• Going to some markets next

• I have an idea of an action for us but need to formulate it

• It's been nice to have a little sample of how you put this into action w/ Leo's case; the different use of language around scenarios, patterns, roles: how they are distinct & how they overlap. How do we describe patterns & scenarios emerging, roles, changing?

• JC: technical aspect of this

• Now need 10+ hours of sleep, to recover

• I forgot to buy my mushrooms