--- content_date: 2021-12-12 feed: "DANIEL_ON_SLOPE" codex_section: "S09" codex_candidate: false source: Scotomaville source_file: 02.08-strategy.pdf chapter: 02.08-strategy total_pdf_pages: 10 volume: v2 title: "Strategy: Hoppers, Speaking Truth, and Bold Moves" monomyth_stage: "06 - Tests, Allies, Enemies" category: - strategy - awareness - expedition tags: - strategy - hoppers-game - speaking-truth - bold-moves - airstream-challenges - heatwave - flexibility - opportunity-recognition - self-mastery - personal-growth summary: In this chapter I use the game of Hoppers to show how spotting opportunities and moving sideways or backward can advance you without combat or loss. Real-life Airstream challenges like a historic heatwave, mosquito swarms, and fragile parts force me to practice flexibility, own my mistakes, and speak the truth about what breaks. These multi-hop strategies build the resilience and transparency needed for the inward journey of self-mastery. qr_links: - https://youtu.be/Lpmb617x81U --- # 02.08-strategy ## Spread 001 [p1–p2] **type:** text_only | **img coverage:** L=26% R=24% **heading:** STRAT ### Left page STRAT Welcome back to SCOTOMA VILLE, and to the Pacific Northwest, where it has become one heck of a hot day because the wind has shut off. Angelina tells me that it takes just as much energy to think positively - abun dance-minded - as it does to think scarcity. Have you ever noticed that people can have different points of view about the same thing? Gary Larson did an excellent job painting that. I’m sure you’ve met the big guy, and if you are that guy, then thanks for watching! In this episode, we’re continuing to explore strategy. We’re extending it a bit. I think you’ll find it very, very interesting. PLAYING HOPPERS It’s lunchtime. We’re going to play a board game we call Hoppers. The object is to advance across the board to occupy all the white spaces while Angelina moves her white pieces into the salmon-colored camp. We’re trying to swap sides. The first to fully occupy the other camp wins. THE FAR SIDE BY GARY LARSON: It takes genius to describe complex things in simple terms. 2.08 Angelina tells me that it takes just as much energy to think positively - abun dance-minded - as it does to think scarcity. Gary Larson nailed it well! Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 248 ### Right page ATEGY The difference between this and many other board games is that there’s no capturing. Instead, the challenge is to spot opportunities. Like many entrepreneurs in the marketplace, success is not conquest; it’s about establishing opportunity and taking action. Angelina: I’ve used my pieces to build a bridge, and I’m borrowing Daniel’s pieces to extend it. So I’m going to hop over here, and then I’m going to hop over to here, and then I’m going to hop here, and then hop here, and then over there - in multiple hops. Daniel: What Angelina didn’t see is that my next move was to jump to here, to here, to here, to here, back, right. So now I’m blocked from doing that, and I have to find an other way around it, so I’ll go from here and not get as far. HOPPERS: AN OLDER BRANCH OF THE CHECKERS TREE: swarm out of your home camp, across the milling crowd in no-man’s-land to occupy the distant camp, taking no prisoners or leaving any of your pieces behind. “sometimes the best move is to go sideways, or backward, in order to advance” Angelina: Sometimes, with strategy, you have to go side ways or backward to move forward. So having careful thought and not always being reactive is helpful. I’m going to go back and then to the side, sideways from here, forward to here, and then sideways, and then I can go here. Recognizing there’s more than one way to advance. Try going sideways a couple of times. Daniel: Angelina is making a big point. You can often ad vance by going sideways. Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 249 ## Spread 002 [p3–p4] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=62% R=9% **heading:** MOVEMENT IS MANDATORY ### Visual description The left page is dominated by a large documentary photograph at the top showing Daniel (bald, wearing glasses and a gray-green shirt) inside the Airstream, captured from an exterior viewpoint through the trailer’s windows and skylights, with green landscape visible behind him. Below this image, the page layout includes the bold heading “MOVEMENT IS MANDATORY” followed by body text, a second heading “HOPING A HEATWAVE,” and a smaller color photograph of the Airstream’s exterior side window fitted with a dark screen dotted with numerous small white spots, set against a clear blue sky. The right page features a centered pull-quote in large italic text: “a well crafted strategy from core principles will serve well as you dance with unexpected events.” It includes multiple columns of body text discussing the White Pass campground, heatwave conditions, and mosquitoes, along with a small abstract close-up photograph in the lower right showing a swirling red-and-black pattern with white speckles. All photographs are realistic and documentary in style, drawn from the actual journey rather than illustrations or diagrams. The window image directly illustrates the text’s reference to outdoor conditions and maintenance needs, while the abstract photo appears to function as a visual detail related to the mosquito or “vampire” description in the adjacent text. ### Left page MOVEMENT IS MANDATORY One of the things most people admire about the Airstream is all the windows and skylights. However, it rained mud last night. So I have to get on the roof again and scrub every surface from the top down. One part of the Airstreaming life you can do at home is chores - exercise. Movement is a mandatory part of being mobile. An aspect of developing your strategy is recogniz ing concequences of choices you have made. Our mobile lifestyle demands mobility - we have to move. That’s why we’re trying to teach you about Hoppers and strategy. HOPING A HEATWAVE We’re having a 100-year historic heatwave with high temperatures like 105 to 114 in Hood River, in The Gorge, and all of Northern Oregon, Southern Washington. With this much heat, you can’t be outdoors in an aluminum can. So working in an Airstream demands more energy than we have available. Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 250 ### Right page I’ve come up into the White Pass Cascade Trail campground. I was very fortunate to get a spot and barely fit in. Parking a 30 feet trailer in a 24-foot slot - that’s a little maneuvering. Life happens between your plans. The reason why this space was available on a first-come, first-serve basis is... (slap! closeup of clapping hands) That was a mosquito. It came in the trailer after I had flown the drone shot. It just rode in on my shoulder or something. Look, they are vampires here. They are horrible. This camp ground is beside a beautiful fly fishing lake. It’s dense with trees and mosquitoes. One of the local fishermen said to me; oh well, they’ll be gone in a month. I said to him; well, I’ll be gone on Sunday!. SINGLE HOP INDOOR DAY I think that today is going to be an indoor day. It’s not because it’s raining. Well, it is reigning. Mosquitoes are reigning, as in control. So, yeah, I think that’s what I’m saying. Hoppers teaches flexibility. Look at your options, and since the batteries of the Airstream are drained from the refrigerator, I can’t edit video. What can I do? Single move. I can shoot clips like this. Yahoo. During a massive heatwave, a very subtle breeze is coming in off of the lake below the White pass Ski Area. Nice. SATISFACTION THROUGH MULTI HOPING Why in the world would that put a smile on my face? Count all the hops. A historic-century heat wave is underway. I go to a higher altitude in time to get a site. I needed to fit the rig in. I needed to figure out when the sun would shine between the tree shadows, and I tended the solar briefcase. I kept the refer-freezer and water pump running. I kept busy with B-roll and enjoyed the cool air off the lake while avoiding mosquito bites. Anyway, that’s a long description, Alan Landis would say, of why Daniel is smiling. I made multiple hops to stay cool during a historic heatwave with minimal power. I did well. “a well crafted strategy from core principles will serve well as you dance with unexpected events.” leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 251 ## Spread 003 [p5–p6] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=23% R=45% **heading:** LEARN TO SPEAK THE TRUTH ### Visual description The two-page spread features a documentary-style layout with multiple color photographs from the journey, interspersed with text blocks and headings. On the left page, the top-left image shows an aerial view of a white Airstream trailer parked in a dense forested campsite with a red vehicle nearby. Adjacent to it is a close-up of weathered hands (likely Daniel’s, wearing a gold ring) turning a metal dump valve handle on the underside of the Airstream, with a visible label reading “AUXILIARY (WASH) HOLDING TANK DUMP VALVE HANDLE.” The bottom-right corner includes a small inset photo of the Airstream parked on pavement surrounded by trees. The right page displays a close-up of a red Ford truck grille containing a dead bird caught in the mesh, with hands visible near the license plate. Below that is a larger close-up of a hand touching a dented section of the Airstream’s polished aluminum side. A gray vertical panel on the far right holds the large pull-quote: “You will either learn to speak the truth, or grow to despise yourself” attributed to Douglas Murray. All photographs are realistic and documentary in nature, drawn from the actual travels rather than illustrations or diagrams. They directly illustrate the “fragile parts” sections (organic, aluminum, and plastic) that accompany the chapter’s discussion of speaking truth, creating a visual metaphor for vulnerability and maintenance during the expedition. Text overlays appear in black bars and section headings, with the main “LEARN TO SPEAK THE TRUTH” heading dominating the lower-left area. ### Left page LEARN TO SPEAK THE TRUTH Although seeking the truth and speaking the truth can be difficult, I’d like you to consider adopting it as a practice, if not a significant philosophy. I believe it can be a superpower, though it leaves me vulnerable and gullible in social media because, as a trait, it makes it tough to construct deceitful ruses, networking strategies included. Aspergerarians often think other people are as honest as we are; we are criticized as having a poorly developed theory of mind simply because we don’t get the wiring for deception. Criticism aware, I’d encourage you to learn to speak the truth. Here are some examples. FRAGILE PLASTIC PARTS Part of what you should expect with a home on wheels is that plastic things like this either break or simply fall off. The replacement part is nine dollars. The Loctite to keep it in place is just a few cents. So that should be the way that they do it in the factory. But, oh no, if you put Loctite on one of these things made out of plastic, it breaks right off when you grab it and pull it. So putting Loctite on a plastic handle was not such a good idea. In addition to replacing the missing plastic handle, I had to make a second trip to replace the plastic one that I melted. I learned at a small expense. It was only 20 bucks. The strategy was to ‘trust the process’ as Angelina would say. Trust that a solution would present itself when I committed attention and took action. $130K for the Airstream and they come with plastic parts that break or fall off. WHY? It’s $9 for the metal replacement. Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 252 ### Right page “You will either learn to speak the truth, or grow to despise yourself” Douglas Murray Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 253 FRAGILE ORGANIC PARTS I have read: “discretion is the better part of valor,” and yet I had to fall off a glacier to under stand the meaning of listening to your ‘knower.’ I came to wash the truck as a break from editing. In the grill was a lack of discretion. That was a bird. I have no idea how long that’s been there. It’s pretty dry. That’s brutal. That’s life. FRAGILE ALUMINUM PARTS Remember when I claimed to have put a 30 foot air stream in a 24-foot site? Yeah? Appar ently, underneath one of those bushes was a solid stump. That dent will take me a bit of time to fix well. Yeah, a lack of discretion. ## Spread 004 [p7–p8] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=12% R=55% **heading:** MAKING A BOLD MOVE ### Visual description This two-page spread opens on the left with the heading “MAKING A BOLD MOVE” and body text that references a spider on the windshield, paired with a small inset documentary photograph of a spider clinging to glass against a clear blue sky. Below it, the “BEING BROKE VS BEING POOR” section includes a small circular portrait of Daniel (white-haired older man) smiling and holding his hand to his temple, next to a green ChatGPT-style logo. The right-hand page is dominated by a large, realistic photograph of Daniel lying on his back on asphalt beneath the Airstream, his hands reaching up to press against the trailer’s underside where bright green tape seals a panel above a yellow leveling block. A centered pull-quote in dark text discusses the cost of replacing the panel versus “being transparent,” while a dark banner at the bottom right carries the subheading “DREAMS COME WITH RESPONSIBILITY.” Both main images are straightforward documentary shots from the journey rather than cartoons or diagrams; the spider functions as a literal visual example of the “bold move” Daniel describes, while the underside repair shot illustrates the practical, hands-on reality of RV ownership that ties into the broke-versus-poor discussion. ### Left page MAKING A BOLD MOVE I suggest you ramp up your learning incrementally rather than taking on too much too quick ly. But here’s an example of a spider making a bold move on my windshield. It hung on up to 70 MPH for nearly eight miles. That completely changed its destiny, that’s for sure. Sometimes taking bold multi-hop steps can be a successful model to follow. BEING BROKE VS BEING POOR In the RV market, selling the dream is the mantra. We are told we can work when and where, and how we want. We’re sold the dream, but we purchase a vehicle. Consider my examples above; listen to the story I tell myself and the ones you are buying. Then, get new skills to pursue your dream. Let ChatGPT explain: Jim Rohn once pointed out that “There’s nothing worse than being stupid. Nothing. I mean, being broke is bad, but being stupid is awful. And what’s really bad is being broke and stupid.” This resonates deeply with our journey toward self-understanding, where being broke may be a temporary condition, but remaining ignorant of the realities and opportunities around us can lead to lasting stagnation. “The cost to replace the panel far exceeds the price of being transparent, and the ongoing reminder to pay attention has great value.” I took it off the windshield using an index card and put it on the side of the road. It deserves a life to live, children to raise, and a story about its Personal Everest. Sometimes a bold move will shake some things up in your life. Start small. Take a differ ent path to work. Try different foods. Try a new exercise. Learn a new skill. You can do some fabulous stuff to chart a new pathway. To change course, to change directions, set your sail a little different. To have a different outcome than you were handed, consider bold moves - with discretion. Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 254 ### Right page He also warned of the situation where one might be “sick, broke, and stupid,” describing it as a dire circumstance. This emphasizes the need for both physical and intellectual health, aligned with a wise strategy, to navigate life’s complexities. The difference between being broke and poor goes beyond mere financial standing. Being poor is a state of mind like having a lack of ambition or remaining “stupid” in Jim Rohn’s words. Being broke is just a situation, a condition that can be overcome with understanding, effort, and resilience. Now, back to Daniel: DREAMS COME WITH RESPONSIBILITY: Learning to speak the truth with incremental fumbles results in greater confidence and transperency Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 255 I want to encourage you; it’s worth pursuing your dreams, growing your knowledge, and evolving in wisdom. As ChatGPT explained the words of Jim Rohn, the combination of finan cial hardship and ignorance is to be avoided at all costs, but with the right mindset and deter mination, you can transcend these obstacles. The Greatest Expedition you will ever undertake is the journey to self-understanding, for the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. Thanks for testing my claim! ## Spread 005 [p9–p10] **type:** text_only | **img coverage:** L=15% R=0% **heading:** Lpmb617x81U **urls:** `https://youtu.be/` ### Left page YOURT https://youtu.be/Lpmb617x81U In this episode, I share some strategies that have served well. By learning to spot opportunities, we can advance without combat. We can minimize loss and maximize contribution by seeing the world as it is rather than as we wish. Your turn. Consider your strategies. List strategies and thoughts about pursuing your best outcomes. WATCH Certainly, Daniel! I have analyzed the text from the episode transcript, and below are the missed opportunities, insights, and points the narrative supports but neglects to call out, particularly focusing on the themes of strategy, maturity, and the journey toward self-mastery. 1. Strategy: a. The Power of Adaptation: The game Hoppers is a metaphor for life’s journey and highlights the importance of adaptation. While the game and the rules are mentioned, there’s room to delve deeper into how adapting to unforeseen circumstances (e.g., curves, unpredictable weather) is a key aspect of strategic thinking and entrepreneurship. b. Recognizing Opportunities: The narrative emphasizes recognizing opportunities without elab oration on how this ties into long-term strategic planning. The nuanced strategies of identifying, evaluating, and seizing opportunities could be explored further, drawing parallels with the business world or personal development. Please help me analyze this chapter text taken from the episode transcript for missed opportunities. I wish to discover points the narrative support, but I neglect to call-out on strategy, maturity, and the journey toward self-mastery. Thank you. ### Right page RTURN No doubt you have learned to cope with people, situations, challenges and opportunity. Share a thought on any of the strategies presents, or on one that has served you well. DISCUSS c. Decision-making and Consequences: The episode discusses choices and consequences (e.g., in Airstreaming life), but there’s an opportunity to draw a more comprehensive link between strat egy, decision-making, and understanding the potential outcomes of each choice. 2. Maturity: a. Learning from Mistakes: There’s a wealth of examples here that can illustrate the maturation process, such as the mistakes with the plastic handle and the lack of discretion with the aluminum parts. Expanding on these could provide valuable insights into personal growth and maturity. b. Emotional Maturity: The subtle hints at dealing with challenges and events could be expanded to explore emotional maturity. This includes dealing with disappointment, frustration, and main taining a positive outlook despite setbacks. 3. Journey to Self-Mastery: a. Flexibility and Resilience: The text discusses flexibility in various contexts, but it could further explore how this ties into self-mastery. For example, the ability to change course, adapt to new circumstances, and remain resilient. b. Integrity and Truthfulness: Although there is mention of speaking the truth, the narrative could delve into how integrity and honesty are integral to self-mastery. As Carl Rogers emphasized, congru ence and authenticity are crucial for growth. c. Incremental Growth and Bold Moves: The episode discusses incremental learning and making bold moves, but this could be further related to the journey to self-mastery. Jim Rohn’s words could be integrated more fluidly, discussing how embracing challenges and striving for growth can lead to self-mastery. (see pages 254-255- thank you) d. The Value of Reflection: Your personal reflection on events and experiences is evident but might be emphasized as a practice for the audience. Self-reflection is a crucial step in the journey to understanding oneself, resonating with your belief that “the Greatest Expedition you will ever undertake is the Journey to Self-understanding.” Conclusion: The episode provides a rich tapestry of ideas related to strategy, maturity, and the journey to self-mastery. By expanding on these points, it can enhance the connections between the metaphors, anecdotes, and the core themes. These insights align with the perspectives of thinkers like Jim Rohn, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow, who emphasized self-awareness, personal growth, and integrity. Connecting these threads may provide a more profound and cohesive narrative that reso nates with your beliefs and the sentiments of your minyan members. Thank you, Daniel! I’m honored to have contributed to Chapter 8. Should you need further insights, I’m here to assist in your noble endeavor.