The Jungle Intro Work
I have a bad habit of trying to give upfront context before I tell a story, in writing and in person. When I first went to write this one, I tried to explain too much - I wanted to make sure people knews I got it From [[The Art of Learning]], I wanted to lay out all the ways the metaphor expands to funny little details about learning. By the time I'd have given the context, I could have told the story three times over. To fight this habit, I took an idea from [[David Perrell]], “start the story when you’re about to get eaten by a bear.” Don’t explain, don’t give unnecessary context, get into the meat. And let the reader expand on the idea on their own. Give them a story that grabs, them. Don't beat it to death with explanation. Here's my next attempt:
Intro
Impenetrable undergrowth in every direction. The sun is hidden behind the tall trees, but you sense that daylight is running out. Armed with only a machete, you pick a direction and begin to hack. Hours go by, it feels like you've gone no where, when suddenly, you see some extra steaks of light slip through the trees. Determined, you follow this light until your machete hacks lead to a small clearing with a creek running down the middle. You're journey is not yet over, but you have found a place to make camp for the night. Hopefully, by following the creek, you will find a larger body of water, eventually leading to a safe escape. Exhausted, you drink the creek water from cupped hands and make camp, getting ready to sleep before for another day in The Jungle.
Whether you've ever been lost in the wild or not, you know this feeling. It's the same as diving into a new subject. Every sentence is filled with more words you don't know. Ideas you've never heard of are referenced in passing. You're left with little sense of direction in a dense thicket of new information. Little by little, with determination, you can navigate the new subject in the same way you navigate in the wild. Get a rough sense of direction and power through until you find some sort of landmark to help you with your journey. Eventually, you build a sense of direction. You build an understanding of your surroundings, and you're able to explore again and again until you've made it out.
This site is my Jungle. The ideas I share here will show the trails I'm carving as I navigate the densely complex information landscape we all live in. I hope the trails I forge are useful to others. Maybe we'll even be crossing paths, especially since you've already made it here. In any case, Welcome To The Jungle.
How it works
Thanks to Aengus Mcmillin's great Gatsby Theme, this site copies some ideas from RoamResearch, a tool for thought I very much enjoy using. That is why many pages have a "Linked References" section at the bottom. That shows any other page in the site where that note has been referenced. It serves as a digital, networked web of my writing and thoughts.
I've broken my writing into three sections:
- Daily Notes
- The Jungle Board
- Essays
Daily Notes are where I publish my writing each day. These are low pressure notes about anything I've found recently interesting. They can range from technical ideas, I've been thinking about, to philosophical topics I was just introduced to, to other writing work for intro material to this webiste itself, (like this!). Don't expect anything refined to live here. These are raw, daily notes that I'm going to use to identify the best threads to dig into deeper as I go along.
The Jungle Board is where I will take some of my favorite ideas from Daily Notes and provide links directly to them. This page will stay updated with notes and ideas that are on top of my mind. This is a great place to get started on the site.
Essays will be where I eventually dig deeper into my favorite ideas from The Jungle Board. Don't expect much from this section for some time. Filling the essays section with valuable writing is a long term goal.
One last thing
If you liked these notes, hit me on Twitter!