I watched people at a climbing gym the other day, for the first time, and found it fascinating. A newcomer did very well, but a more experienced climber had a fluency moving up and across the wall that was easy to see but not entirely easy to explain. Under lightweight clothes, the climber's upper body strength was visible not just in motions but also in built-out musculature. The climber glanced up for handholds and down for places to step, endlessly, speedily, judging options. There were layers to the skill, the power, the judgment. There were callouses and good gear. #
Today I ran across this statement in the promotional video for a new Master Class on climbing, presented by Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell:#
The point of using your arms in rock climbing is to keep you balanced over your feet, so that your feet can push you up the wall.#
Mentioned matter-of-factly by Honnold, it surprised me by its casual precision. In a moment, I thought, "Of course that's right." But the common sense of experts is not instantly available to others. And their common sense is expressed in a valuable precision. Feet and hands are not doing the same work on the wall. Insiders can keep talking from there.#
We should say to young people: "We don't know where each of you will find it, but it's out there somewhere. A particular insider's knowledge that will give you joy and power, that will help you see and act with precision, that will help you find something new inside yourself. Once you dig deep into that new language, a portion of your world will never be the same. Your job, young person, over the next several years, is to go looking for this part of the world, this part of yourself. Then, in due time, bring back the riches for the rest of us to see."#
There should be simpler versions of that speech given to children before the age of ten, I'm sure, and richer versions should be inscribed on the proudest stone walls of American high schools.#
I see that the outliner software Drummer keeps track of the expansionState of each line of the outline that has subordinate lines below it. Was line 5 expanded to reveal lines 6 and 7 or was it collapsed, not currently showing those lines at the moment when the outline was last saved or closed by the writer? Somewhere in the system Drummer keeps track, and when the writer returns, the software offers the outline as the writer left it, fully expanded, fully collapsed, or somewhere in between. A good feature.#
A writer can easily leave a public outline expanded, collapsed, or in between. The tools are there in the Outliner menu tab. But I imagine that most of the time a public outline--IF it is not being viewed in Drummer--should be fully expanded so a distant reader can actually read all of it. Especially if viewing it in a format that the distant reader cannot manipulate--can't expand or collapse.#
If so, then for a writer to avoid needing to check the outline at the end of each work session to confirm that it's been fully opened up for non-Drummer readers to use, I'm imagining an attribute the writer can set: expansionState=all.#
It has not escaped my notice that this might open the door to some of the coolest features of the World Outline concept from years past, IF included outlines would be, could be populated with their content as part of this process. I have no idea whether that is possible or not.#
In my memory, the central insight of the World Outline was curating and including in a single outline the quality outlines of others, building through collaboration a more substantial body of quality material on a shared topic than one person alone could build.#
I do have a public outline that is currently displaying two included outlines in what I believe is a demo reader format that Dave Winer shared as part of the beta process a while back. It was a little persnickety to get both outlines to display--I have a theory why, but maybe that's not important for this posting.#
I watched people at a climbing gym the other day, for the first time, and found it fascinating. A newcomer did very well, but a more experienced climber had a fluency moving up and across the wall that was easy to see but not entirely easy to explain. Under lightweight clothes, the climber's upper body strength was visible not just in motions but also in built-out musculature. The climber glanced up for handholds and down for places to step, endlessly, speedily, judging options. There were layers to the skill, the power, the judgment. There were callouses and good gear. #
Today I ran across this statement in the promotional video for a new Master Class on climbing, presented by Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell:#
The point of using your arms in rock climbing is to keep you balanced over your feet, so that your feet can push you up the wall.#
Mentioned matter-of-factly by Honnold, it surprised me by its casual precision. In a moment, I thought, "Of course that's right." But the common sense of experts is not instantly available to others. And their common sense is expressed in a valuable precision. Feet and hands are not doing the same work on the wall. Insiders can keep talking from there.#
We should say to young people: "We don't know where each of you will find it, but it's out there somewhere. A particular insider's knowledge that will give you joy and power, that will help you see and act with precision, that will help you find something new inside yourself. Once you dig deep into that new language, a portion of your world will never be the same. Your job, young person, over the next several years, is to go looking for this part of the world, this part of yourself. Then, in due time, bring back the riches for the rest of us to see."#
There should be simpler versions of that speech given to children before the age of ten, I'm sure, and richer versions should be inscribed on the proudest stone walls of American high schools.#
I see that the outliner software Drummer keeps track of the expansionState of each line of the outline that has subordinate lines below it. Was line 5 expanded to reveal lines 6 and 7 or was it collapsed, not currently showing those lines at the moment when the outline was last saved or closed by the writer? Somewhere in the system Drummer keeps track, and when the writer returns, the software offers the outline as the writer left it, fully expanded, fully collapsed, or somewhere in between. A good feature.#
A writer can easily leave a public outline expanded, collapsed, or in between. The tools are there in the Outliner menu tab. But I imagine that most of the time a public outline--IF it is not being viewed in Drummer--should be fully expanded so a distant reader can actually read all of it. Especially if viewing it in a format that the distant reader cannot manipulate--can't expand or collapse.#
If so, then for a writer to avoid needing to check the outline at the end of each work session to confirm that it's been fully opened up for non-Drummer readers to use, I'm imagining an attribute the writer can set: expansionState=all.#
It has not escaped my notice that this might open the door to some of the coolest features of the World Outline concept from years past, IF included outlines would be, could be populated with their content as part of this process. I have no idea whether that is possible or not.#
In my memory, the central insight of the World Outline was curating and including in a single outline the quality outlines of others, building through collaboration a more substantial body of quality material on a shared topic than one person alone could build.#
I do have a public outline that is currently displaying two included outlines in what I believe is a demo reader format that Dave Winer shared as part of the beta process a while back. It was a little persnickety to get both outlines to display--I have a theory why, but maybe that's not important for this posting.#
Copyright ⓒ 2021 by Ken Smith
Last update: Thursday September 30, 2021; 3:31 PM EDT.