--- content_date: 2020-05-11 feed: "DANIEL_ON_SLOPE" codex_section: "S09" codex_candidate: false source: Scotomaville source_file: 01.15-curves.pdf chapter: 01.15-curves total_pdf_pages: 12 volume: v1 title: Curves monomyth_stage: "06 - Tests, Allies, Enemies" category: - awareness - strategy tags: - life-curves - self-mastery - scotoma - exponential-growth - network-effects - preferential-attachment - adaptation - resilience - data-manipulation - mental-tools summary: | I reveal that life is full of curves which disrupt our straight-line plans and trigger emotional responses when we miscalculate progress. Through examples like the Airstream hose, manipulated COVID graphs, and NetLogo models of small world networks and virus propagation, I illustrate how multiplication creates powerful curves and why adapting to them—like the flexible reed—builds resilience. Acquiring these mental tools turns the journey into one with purpose, helping us get ahead of the curve on our way to self-mastery. qr_links: - https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/ - https://youtu.be/mtmsm6LRzFM - https://youtu.be/ab4JsCnpP0c --- # 01.15-curves ## Spread 001 [p1–p2] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=0% R=71% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE ### Visual description The left page of the spread features a dark gray upper section containing white text, including the heading “VOL 1 AWARENESS,” the large title “CURVES,” and a pull-quote: “LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN YOUR PLANS” attributed to Bill Sharman. Below this, body text discusses geometry, expectations, and the idea that “Life is FULL of CURVES,” with an additional vertical text block citing Jim Rohn. The right page is dominated by a large, full-bleed photograph of a narrow slot canyon with smooth, undulating sandstone walls in warm orange, red, and purple tones, showing layered curves and shadows. A thin horizontal line separates the top and bottom sections on both pages, and the footer reads “LEAVING SCOTOMAVILLE” with page numbers 132 and 133. The canyon image is a realistic, documentary-style photograph that visually embodies the chapter theme through literal geological curves rather than irony or humor. The overall layout balances text-heavy design on the left with the expansive natural landscape image on the right. ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 132 CURVES ... “ life is what happens between your plans” Bill Sharman VOL 1 AWARENESS In geometry, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It’s no wonder we triggerwhen life happens be tween our plans. We expect to make certain progress in a reason able time, but we miscalculate the span because: Life is FULL of CURVES Understanding what creates a curve will help you make progress in your journey. Set-backs are nothing more than a learning-curve. Do-overs are nothing more than a set of curves. Propagation across a network has lots of curves. They’re called variants. Sound familiar? the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It’s funny but life never works out like that. .15 “life expects us to make a reasonable amount of progress in a reasonable amount of time. that’s why they make those 4th grade chairs so small. Jim Rohn ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 133 ## Spread 002 [p3–p4] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=32% R=43% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE ### Visual description The left page opens with a large color photograph of physicist Stephen Hawking floating horizontally in zero gravity inside an aircraft cabin, wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with zeroG patches while two men and one woman in matching uniforms hold him steady. Directly beneath it is the caption “PHYSICIST STEPHEN HAWKING AT ZERO GRAVITY,” followed by the large centered quote about “monstrosities” with unfinished minds, attributed to Hawking (originally Erik Hoffer). The right page shows a documentary photograph of a silver Airstream trailer and red pickup truck parked on gravel beside desert scrub, with a long black hose deliberately snaking in multiple S-curves across the ground in the foreground. Below the image sits the bold line “SIMPLE: TURN ON WATER. GO STRAIGHT TO AIRSTREAM. WRONG.” The curving hose functions as a clear visual metaphor for the chapter’s theme, contrasting the straight-line expectation with the actual winding path. The spread pairs a real-world documentary image on the left with a site-specific, illustrative photograph on the right that directly embodies the “curves” concept. ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 134 Physicist Stephen Hawking at Zero Gravity “What monstrosities would walk our streets should their faces be as unfinished as their minds.” Stephen Hawking (originally by Erik Hoffer) ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 135 Simple: turn on water. Go straight to airstream. Wrong. Welcome back to another fabulously hot day forleaving Scotomaville! Do you remember the physicist Stephen Hawking? One of my favorite quotes of his: What monstrosities would walk our streets, should their faces be as unfinished as their minds! I’d like you to consider ‘Leaving Scotomaville’ as a finishing school for your mind. A fundamental to grasp is the difference betweenlines and curves because ‘Life is what happens between our plans,’ and most of that is a curve. Geometry teaches the shortest distance between A and B is a straight line. So we might have a straightforward plan, you know, water from the faucet straight to the Airstream. Watch what happens when the pressure gets put on. The hose demonstrates that having a good feel on how curves are generated everywhere will help us not flip out or trigger when they interrupt us. Multiplication Builds Curves; addition = lines Curves are powerful. You’ll find them in financial reports, in biology, in social media, in the smart phone you use, and the recommenders at all the places you shop. Knowing how curves are created and spotting them is critical to Leaving Scotomaville. The best takeaway from this episode for you is to multiply. Don’t add, don’t subtract, multiply. ## Spread 003 [p5–p6] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=56% R=19% **heading:** By combining masterful storytelling with credible data you can create an emotional ### Visual description The left page opens with a pull-quote in gray text about using data and storytelling to create an emotional roller-coaster through simple scale changes, followed by the word "SCOTOMA" in bold. The dominant visual is a large black-background line graph titled "Recorded COVID-19 cases outside mainland China" with a rising curve of yellow dots plotted over dates from Jan 22 to Mar 6. Three vertical y-axes are shown on the left (scaled differently as A, B, and C), with three points on the curve circled in red and labeled with values 999 (A), 4,288 (B), and 14,901 (C), connected by green vertical lines to the x-axis. The right page features the heading "GAMING to GAIN w/ curves" above explanatory text on linear versus exponential curves and how scale changes perception. A numbered list highlights four leverage points (Attention, Extractive Technology, Bureaucracy, Biology), with additional paragraphs noting how shifting the y-axis scale makes the same data feel dramatically more or less alarming. The spread ends with the line "SCOTOMA. You're being gamed!" in bold. The overall visual is diagrammatic and illustrative rather than documentary, using the annotated COVID graph as a concrete example of perceptual manipulation. The red circles and multiple scales create a direct, somewhat ironic commentary on how data presentation can "game" viewers, aligning with the chapter's theme of scotoma and emotional curves. ### Left page By combining masterful storytelling with credible data you can create an emotional roller-coaster - with only a simple change in the scale of the graph. SCOTOMA ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 137 GAMING to GAIN w/ curves Let’s do a quick refresher on the difference between linear and exponential. Biology and nature leverage multiplication to propagate. I can hear you: “What do we care about curves?” “We don’t CARE about curves!” “We don’t WANT to do curves!” Consider what leverages curves 1) Attention 2) Extractive Technology 3) Bureaucracy 4) Biology These four simple items converge to misalign our perceptions and expectations. Here’s my proof: I posted an insightful video on curves and the pandemic media in the very beginning of the pandemic. The response confirmed what Yuval Harari wrote; “people don’t want to know that they are hackable.” The global pandemic statistics feel different when the scale changes on the vertical y-axis. Watch what happens to your perception of how bad the problem is comparing C to B : Whoa! And then they change the scale - B to A : huh? Reverse the scale changes, A to B Oh, it’s not bad. But the data is 4 times worse. Whoa! It’s horrible again! Huh? Change the scale B to C: The curve isn’t so bad. But, the data is 3 times more - It’s alarming! No, it’s the scale! SCOTOMA. You’re being gamed! “statistics ‘feel’ different when the scale is changed” ## Spread 004 [p7–p8] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=54% R=60% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE ### Visual description The two-page spread opens with a sweeping panoramic photograph of verdant, rolling mountain ridges under a wide sky, dotted with distant snow-capped peaks that form the dominant background across both pages. Inset on the left are two documentary photographs: one shows Daniel standing beside his bicycle on a rocky trail next to a small waterfall in a green valley, wearing a white cycling jersey, helmet, and sunglasses; the other is a close-up of a cyclist’s legs and loaded touring bike on a curving asphalt road. On the right page, a smaller inset photograph depicts a turquoise alpine lake with a road hugging the shoreline and sheer cliffs above. At the bottom right sits a diagrammatic illustration of swirling red curves on a grid with numbered axes, evoking mathematical or systemic complexity. The layout integrates these images with overlaid text blocks, including the red pull-quote “So here’s what happens with curves and self-mastery…” and headings such as “ACQUIRING MENTAL TOOLS MAKES IT A JOURNEY WITH A PURPOSE.” The visual language mixes real journey photography (Daniel’s cycling and mountain scenes) with a conceptual diagram, creating a metaphorical parallel between physical road and terrain curves and the chapter’s theme of recurring challenges in self-mastery. ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 138 So here’s what happens with curves and self-mastery. Every milestone brings a new level of understanding, and anoth er freaking hill to climb! It’s like some of the worst grades up the Continental Divide. Every time I thought I was getting close to the summit, it was just another crest! That happens leaving Scotomaville! Successes are quickly fol lowed by challenges. Every vista on your Personal Everest turns out to be prep for a climb! You expect praise and recognition from your spouse, partner, or company, but it doesn’t happen. Then, suddenly, emotions are flooding disappointment, No matter how much I climbed, there was another hill ahead. The weather changed with the terrain. Were now facing inlation and war, after traversing a pandemic. Sheesh. It seems that Constant change is here to stay. It’s a good thing we, too, can change! frustration, and passion. You have to account for their roll er-coaster. We base expectations for best outcomes on whatever scale our reference axis has, but as you have seen with COVID or the economy, constant change is here to stay! You’ll start to welcome awareness, and with it comes a new ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 139 Acquiring mental tools makes it a journey with a purpose Bonus... the view is definitely better at the top! scotoma. But, of course, you’ll manage that one, and you’ll be facing another ridge. The slope may temp you to address your partner’s annoying habits, but you’ll soon be facing a global pandemic and supply chain issues! Oh, life has curves — lots of them. All around us are complex patterns described in simple mathematical terms. There are elegant expressions for complex networks - like those in our mind, connecting your smart phone, across social networks, in accounting and finance. The choices we make tweak factors of the expressions, giving us auto-magical recommendations. We’re in an age of rapidly accelerating change with the compounding of robotics and 3d printing, AI, genomics, regener ative medicine, and predictive analytics. The presented pathways are emerging faster than we can cope with, so we habitually accept the ‘terms of use’ without realizing extractive technology’s underlying aim - to know us bet ter than we know ourselves. And that’s what I’d like you to catch as an overall theme as we look at several different models of that complexity. But, again, try to see them in a simple term - ‘curves.’ ## Spread 005 [p9–p10] **type:** text_only | **img coverage:** L=22% R=25% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE **urls:** `https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/` ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 140 I want you to download the software NetLogo. This is the most awesome visualization tool that you can imagine. (from one Aspie to another) This model is ‘Small World’ phenomenon. It demonstrates that a person is only a couple of connections away from any other person in the world. (From you to me - to Dean and Charlie) https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/ Let’s start with 40 ‘nodes’. A node is like a person that wants to connect with any other person in this possible world of 40 the lines are connections, like LinkedIn. Through introduc tions, everyone can connect with everyone else in the network. The average distance between any one person in a network of 40 is only 2.8. Just less than three introductions. OK, how does that work in the real world? An introduction to Charlie Duke could connect you with any one of the other astronauts around the world. That demonstrates the net work connectivity you can find actively at work and social networks. ‘Preferential Attachment’ This is one of my favorite models to visualize how a few people can create large networks of followers, and how a few companies can gather the largest customer base. You’re familiar with how this works. You go into a restaurant, and there’s nobody there. What do you do? You second guess. But, you go to a restaurant and there’s a crowd? Confirmation! Building a network that has a bias toward popularity skews the outcome because it favors the few. You see this in all kinds of information networks around the globe where more gets more - and those that gots, gets. Preferential attachment is easy to remember - more gets more. Daniel Comp, Dean Rush (Aviation), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16) having coffee. ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 141 ‘Virus on a Network’ Back to the models library. This time pick ‘virus on a network’. This model demonstrates the spread of a vi rus through a network. It’s similar to what’s going on all across the globe. Digital networks and biological networks work very similar. What this model demonstrates is that although humans may be done fighting the virus, it’s certainly not done try ing to kill humans. Also you should note, the propagation occurs in waves. So virus on a network? Waves. So expect that with COVID 19. (see page 204) My aim for this lesson toward your personal Everest - is to start you considering that curves, and corrections, and changes FEEL discouraging. However, by under standing them, they can become an ally. You gain leverage and get traction by getting ahead of the curve - seeing around the bend to what’s coming next. (see page 204) ## Spread 006 [p11–p12] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=20% R=60% **heading:** mtmsm6LRzFM **urls:** `https://youtu.be/` `https://youtu.be/` ### Visual description The two-page spread opens on the left with a bold, stylized title graphic for “CURVES” in large white lettering over a close-up of layered, curving brown-and-orange patterns resembling wood grain or topographic lines, with “Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE” in smaller yellow text above it. Below the title, a small rectangular photo shows a smiling older man (Daniel) wearing a dark shirt, overlaid with the label “01.15 REFLECTION Considering Curves • Elephant Butte • They’re Not Ready.” Multiple QR codes appear alongside the headings “WATCH,” “REFLECT,” and “DISCUSS,” each paired with YouTube URLs and short explanatory paragraphs about triangulation, sketching personal curves, and pandemic-level challenges. The right page is dominated by a large, realistic landscape photograph of a massive oak tree standing beside a shallow stream in a grassy meadow under a blue sky with scattered clouds; tall reeds and grass grow along the water’s edge. Faint, oversized lettering spelling “RETURN” is layered across the upper portion of the photo. To the right of the image, a green ChatGPT-style logo accompanies the heading “The Oak and the Reed,” followed by a printed fable about a rigid oak that breaks in a storm while a flexible reed survives by bending. The right-hand landscape functions as a metaphorical illustration of the chapter’s theme rather than a documentary photograph from the journey, visually enacting the Aesop-inspired story about adapting to life’s curves. The overall layout mixes documentary elements (the portrait of Daniel) with conceptual graphics and illustrative imagery. ### Left page YOURT https://youtu.be/mtmsm6LRzFM The power of triangulation can be compounded by understanding curves. In the midst of what seems unrelenting chaos, uninvited challenges can rein force our aim, clarify our compass bearing, and ac celerate our self-mastery. Watch v1.15 Reflection. Sketch or describe a few of your recent ‘curves’. Can you correlate changes, emotions and out comes with patterns that emerge? When we are tossed into pandemic level challenges, having additional landmarks and bearings can calm fears. Share an insight, question or contribute with other readers on curves and the road ahead. WATCH DISCUSS REFLECT https://youtu.be/ab4JsCnpP0c ### Right page RTURN The Oak and the Reed Once, there stood a mighty Oak tree beside a gentle Reed in a marsh. The Oak tree often boasted about its strength, proudly declaring how it stood firm and unyielding against the winds. It criticized the Reed for bending easily and swaying with every gust. One day, a powerful storm rolled in. The Oak, steadfast and rigid, fought against the wild winds. The Reed, on the other hand, bent gracefully, swaying with the wind’s every whim. As the storm raged on, the Oak’s resistance led to its downfall, and it was uprooted by the force of the wind. Meanwhile, the Reed contin ued to dance, bending but never breaking. Aesop speaks to embracing life’s nonlinear nature and those who expect life’s curves and are willing to adapt to them, opportunities may present themselves, leading to personal growth and resilience.