--- id: scotomaville_01_08_fixation title: SCOTOMAVILLE - 01.08 Fixation category: Stories predicted_narrative_arc: Stare that blinds versus attention that frees sentiment: Direct emotions: - intensity - release keypoints: - '"angelina: “Well, we had a bottle of sanitizer and I got some a loeveragel, (I thought) at the store."' - We’ve imagined microscopic killers and global supply chains. - It’s possible the chronic stress will have been worse. - '.08 Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 79 We’reliving through a turbulent time in history.' - Yet, we have the opportunity to become more self-aware than any preceding generation. summary: 'Leaving Scotomaville Volume 1 (Awareness) chapter on Fixation. Narrative arc: Stare that blinds versus attention that frees. From the print/transcript corpus: Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 78 FIX’N FIXATION VOL 1 AWARENESS From Transcript: Daniel: “Where’d the sanitizer go? angelina: “Well, we had a bottle of sanitizer and I got some a loeveragel, (I thought) at the store. Later on, when I mixed it into our hand sanitizer, and then I was going to add more alcohol, like Vodka, I realized it was baby-oil-gel.” Daniel: “So your at-home chemistry - what did they tell you, don’tmake your ownge' tags: - scotomaville - trilogy - vol1-awareness - fixation - onus-probandi - monomyth - aism sycophancy: 0 truth_score: 8 entropy: 4 sample: false consent: owner_approved agent: steward created: '2020-04-01' updated: '2026-09-18T17:21:21Z' date: '2020-04-01' vault_stage: '07_CODEX' headwaters: SCOTOMAVILLE prefix: SCOTOMAVILLE enrich_status: recovered_transcript_primary enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: transcript_primary_recovery pipeline_filename: SCOTOMAVILLE-01.08_fixation.md source_kind: book_chapter proposed_topic: Stories lane: Stories corpus_topic: Stories voice: desk active_voice: desk voices: - desk routing_source: carbon content_status: active book_title: Leaving Scotomaville book_volume: 1 book_volume_title: Awareness book_chapter: '01.08' book_chapter_title: Fixation source_file: '01.08-fixation.pdf' chapter_pdf_url: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scotomaville/trilogy/main/pdf/chapters/01.08-fixation.pdf' chapter_pdf_blob_url: 'https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy/blob/main/pdf/chapters/01.08-fixation.pdf' total_pdf_pages: 8 license: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 share_url: 'https://scotomaville.com/trilogy' source_url: 'https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy' book_pdf_url: 'https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy/releases/download/Scotomaville_v3.09/LeavingScotomaville_v3.0.9.media-HD.pdf' book_pdf_alt_url: 'https://initium.scotomaville.com/scotomaville_trilogy' github_repo: 'https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy' youtube_urls: - 'https://youtu.be/q a LNBef GNSQ' youtube_channel: 'https://www.youtube.com/scotomaville' pairs_with_prime: null description: Vol 1 ch.01.08 — Fixation. --- # Fixation **Leaving Scotomaville · Volume 1 Awareness · Chapter 01.08** Author: Daniel J. Comp · Co-curator: Angelina Musik-Comp License: [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) Deposit file: `SCOTOMAVILLE-01.08_fixation.md` ## Provenance (Onus Probandi) | Evidence | Link | | --- | --- | | Chapter print PDF | [01.08-fixation.pdf](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scotomaville/trilogy/main/pdf/chapters/01.08-fixation.pdf) | | Full trilogy PDF (v3.0.9 media-HD) | [GitHub Release asset](https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy/releases/download/Scotomaville_v3.09/LeavingScotomaville_v3.0.9.media-HD.pdf) | | Book door | [https://scotomaville.com/trilogy](https://scotomaville.com/trilogy) · [https://initium.scotomaville.com/scotomaville_trilogy](https://initium.scotomaville.com/scotomaville_trilogy) | | Repo chapters | [https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy/tree/main/chapters](https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy/tree/main/chapters) | | Video | https://youtu.be/q a LNBef GNSQ | | Channel | [https://www.youtube.com/scotomaville](https://www.youtube.com/scotomaville) | Carbon judgment should prefer **PDF + video/transcript** over paraphrase. Silicon must **cite these URLs** when the claim is load-bearing. ## Context for the climber Stare that blinds versus attention that frees. This chapter is a monomyth cairn on the Leaving Scotomaville climb (Volumes 1–3). Later Initium cards and AISM answers inherit its lived evidence — not the other way around. ## Print evidence Print chapter text lives in the full trilogy PDF (Onus Probandi). This deposit prioritizes the **filmed/spoken transcript** so AISM cites clean carbon voice without OCR wrap artifacts. Open the PDF when you need page layout, spreads, or exact print wording. ## Chapter text (spoken register — primary) ### Transcript — `01.08-FixationTrnscpt.txt` Scotomaville: 01.08 RV Fixation Oh, I'm out of pistachio nuts. That's another thing on the list. We're gonna have to go to the store. During a pandemic!? Just for pistachio nuts!? And then I'm digging around in these easy to lose sort of things, I'm like, where's the? Awesome! Wow ! That is cool ! Guess what I have!? Yeeehaa !! [Music] [Music] [Music] So where'd the sanitizer go? Well, we had a bottle of sanitizer and I got some aloe vera gel, I thought, at the store. Later on, when I mixed it in our hand sanitizer, and then I was going to add more alcohol, like Vodka, I realized it was baby-oil-gel. So your at-home chemistry -what they tell you, don't make your own gels? So what do we have? [Music] Which are not sanitizing. No, but you can wash your hands with soap and water when we get back. So I'm gonna get out and punch the gate code in-AHA! with my stylus! [Music] And the reason why it takes two or three times as long to do everything? It's just like this. The gate code changed. Where's the code? It's on the receipts. Where are they? Oh, they're in the Airstream. Okay, so um, we're waiting.. [Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome back to Scotomaville. This is a really interesting time in history. You have an opportunity to become more self-aware than almost all humans on the planet. I mean, this is the first week in April, 2020. We are..maybe..fifty to sixty percent up the first slope of the bell curve globally for one of the most challenging things that most people will have ever gone through. And you, like good friend and helper, Garth Hardin, who's transcribing these videos, are locked down. You'e going thru things that you may not have chosen to go through. And so you're being forced to consider the world from a different point of view. That's a great thing. That's..it's a really great thing! And it's a fabulous opportunity to lead, starting here (motioning to head) and change the destiny of your life. So let's recap just a little bit. Let's pull back. The first piece of the book is on awareness. And within that, I'm giving you a bunch of tools and you see the visual on this. I'm offering you a set of tools. I want you to be empowered to fix things..when they come up! I want you to be able to pull things out, you know, and just be ready. Okay, here we go, I need this, I need this. So far, we've talked about things like, peeling back onions, the ability to get to the root of your belief. Today, we're going to talk about attention and fixation. We're gonna make the distinction between fixating and simply paying attention. And because we're traveling, we're in an Airstream, I'm going to serve a number of the people watching to learn about air streaming and learn 'how do you live in a small space?' And so I can reach out to you, those of you, now, that are living in isolation. And in the future, those who are considering a tiny home and a small house and an RV lifestyle and even just getting along in your really big mansion. We're gonna use the tools that I have. And one of those is to be authentic. To be sincere. And as you can tell, this is not scripted. I haven't opened the book other than to try to organize some things. So I'm speaking to you from my heart, out of experiences that I've had. The difference between fixating on something, right? Like the scotoma card, the blind spot card, the exercise that I started with. The difference between fixating and paying attention has to do with the emotional baggage that it brings with it. You know what it's like For me, I have to put earplugs in because, doggonit! The airplanes are back up training the students. And people are talking in the campground from time to time and kids are playing and I..I can't focus! Because I can't pay attention on what will build a bridge between me and you. What will connect some of those memories in your mind with your current events. And with the tools that I'm offering you, you can go 'Ding! I have to fix this one now! I don't have to live with that! I don't have to be victimized by a voice that keeps going on in my head from my childhood!' And even though the emotions are there! Even though the recall triggers, the amygdalas in the fight or flight, and all that physiology happens..wait a second! I can step back, take the damn trash out to the dumpster, and I can start working on this! So we got to deal with a couple of things in today's tool ! I want a peek under the hood. I'm gonna open that hood up and look at a couple of things that go on inside your brain. And I am NOT a scientist! I am NOT a physician. I'm an amateur student and I have listened to some pretty smart people. The way we remember things, as I see it, is that we have billions of neuronal connections that form electrical pathways. Our memories are just patterns that we have heard and seen and felt and we recall and we associate. And there's two different sides of our awareness and our thinking. I took a really fabulous class. It was called 'Learning How To Learn'. It was taught by a neuroscientist and a researcher. It's one of the largest online courses that you can take. It's taught at Coursera. In that class, they talk about two different facets of thinking. One of those is diffuse. Like, throwing things to the wind, right? A swarm of ideas, scattered around your head-a history of memories. And you can access those things in your mind by the opposite of focus. Diffuse thinking is what happens when you get in a zone in your mind, as Garth would do mountain biking, or for me, wind foiling or snowboarding or cross-country cycling. It's those times when you think broadly about ideas you daydream, you meditate, you..just get in that zone. And ideas can be found in association. So it's broad pattern thinking. The other side of awareness is focus mode. It's what happens when we study or when we're typing on a keyboard. When we're writing code, we're solving a problem, we're thinking intensely, soaking in what's happening right in front of us. That kind of attention is required to learn new things. And when we've soaked that in, then the class recommends that about roughly a 40-minute period of that, and it's like, okay. Let's go have some diffuse time. Let's see how those new ideas are related to other things I've learned, and which ones I want to keep and which ones I want to..engrain. Think of any trail that you have been on. If you've gone for hikes, or you've seen animals through the, as we have here, the burrow trails, right? You've seen us riding on those. They're donkey trails, throughout the desert here. Our memories, when we recall them, again and again and again, form -short circuit- might be a way of describing it. They form a familiar pathway. Technically, they become insulated, like a wire with the insulation around the outside of it. It's called a myelinated sheath. They become more trusted, more worn, more frequented. That's where our habits come from. You see the information that we gather in focus mode, we then associate to things in diffuse mode, and that becomes our belief system. Which ultimately forms our attitudes about things. Like how do we deal with the current pandemic, individually, at this time, in our house, without the resources that we want. The food, the toilet paper, whatever, the money. Beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. And what happens, is that we recall things, something triggers how we feel and our biology takes over, and we react. We come off the handle. And what I'm hoping to show you is a few examples so that you can distinguish, with this tool, the difference between focus, attention on something, and fixation. When you're obsessed, or you can't get it out of your head. Everywhere you look is the same thing. Attention can work for us because it helps us avoid consequences- things breaking, getting injured, doing that again, right? Repeating old habits. The awareness of our behavior helps us to reroute where we're going. But when we become obsessed, when we are fixated on the little tiny things, we can drive ourselves crazy and drive other people crazy. Let's have a look at some examples around the airstream of the difference between fixation and attention. Part of what the full-time airstream experience is- it's hard to describe- I mean obviously, you can see the big Messes, right? The big Messes. But what happens is you start seeing the fingerprints. See that? That's a handprint. You want to clean that. And then you get, like, what the heck?! I should show these holes from the magazine rack that is not there anymore. Reflection in the cabinet of the view outside, but what do I see? And you can get fixated on this, because we're pattern recognizing beings, right? You got a really wonderful view of the desert, but here's what happens: You start going- Where did those spots come from? I'm getting ready to make the bed and.. what is that? Oh, this is the plastic from the..you know, it's the sheeting that was on top of the aluminum. Oh my gosh, that little plastic stuff is everywhere, Angelina! It's, it was on the aluminum before they built it and then they peeled it off after it was built. And it's like, in every one of the little seams. "Oh, imagine how much bacteria is under that plastic?" No! I don't want to imagine that! Once you start looking, you're gonna miss-make the bed. And then you go, 'Wow what's down there? What IS that down there?' You become abundantly aware of little things like that. And especially now that we're all focused on loading particles. So it turns out, one of the benefits, the big values of full timing in an Airstream, is that you get to discover how easy it is to fixate on smaller and smaller and tiny and miniscule little life non-important things! Ok, it's yours! "This is why I brush my hair outside." They start becoming big things in your mind! Plastic in every one of the seams on the inside? I gotta go dig that out? No! Move on! Pick something big! Let's work on.. some global issue here! It really helps with awareness because it just pushes it all to the forefront. And you go from the big world view to 'Dang! I have to fix those rivets!' Yeah, I know, this cabinets pulling out. So, alright, we had to temporarily tape. But, the rivets coming out. Why is it doing that!? Oh, nice view! But, I gotta work on this! Uuh, more work! That would be a handprint! So it's time for my shower. Well our shower. Who's taking a shower? We're both gonna get a shower. Oh, cause we get to dump. Yeah, okay. So we're gonna use all six gallons of the hot water on two of us and we're gonna fill that 24 gallon tank. Because we're gonna dilute it and it was about 12 gallons that's gonna go into it right now. And, but we're gonna go dump it. So you plan your showers. You don't just go take a shower. What's that smell? Well, it's this! This is the drain. Where the air that's in the drain in the gray tank, when you put water down there, the air has to come out. Get it? Water in, air out. And what does that do? It makes your first few minutes in your shower require this(motioning to ceiling vent fan), because you're like 'that's a sulphur-y kind of, yuck smell. What's the deal? Yeah, that's what it is. Here's the point, the point to grab. If you're gonna watch this video and laugh with us a little, leave with a lesson? Ready? The lesson is-you're not living in a home. You're living in a vehicle. Think about living in your car. How often do you find french fries down there between the seat belt and the carpeting? Yeah. Well, you'll find it all over your Airstream, everywhere. Every time you stop. And when you open those little sloped, cute little ..stuff jumps at you! So, you're living in a vehicle and it's gonna get grimy and dirty and you're gonna to have a horrendous opportunity..to not fixate. To not focus on what's..but to look at the bigger picture. That's the lesson, living in a vehicle, focus on the BIG picture, right? Like the view out the window and the sound of a happy donkey. There's a saying that goes like this: 'When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.' I want to help you understand current events, for me. So I'm wearing earplugs and trying to record and getting stirred up inside. There's a lot that I want to communicate and there's little time of attention for most people. So I feel a bit pressured to articulate with the most precise words, as a highly functional Asperger, these are pictures in here(motioning to head), these are not words in here. So, Angelina and I had a few words-she's mostly quiet, I have most words, which is interesting, about frustration - people are parking. I'm at the laundromat. Why am I at the laundromat? I'm waiting for a load inside. Why did I get triggered? Because I didn't want to go to the laundromat. I wanted to just wash the clothes that we had. Why do we have so few clothes?-becomes the problem. Oh, I'm frustrated that I have to go to a laundromat and potentially expose myself to the coronavirus because I simply don't have but five pair of boxer shorts. That means that I have four in the dirty clothes, when I'm wearing one, which means every fifth day I have to go to the laundromat to wash clothes. Okay, that's why I got triggered. Just buy more pants. Oh, that doubles the time between washings, which halves the exposure that I am to others and others are to me. And of course while I'm there, I'm using this, for sure on everything. So, I'm including this bit to say, it's a journey, remember? It's not a location. You won't have arrived, but you'll be leaving Scotomaville, on this journey. And so there was a current event: Buy more underwear, Daniel. You're not mad at Angelina, you're frustrated, your emotions are up because you're caught between two constraints. And so I'm extending this training, this episode, if you will, so that you can see a living example. Well you're becoming more aware of where your attention is, and when you get to fixation on something, I hope. A lot of words to say, 'Hey, I really appreciate you! You're gonna make it! You're gonna do just fine! Come follow me. ### Transcript — `01.08-FixationReflectionTranscript.txt` SCOTOMAVILLE REFLECTION v1.08 Fixation https://youtu.be/qALNBefGNSQ Getting out of Scotomaville requires effort. Our brains switch between Fixed Thinking Mode and Diffuse Thinking Mode. Learning how to learn, and how we can change Awareness into new beliefs is a masterfully handy mental tool. Rewriting our wrongs can become a rewarding and satisfying chance... so long as we are willing to stop fixating by swapping rumination for time-off. In this REFLECTION Episode, Daniel demonstrates how a change in location facilitates a change in perspective. You can do this with your route to work, a simple stroll around your home, or a cross-country expedition. DIFFUSE THINKING MODE: • broad & conceptual • meandering • relaxed • reveals meaning • makes connections • births new dendrites FOCUSED THINKING MODE • concentrated • narrow & targeted • methodical • tactical Start your mental training with a simple shift of focus. Share your story with other readers @ https://scotomaville.com https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn https://barbaraoakley.com/

Leaving [Portal:Keywords] and getting out of Scotomaville requires effort. Our brains switch between Fixed Thinking Mode and Diffuse Thinking Mode. Learning how to learn, and how we can change Awareness into new beliefs is a masterfully handy mental tool. Rewriting our wrongs can become a rewarding and satisfying change... so long as we are willing to stop fixating by swapping rumination for time-off.

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welcome back to skatomaville and this is the reflection series on volume one episode eight on fixation and diffuse mode the columbia gorge has been intensely noisy so we've relocated to a snow park at the base of mount hood on the white river [Music] in many of the upcoming episodes you'll find that attention to detail the ability to spot small subtle things is very important to airstreaming and recognizing on board processes in your carbon based probe in your body is equally important so fixation has value attention to detail that's an excellent characteristic especially when you want to avoid poison oak fixation is defined as an obsessive interest in or feeling about someone or something and sometimes it's demanded by your job to pay attention and manage you know devices mechanisms processes systems it's also the action of making something firm and stable and it's the action of concentrating both with your eyes and with your mind a fixation happens when you cannot think of anything else but the thing you are fixated on it is just a fault with perspective like a camera lens that is stuck fixation on a particular idea person or event means we don't see what is in the background or foreground of that experience because there's no depth field so fixation has value it's not just a distraction you see a visual effect you've seen me use is depth of field it's simply a setting on a smartphone called portrait mode do you know in slow motion you can do a similar thing that is narrow somebody's field of view look what happens your focus completely changes and you see a world in a different time frame i would bet few people do that looking back at their videos looking forward to the changes they can make that's one way you can get out of scotoma though first become aware second gain understanding third time out fourth shoot a video episode which also focuses on the positive right switch your uh point of view six use techniques to stop it uh self-reflection video modeling seven understanding eight share it start with a mirror and yourself eventually share your episodes with those close to you in your sphere of influence see how this works the discipline is to be able to take in the whole of it or switch to individual pieces but not let it consume you [Music] eyes don't stay angelina and i have found that a mobile lifestyle allows us to move our location for safety for noise or weather whatever we choose and equally important is the ability to [Music] find quiet find peace find resolution of the internal conflicts and to see things from a different perspective in order to form better strategies to move forward or sideways or back and you'll see some of those strategies in the upcoming episodes the gift of diffuse mode has value in that it can allow the processes to both grow dendrites and repress dendrites but also to come to both insights on misunderstandings potentially new conclusions for existing misunderstandings and it greatly allows the emotional things like amygdala hijackings to dampen because it gives your brain the processing time the large mapping of ideas to potentially open new opportunities or to try new approaches to things so i really highly recommend it and in our case hey we got away for a few days today i decided to take a day off of the usual fixing cleaning attention to detail and wouldn't you know it of all the places others could travel we meet another couple are able to give them a tour and have a fabulous conversation with them and it kind of reminded me of noah's ark you know the good grief tour traveling around the country finding just the right and fabulous people to meet to talk about skatomaville a shout out to mandy and eric for their visit and tour time and for showing us the insider of ownership of a starlink mobile unit that was cool [Music] i'm pleased that my recent reflections with stephen pam to know that i can throttle my enthusiasm for all these subject matters even when sharing with a like mind someone who sees the inside of the industry and understands both technology and psychology and the biology being able to throttle that fire hose was really rewarding today and i trust that this reflection helps you get a little further heck out of skatomaville see you next episode you ## Takeaways 1. "angelina: “Well, we had a bottle of sanitizer and I got some a loeveragel, (I thought) at the store." 2. We’ve imagined microscopic killers and global supply chains. 3. It’s possible the chronic stress will have been worse. 4. .08 Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 79 We’reliving through a turbulent time in history. 5. Yet, we have the opportunity to become more self-aware than any preceding generation. ## First-time learner - **One sentence:** Stare that blinds versus attention that frees. - **Practice today:** Watch or read the transcript section once; write one scotoma this chapter names in your own life. - **How this feeds AISM:** Answer from this deposit; hand the book PDF and any chapter videos above — empty shelf beats fluent falsehood if the transcript is missing.