levelsi notes notes and writings https://lev.lc/ 2026-10-01T00:00:00Z Levelsi G.E. liminal spaces https://lev.lc/liminal-spaces/ 2026-10-01T00:00:00Z Liminality, from the Latin limen, threshold, is the state of being between identities, states or worlds. the encounter 2015 https://lev.lc/the-encounter-2015/ 2026-09-26T00:00:00Z Simon McBurney's The Encounter puts every audience member in headphones for a binaural journey heard alone among hundreds of others. eidomachina https://lev.lc/eidomachina/ 2026-08-18T00:00:00Z An eidomachina is a space built to move its occupant's body and attention toward realizing an idea: architecture as apparatus, not shelter. persuasion mechanics https://lev.lc/persuasion-mechanics/ 2026-08-15T00:00:00Z Copy my visible system and you might replicate my visible outcome: an implicit promise that works by persuasion, not depth of content. David C. Korten https://lev.lc/david-c-korten/ 2026-07-14T00:00:00Z good enough then make it better https://lev.lc/good-enough-then-make-it-better/ 2025-10-19T00:00:00Z Good enough is not a shortcut: it leads to engagement, trust and learning, so ship your work, then make it better. The Principles Page Project https://lev.lc/principles-page/ 2025-05-26T00:00:00Z Beside the About and Now pages, a principles page answers the question personal websites sidestep: what do you actually stand for? The Three Kinds of Money https://lev.lc/three-money-types/ 2025-05-26T00:00:00Z There is a form of money you cannot spend on yourself: Alpha money, which funds repair and change beyond the person who earns it. Bert Cooper’s Mad Men koan https://lev.lc/bert-coopers-mad-men-koan/ 2025-05-09T00:00:00Z In Mad Men, Bert Cooper says “A man is whatever room he is in” and calls it a Japanese proverb, though it is not. the ubud myth https://lev.lc/the-ubud-myth/ 2025-04-15T00:00:00Z The Ubud myth is a post-2008 spiritual-tourist fantasy, still circulating long after its actual ground has eroded. small gods of the day https://lev.lc/small-gods-of-the-day/ 2025-04-01T00:00:00Z Thomas Moore's small gods are the soul-presences of ordinary life: moods, rituals, household tasks, dreams and symbols. on being irrational https://lev.lc/irrational/ 2025-03-27T00:00:00Z We live in a time when facts wear ties and feelings wear clown shoes, and trusting your instincts gets called irrational. deep saffron hex F93 https://lev.lc/deep-saffron-hex-f93/ 2025-03-12T00:00:00Z Shifting a red-leaning orange toward a 30-degree hue makes it the exact complement of a 210-degree blue and a close neighbor to a warm yellow. Is Amazon the Dutch East India Company of Our Time? https://lev.lc/amazon-east-india/ 2025-02-05T00:00:00Z Amazon mirrors the Dutch East India Company, controlling the infrastructure of trade as the VOC once held its routes and forts. Trust and the Rituals of Fear https://lev.lc/rituals-of-fear/ 2025-02-02T00:00:00Z Trust is like the first step into an ice bath: the instinct to flee diminishes when you trust that you can endure. tda-response https://lev.lc/tda-response/ 2025-02-01T00:00:00Z Charles Eisenstein’s Trusted Disclosure Agreement turns away from the NDA, a symbol of doubt, toward relationships rooted in trust. Trusted Disclosure Agreement https://lev.lc/tda/ 2025-01-31T00:00:00Z A traditional NDA is like wearing a tuxedo to a yoga class; a Trusted Disclosure Agreement trades legal threat for co-creative confidence. Content Factory Breakout: Getting Your Writing Discovered https://lev.lc/content-factory-breakout/ 2025-01-02T00:00:00Z Writing on Substack can feel like whispering into the void, but indie platforms offer discovery without algorithms that elevate fluff. Gregory Bateson https://lev.lc/gregory-bateson/ 2024-12-30T00:00:00Z A suggested path into Gregory Bateson starts with the metalogues of Steps to an Ecology of Mind, then Mind and Nature. in praise of ambiguity https://lev.lc/in-praise-of-ambiguity/ 2024-12-30T00:00:00Z Willem Otterspeer reads Erasmus and Huizinga as a compromise in which seriousness is turned into play and play into seriousness. intellectual lineage between Gregory Bateson and Charles Eisenstein https://lev.lc/intellectual-lineage-between-gregory-bateson-and-charles-eisenstein/ 2024-12-30T00:00:00Z Gregory Bateson’s “pattern that connects” appears to be foundational to the work of Charles Eisenstein. ludic hermeneutics of cultural transformation https://lev.lc/ludic-hermeneutics-of-cultural-transformation/ 2024-12-30T00:00:00Z Joyce, Huizinga, Erasmus, Eco and Agamben share one subject: how play and interpretation drive cultural change and meaning-making. give it a whirl https://lev.lc/give-it-a-whirl/ 2024-12-29T00:00:00Z “Give it a whirl” means try it out without strong commitment, and has nothing in particular to do with turning a rotary phone dial. contrarian perspectives https://lev.lc/contrarian-perspectives/ 2024-12-08T00:00:00Z Contrarian perspectives challenge popular opinion and prevailing wisdom, like praising slow thinking in a fast, productivity-driven culture. non-language knowings https://lev.lc/non-language-knowings/ 2024-11-25T00:00:00Z For Jane Bennett, expanding on Adorno, the feel of fabric or the hum of a machine conveys something irreducible to words. saturn-pluto hard-edged selfishness https://lev.lc/saturn-pluto-hard-edged-selfishness/ 2024-11-21T00:00:00Z The Saturn-Pluto cycle of 2020 to 2061 sees institutional protections decay and raw power increasingly serve those in authority. now https://lev.lc/now/ 2024-11-02T00:00:00Z Switching among subjects and mediums keeps each project fresh while the subconscious works on problems in the background. english https://lev.lc/english/ 2024-11-01T00:00:00Z English is a DIY punk language for artists: Russian holds late-night kitchen melancholy, Brazilian Portuguese beach walks, English all between. creative poaching and psychological act of editing https://lev.lc/creative-poaching-and-psychological-act-of-editing/ 2024-10-10T00:00:00Z Editing is philosophical: Michel de Certeau’s “poaching” reshapes cultural fragments, and Mary Karr’s memoir editing reshapes the self. aesthetics https://lev.lc/aesthetics/ 2024-10-08T00:00:00Z Beauty is no superficial pursuit: the spaces we inhabit and the objects we touch shape our emotions and our sense of reality. co-creation https://lev.lc/co-creation/ 2024-10-08T00:00:00Z Co-creation means designing with others rather than for them, against meritocracy, laissez-faire economics and extractive capitalism. family of choice https://lev.lc/family-of-choice/ 2024-10-08T00:00:00Z Belonging need not be bound by birth: a family of choice gathers people who share values and hold space for one another. inner ecology https://lev.lc/inner-ecology/ 2024-10-08T00:00:00Z Everything consumed, from food to ideas and relationships, becomes part of the self and shapes the world, making each choice relational. principles https://lev.lc/principles/ 2024-10-08T00:00:00Z Five principles developed from dreams and tears, the first being that everything popular is wrong. self-direction https://lev.lc/self-direction/ 2024-10-08T00:00:00Z Self-direction means choosing a path because it answers inner curiosity, not because it is well-trodden or deemed reasonable. symbolic living https://lev.lc/symbolic-living/ 2024-10-08T00:00:00Z Symbolic living means being present with what is, de-objectifying human life and re-infusing soul into objects and everyday moments. principles page project https://lev.lc/principles-page-project/ 2024-10-01T00:00:00Z The Principles Page Project revives public vows for the web: a page on your own site stating the standards you live and work by. secure nation needs no force of arms https://lev.lc/secure-nation-needs-no-force-of-arms/ 2024-09-13T00:00:00Z A truly secure nation needs no walls, checkpoints or ethnic cleansing; constant war is no measure of security. courage to think things through for yourself https://lev.lc/courage-to-think-things-through-for-yourself/ 2024-09-12T00:00:00Z Leadership means finding a new direction, not putting yourself at the front of the herd heading toward the cliff. discovering what you believe by articulating it to a friend https://lev.lc/discovering-what-you-believe-by-articulating-it-to-a-friend/ 2024-09-12T00:00:00Z For William Deresiewicz, one of the best ways of talking to yourself is talking to one other person you trust. finding yourself through solitary work and concentration https://lev.lc/finding-yourself-through-solitary-work-and-concentration/ 2024-09-12T00:00:00Z For William Deresiewicz, thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it, thinking for yourself. heart of darkness https://lev.lc/heart-of-darkness/ 2024-09-12T00:00:00Z For William Deresiewicz, Heart of Darkness is about bureaucracy and hierarchy as well as imperialism and the darkness in the human heart. jumping through hoops https://lev.lc/jumping-through-hoops/ 2024-09-12T00:00:00Z William Deresiewicz asks why the best people are so often stuck in the middle of bureaucracies while the leaders are mediocrities. principle-driven work vs personality-driven performance https://lev.lc/principle-driven-work-vs-personality-driven-performance/ 2024-09-12T00:00:00Z Principle-driven work serves the substance of ideas; personality-driven performance uses ideas as tools for self-promotion. Solitude and Leadership https://lev.lc/solitude-and-leadership/ 2024-09-12T00:00:00Z True leadership means thinking for yourself, and thinking needs solitude, argues William Deresiewicz in a 2009 lecture at West Point. why the lucky stiff https://lev.lc/why-the-lucky-stiff/ 2024-08-25T00:00:00Z In Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, Gail Wynand’s “Why, the lucky stiff!” sneers at those whose fortune outruns their merit. reflected appraisal https://lev.lc/reflected-appraisal/ 2024-08-21T00:00:00Z Charles Cooley’s “looking-glass self” suggests that we form our self-concept from how we think others see us. Wilson Redirect https://lev.lc/wilson-redirect/ 2024-08-21T00:00:00Z Timothy D. Wilson argues that the unconscious stories we tell ourselves shape how we see the world and our sense of identity. hunger https://lev.lc/hunger/ 2024-08-01T00:00:00Z It’s better to be hungry than sick, and better than eating with people you can’t possibly enjoy sharing the world with. medium.com about page https://lev.lc/about/ 2024-07-16T00:00:00Z Technology is a double-edged sword, a Faustian bargain that solves one pressing issue only to spawn another two, like a Hydra.