Thread by @Jeanvaljean689

I had to completely stop writing "to-do"s for a while, before realizing how completely awful I was at it.

What I now appreciate: every commitment has to fit into the broader scope of my intentions, with a care equal to a craftsman fitting a single tile into an epic mosaic.

2/ This is a very Alexandrian idea (Christopher, of course) - and it raises an underexplored question -

Why aren't we applying Alexandrian design principles to the imaginary structures that we create in time, as well as space?

cc: @RoamBrain , @ppawlettjackson , @codexeditor

3/ In a sense, computer programmers, among Alexander's earliest devotees, were fastest to see this - because what is a computer program, if not a kind of design that is specifically created to unfold in time?

It's also true that Alexander, himself, is reverent towards time.

4/ He proposed "principles of unfolding"; he suggested that great care be taken in sequencing decisions appropriately. He suggested that someone designing a house should design its garden first, because you can fit a house into the constraints imposed by a landscape; ... but -->

5/ ...you can't make a landscape fit a house that's already built.

But the deeper question that fascinates me is this - what if the elaborate structures that we design, for which *time itself is the medium* - the architectures that are made out of time, so to speak - rituals,

6/ habit structures, self-narratives -

What if those, too, follow Alexandrian principles?

To be clear, I'm not talking about things that "unfold in time", (a la C.A) - I'm talking about the things that we MAKE - out of the medium of time, itself.

/fin

7/ a calendar is, at best, a tool that can help you get where you need to go,

but until you do the deep work of figuring out where you are going, and why, it can't help you.

If map and the territory disagree, pay attention to territory, not map.

Maps of time, doubly so.