{"id":6438,"date":"2018-01-22T18:00:47","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T18:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peerproduction.net\/editsuite\/?page_id=6438"},"modified":"2018-03-08T20:52:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T20:52:38","slug":"life-skills-for-peer-production-walking-together-through-a-space-of-not-knowing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/peerproduction.net\/editsuite\/issues\/issue-11-city\/experimental-format\/life-skills-for-peer-production-walking-together-through-a-space-of-not-knowing\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Skills for Peer Production: Walking Together through a Space of \u201cNot-Knowing\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Vincenzo Mario Bruno Giorgino and Donald A. McCown<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The community of readers of the special issue, \u201cCity,\u201d of the Journal of Peer Production\u2014social activists, hackers, digital designers, radical academics, and students\u2014will be seeking innovative ideas in commons-based programs at the urban level, particularly application of technological devices and concepts designed with an alternative, post-capitalist, communitarian orientation. The process of developing an innovative idea into a practical viable application is well understood within this community, and there are many templates to follow. These might be thought of as \u201csoft skills.\u201d However, such templates dance around the uncontrollable moment of inspiration. There is a space of fear, where there is no control, no certainty. The community must abide in not-knowing until the moment of inspiration. There are no templates or programs that offer assured outcomes; however, there are technologies of a different type that can help to keep the community attentive and open\u2014to what is observable, to one another, and to new possibilities. These might be thought of as \u201clife skills.\u201d They are not reducible to rules that can be learned by rote, rather, they are infinitely variable and only can only be instilled as they are lived. It is to be demonstrated that inspiration arises not from a \u201clone genius\u201d but rather from a like-minded group with a capacity to hold each member in the moments of fear before innovation is made real. Louis Pasteur suggested from an individualistic point of view that \u201cfortune favors the prepared mind.\u201d We suggest that \u201cfortune favors the prepared community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

As we agreed to share our experiences about a contemplative approach to our life and society with our readers, I would like to begin with a poem by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado:<\/p>\n

Traveler, your footprints are the path,<\/p>\n

and nothing else.<\/p>\n

Traveler, there is no path.<\/p>\n

A path is made by walking.<\/p>\n

A path is made by walking,<\/p>\n

and in looking back one sees<\/p>\n

the trodden road that never<\/p>\n

will be set foot on again.<\/p>\n

Traveler, there is no path,<\/p>\n

but wakes on the sea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Caminante, son tus huellas<\/p>\n

el camino y nada m\u00e1s;<\/p>\n

Caminante, no hay camino,<\/p>\n

se hace camino al andar.<\/p>\n

Al andar se hace el camino,<\/p>\n

y al volver la vista atr\u00e1s<\/p>\n

se ve la senda que nunca<\/p>\n

se ha de volver a pisar.<\/p>\n

Caminante no hay camino<\/p>\n

sino estelas en la mar.<\/p>\n

Antonio Machado Extracto de Proverbios y cantares (XXIX), Retrieved from: http:\/\/www.poemas-del-alma.com\/antonio-machado-caminante-no-haycamino.htm#ixzz4NhSJaV8p<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

Whatever the pathway you are following, the more thoroughly you go into it the more you encounter the uncertainty of the unknown.<\/p>\n

In a recent study in Barcelona, Manuel Castells and his collaborators (Conhill et al. 2012) found that is difficult to define an alternative economy or society, as the common belief expressed by the people interviewed involved in what are called alternative practices simply is to do something against the current system, seen as an homogeneous mechanism. Feeling against the current status quo let us concentrate our energies against something existent, avoiding the fear of what is not yet\u2014the unknown. It seems to be a successful strategy, especially if supported by an “objective” reading of the system, which attributes its own laws, like the recent return of attention to Marx testifies.<\/p>\n

I appreciate Machado\u2019s lyric because it invites us to meet our fears. This emotional process is part of any uncharted cognitive route, but it is also very common in our daily interactions. Very often fear is the mother of all angers. When it is shared at community level in response to a social injustice we should be aware of the ongoing process (fear\/anger) individually and collectively.<\/p>\n

I believe that our collective response is strongly influenced by the emotional state of the individuals. If the latter is regulated, moving towards equanimity, we have more chances that the community effect could move us towards justice.<\/p>\n

Enzo<\/p>\n

************************************<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Enzo,<\/p>\n

Yes, I will fall right into step with you. Our daily work, and particularly our work as collaborators, is indeed travel into the unknown. There is fear of not understanding each other, of not finding the right direction, of getting off track. There is fear of another kind of lostness, of being stuck in one place\u2014in the ennui of repetition and imposed boundaries. And, of course, there is the overriding fear of judgment from without\u2026and within.<\/p>\n

We must work with our fears. Yet, how we navigate them, to keep our creative energy going without burning out and to be open to others’ ideas without shutting down, is not necessarily a matter of the hard skills we rely on to produce our work. It is not even a matter of the \u201csoft skills\u201d so often touted by the experts who promise to boost effectiveness and efficiency, such as leadership, conflict resolution, and problem solving. Rather, the skills that help are life skills\u2014ways of being in the world. We can learn to live in a state of unknowing, and of openness to the new, the challenging, and the other.<\/p>\n

I submit to you this documentary photograph of a moment in 1967 as an illustration of the potential of this approach.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is Richard Long\u2019s piece called \u201cA line made by walking.\u201d We can imagine his process of creative perception and its working out in the world. The line might have been walked with gritted teeth, braced arms and tense legs, with worries about its shape and edges; or perhaps in staggering boredom; or, most likely, in a moment-by-moment sense of unknowing, which would be a freshness of approach to each passage. Indeed, that is a key life skill, to meet each event (the first or the hundredth iteration) with what the Zen people call \u201cbeginner\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, mirabile dictu, we can make this life skill a part of our way of being through the simple, repetitious, unknowing practice of walking. We\u2019re doing it plenty of the time anyway! I put together a three-minute recording<\/p>\n

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