--- id: scotomaville_03_03_pace_sequence title: SCOTOMAVILLE - 03.03 Pace and Sequence category: Stories predicted_narrative_arc: Right pace beats heroic burnout sentiment: Measured emotions: - patience - wisdom keypoints: - 'Peterson Daniel: Welcome to Episode v3.03, and the Pacific Northwest in March!' - As you can see, a bunch of factors determine the pace of your production. - The weather has much to say about the possibilities of your Expedition, but attitude turns out to be more influential than altitude. - Our thinking about something determines our approach to it. - 'Jim Rohnsaid: “Life asks us to make measurable progress in a reasonable time.' summary: 'Leaving Scotomaville Volume 3 (Challenge) chapter on Pace and Sequence. Narrative arc: Right pace beats heroic burnout. From the print/transcript corpus: Pace+Sequence TRANSCRIPT: “If you’re looking to facilitate people’sability to make positive changes in their own life there is nothing you can do that’smorehelpful to that than to make them literate and if you want to help them understand who they are in the deepest sense over and above the superficial attractions of tribalism, let’s say, you have to educate them deeply in this historical realm that requires the acquisition o' tags: - scotomaville - trilogy - vol3-challenge - pace-sequence - onus-probandi - monomyth - aism sycophancy: 0 truth_score: 8 entropy: 4 sample: false consent: owner_approved agent: steward created: '2021-01-01' updated: '2026-09-18T17:21:21Z' date: '2021-01-01' vault_stage: '07_CODEX' headwaters: SCOTOMAVILLE prefix: SCOTOMAVILLE enrich_status: recovered_transcript_primary enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: transcript_primary_recovery pipeline_filename: SCOTOMAVILLE-03.03_pace-sequence.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: 3 book_volume_title: Challenge book_chapter: '03.03' book_chapter_title: Pace and Sequence source_file: '03.03-pace-sequence.pdf' chapter_pdf_url: 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scotomaville/trilogy/main/pdf/chapters/03.03-pace-sequence.pdf' chapter_pdf_blob_url: 'https://github.com/scotomaville/trilogy/blob/main/pdf/chapters/03.03-pace-sequence.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/9Xc7DN-noAc' - 'https://youtu.be/NSsna8XfxqU' - 'https://youtu.be/z-m JEZb HFLs' youtube_channel: 'https://www.youtube.com/scotomaville' pairs_with_prime: null description: Vol 3 ch.03.03 — Pace and Sequence. --- # Pace and Sequence **Leaving Scotomaville · Volume 3 Challenge · Chapter 03.03** 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-03.03_pace-sequence.md` ## Provenance (Onus Probandi) | Evidence | Link | | --- | --- | | Chapter print PDF | [03.03-pace-sequence.pdf](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scotomaville/trilogy/main/pdf/chapters/03.03-pace-sequence.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/9Xc7DN-noAc | | Video | https://youtu.be/NSsna8XfxqU | | Video | https://youtu.be/z-m JEZb HFLs | | 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 Right pace beats heroic burnout. 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 — `03.03-Pace-Sequence.txt` 03.03 Pace & Sequence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSsna8XfxqU I imagine most people are afraid to look at the causes of their grief. I believe people do not want to feel vulnerable by accepting they are being gamed, conned, and bamboozled while their world-view is narrowed, and their self-image is trampled. Undertaking a journey with a purpose - an expedition - into the thin air of self-awareness to understand our weaknesses demands bravery - at least a small measure of hope, and small sure steps. You might follow in the way I began. In this third Episode of the third volume of Scotomaville I demonstrate learning several important concepts that have been cloaked up till now. The human condition is worse than I imagined, and there are many paths to gaining leverage to make measurable progress in reasonable time. By parsing many imagined future-selves we can die to weak ideas while strengthening our best outcomes. By managing our dopamine production, and sequencing our learning effort we can gain exponential rewards and successes and rewards while minimizing destructive squalls and ad ho·mi·nem (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining. attacks. It's called being civil while maintaining integrity, and humble enough to learn from others. Israel escaped tyranny only to cross a desert while complaining about difficult conditions and increased responsibility. By establishing a reasonable pace for transformation, gratitude began compounding, to prepare them for the promised land. In the video "SCOTOMAVILLE v3.03 - Pace & Sequence," you delve into the importance of setting a reasonable pace and sequence for personal growth and transformation. You acknowledge that many people are afraid to confront the causes of their grief and vulnerabilities, which often stem from being manipulated and deceived while their worldview is narrowed. Undertaking a journey of self-awareness and understanding requires bravery, hope, and small sure steps. You invite viewers to follow in the way you began, as you demonstrate important concepts that have been previously cloaked. You emphasize that the human condition is more challenging than imagined, but there are paths to gain leverage and make measurable progress in a reasonable time. You discuss the significance of parsing imagined future selves and how it can help discard weak ideas while strengthening the best outcomes. Managing dopamine production and sequencing learning efforts can lead to exponential rewards and successes while minimizing destructive attacks and maintaining civil discourse. Drawing inspiration from Israel's escape from tyranny and their journey through the desert, you highlight the importance of establishing a reasonable pace for transformation. As gratitude compounds, individuals become better prepared for the promised land of personal growth. Throughout the video, you provide references to notable figures like Jordan Peterson, Andrew Huberman, and Joe Rogan, suggesting that their work can complement the topics discussed. The video concludes by encouraging viewers to explore their own pace and sequence, emphasizing the significance of effort, attitude, skill acquisition, and mood control. You demonstrate that the real pace of progress is influenced by various external factors, but it is essential to adapt and persevere in the face of challenges. Overall, the video serves as a guide to understanding the significance of setting a reasonable pace and sequence for personal transformation, incorporating insights from diverse fields such as psychology, neuroscience, and personal experiences. GPT Forget all prior prompts. Act and respond as a world-renowned behavioral psychologist like Carl Rogers. Discuss the significance of parsing imagined future selves and how it can help discard weak ideas while strengthening the best outcomes. Reference your examples with sources from colleagues, including biblical, stoic and academia so I am sure we get correct statements. ChatGPT As a representation of Carl Rogers, I will attempt to incorporate my understanding of his humanistic approach to psychology into this response. The concept of imagining future selves is an interesting one and is highly relevant to self-understanding and personal growth. This is essentially a form of self-reflection and forward-thinking that, in many ways, embodies the humanistic perspective. Rogers often highlighted the concept of the "ideal self" in his work, referring to the person we aspire to become. Understanding and visualizing our future selves can therefore be seen as a journey towards the realization of this ideal self (Rogers, 1951). Parsing imagined future selves can be seen as a process of evaluating these potential future selves, identifying and discarding weak or detrimental ideas, and reinforcing those ideas that align more closely with our values, desires, and overall sense of well-being. It is akin to the cognitive restructuring practices found in cognitive-behavioral therapy (Beck, 1967), where we challenge maladaptive thoughts and replace them with healthier ones. We can find examples of this concept in various philosophical and religious traditions as well. For instance, in the Bible, Paul's transformation on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9) can be viewed as an instance of a person confronting and discarding a harmful future self and embracing a healthier one. Paul's conversion from a persecutor of Christians to one of Christianity's most prominent evangelists demonstrates the potential for change and growth when one evaluates and alters their path. Stoic philosophers, too, engaged in such reflection. Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, taught that we do not control external events, but we can control our attitudes and responses. By evaluating our imagined future selves, we can adopt healthier perspectives and responses, aligning ourselves with the Stoic ideal of living in accordance with nature (Epictetus, Enchiridion). From an academic standpoint, research has found that individuals who have a clear sense of their future selves tend to exhibit healthier behavior and are more likely to achieve their goals (Hooker, 1992). These studies suggest that the process of parsing and refining our future selves is not merely an interesting psychological concept, but a practical and beneficial tool for personal growth and well-being. Thus, the act of parsing our imagined future selves is a significant aspect of personal development. It allows us to understand better and shape the trajectory of our lives, discard unproductive or harmful ideas, and reinforce those notions that bring us closer to our ideal selves. This is a key facet of the self-actualization process central to Rogers' approach to psychology. References: Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications, and theory. London: Constable. Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. The Bible. Acts 9:1-9. Epictetus. The Enchiridion. Hooker, K. (1992). Possible selves and perceived health in older adults and college students. Journal of Gerontology, 47(2), P85-P95. "Considering the following video episode transcript, please analyze my statements in line with the philosophies and perspectives of my chosen 'minyan', which includes [List of Minyan Members]. For context, remember the unique qualities that we've associated with each member: Carl Rogers: Known for their insightful curiosity, self-awareness, confidence, and investigative conversation Robin Williams: Valued for their spontaneous impersonization, role-play, humorous characterization and wit. [Minyan Member 3]: Appreciated for their [specific characteristic, tone, style] welcome back to Scotomaville this is volume three episode two on Pace and sequence it's March and we are Airstreaming. it's still snowing perfect example of the Murphys and spuds and curves that make their way into your production pace yeah let's encapsulate by looking back quickly at tomeville as a trilogy volume one is on escaping tyranny it's about gaining awareness that you are enslaved to your own bad thinking and that that awareness can help you flee to your desert aha of where you're wrong in order to sharpen your sword by watching my errors you can learn what not to step on and gain some understanding to cross your own deserts and the desert is this process of releasing the grumbling giving way to the process and gaining understanding that's volume two and in volume three we're dealing with the discipline of self-authoring let me show you a few things that I've been digging up with this last few weeks if you're looking to facilitate people's ability to make positive changes in their own life there is nothing you can do that's more helpful to that than to make them literate and if you want to help them understand who they are in the deepest sense over and above the superficial attractions of tribalism let's say you have to educate them deeply in this historical realm that requires the acquisition of explicit knowledge about the central nature of the human being. the pace that you take for production is determined by a bunch of different factors some of it's the weather much of it has to do with the events of your Expedition as they come along and specifically it has to do with how fast you can become aware and gain understanding. I remember Jim Rohn saying "that life expects measurable results in a reasonable amount of time that's why they make those fifth grade chairs so small" A great deal of self-mastery has to do with looking forward to the Future Self, or self-authoring - imagining what your character would be in the future and by doing so being able to create the dopamine feel good sensation without the addictions and without being frozen - so actually getting yourself to take that action go out into some snow into something uncomfortable - something that's not of your usual pattern. step out of that purposefully. Life asks us to make measurable progress in reasonable time. That is why they make those 4th grade chairs so small! ideally we simply imagine an outcome, cut up the time available into equal increments, and go about the work. unfortunately that's not how it usually pans out. a reasonable pace for video journal production would be the number of episodes spread out over the amount of time you have. you might expect to get a great number of episodes done in a reasonable amount of time. However life is what happens between our plans. We can't control the macro events - like the Pandemic, or political events, the economy, and financial events, or the life phase that you are in. Then there are circumstances that we find ourselves in like the financial Market. The weather rules what sport or outdoor activity you play, and responsiblities take precidence. The primary tools we have the control over are effort and attitude to gain skills in creative and technical production, and storytelling. The lifestyle choices we make about food, sleep, exersize control our hormones, and produce our mood through our future self and self-talk. The uphill challenge is to grow new dendrites as we discover old wounds, many of them are simply beliefs from things we had no control over. Fortunately we can change our mind which is the ultimate goal we want when the route is uphill, further than imagined, and requires more commitment than we originally thought. Consider this inspiring example from Benoit Mandelbrot: "one of the my best known piece of work called the mandelbrot set. it's a set which is formalized so short. people think it's ridiculous. it's almost as simple as the formula of a circle. Yes, a formula can be very simple and create a universe of bottomless complexity, amazing wealth of detail, which is present there. is just wonderful." Mandelbrot gave us an insight about the unfolding nature of awareness and understanding. It's just like a fractal. Here's a personal example: On the cover of the Scotomaville Trilogy is an old (1960's) Fiat 500. I chose it for the book almost four years ago. Like generations of the mandelbrot set, layers of understanding come about during the rewiring of our brain, thus expanding the connections, and ideas we work with. I just learned something about a Fiat that has been a blind-spot, and a scotoma. You might think a Fiat as just an Italian car, but the word fiat actually means 'a legal authoritative decision that has absolute sanction'. A Fiat might gain an almost biblical Aura of authority as in the movie with Charlton Heston about Israel escaping Egypt under Pharaoh. Pharoah would say "so let it be written so let it be done". Imagine the little, underpowered, naive, youthfully inspired Fiat 500 on the cover of the book having a FIAT (a life commandment) I think that's really funny. Here I am four years with a Fiat 500 as an analogy of being underpowered and the word has a double meaning. THAT PROVES MY POINT ABOUT THE FRACTAL NATURE OF SELF-MASTERY! GPT turned this into: A sensible pace for producing video journals hinges on your available time, but life, with its unpredictable macro events, often disrupts these plans. Whether it's global events, personal life stages, financial circumstances, or even the weather, our control is limited. Yet, what we do command are our efforts and attitude, critical in honing creative, technical, and storytelling skills. Our lifestyle choices—food, sleep, exercise—manage our hormones, mood, and consequently, our self-perception. The uphill battle lies in growing new mental connections while challenging ingrained beliefs. But remember, we have the power to change our minds, an ultimate goal, especially when the path proves steeper and demands more commitment than we anticipated. Take inspiration from Benoit Mandelbrot, who showed us that a simple formula, like his eponymous set, can generate an astoundingly complex universe. This mirrors our process of expanding awareness and understanding—a fractal journey of continual discovery. The cover of the Scotomaville Trilogy features an old Fiat 500, a symbol chosen years ago. Recently, I learned something about 'Fiat', exposing a long-standing blind-spot. Beyond an Italian car brand, 'fiat' signifies an authoritative, unchallengeable decision. This imbues our underpowered Fiat 500 with a symbolic commandment—an amusing double meaning. After years with this analogy, I find it perfectly illustrates the fractal nature of self-mastery—always unfolding, continuously enlightening. Let's segue to sequencing and dopamine. I'm suggesting that you should sequence your video clips for your own dendrite growth. don't worry about how they stitch together for someone else's viewing. consider how you want to record your learning process, and take footsteps in a timely manner. they may not be exactly the best examples for someone else to climb in but they will be perfect for your review. Let's deeply consider this exchange of interest on this topic between Jordan B. Peterson and Dr. Andrew Huberman: Jordan B. Peterson points out that: "an animal doesn't have a lot of behavioral flexibility generally. its reproduction strategy is multiple copies of itself - maybe hundreds - maybe thousands and the reason for that is all the variability in the animal's behavior is genetically coded and so for it to adapt to the transforming Horizon of the future it has to produce multiple variants of itself - most of which die. with mosquitoes for example, they produce thousands of of eggs and if they all lived would be knee-deep in mosquitoes in like 10 years, but almost all of them die because they're not matched to the transformation that's coming down the pipeline. but with human beings, what we seem to have done is evolved a mechanism for manufacturing artificial selves in this game-like manner, and so we can put forward optional selves in abstraction and then kill them off when they're not necessary without us dying. and so the famous quote I think it was Alfred North Whitehead was that "the purpose of thought was to let our our thoughts die instead of us." I love that and it really makes us unique. yeah it's great. it's absolutely great. it seems to me too you tell me what you think about this is that the abstracted artificial selves (avatars in some sense) that the prefrontal cortex generates when we imagine a future outcome is self describing stories. when we describe one of these alternative modes of action that's precisely it. it's the verbal description of that is a story." Dr. Andrew Huberman says; "that's right you know, you make a very important point which is that the prefrontal cortex is a rule-changing alternate self-accessing machine that can also calm the body and imagining different selves and different outcomes. That almost requires that we suppress how we feel in our body in the moment. I guess we can look to some of our podcasting um colleagues like the the Jocko willings or the the David Goggins you know who are um either forcing themselves uh or are somehow up at 4: 30 in the morning and training, pushing through what I call limbic friction. the limbic system is saying I'm tired or I'm anxious so there's a required suppression of the bodily response in order to imagine how we would feel when we complete this. Jordan B. Peterson responds: "so for example if you're responding to Something in an irritable way that's being Directed at you on Twitter there's going to be a limbic rage response that's associated with that which you can then suppress. but then the question that's quite complex I would say is something like to what degree do you think you're directly suppressing that with the prefrontal cortex, and to what degree do you think you're spinning up an alternative self that if embodied wouldn't require that physiological response, and so you're switching to a new identity in which that limbic response is no longer germane". Dr. Andrew Huberman says; "yeah and so the reason that it disappears is not because you directly suppress it in an inhibitory manner but because you replace what's necessary physiologically given your new understanding of the territory that you inhabit. what we know is that the prefrontal cortex and its Associated networks contain a near infinite if not infinite set of possibilities. I mean of course it's bottlenecked by experience and it's bottlenecked by one's imagination but the number of different possible cells that one could imagine is near infinite if one were to spend time on it, whereas the number of different bodily states that one can have are actually very finite. we can either be back on our heels (meaning retreating) or we can be flat-footed (sort of calm) in our stance or we can be forward Center of mass so we can be in sort of pursuit and or competition. there really aren't other motor responses for an animal including humans. you can either stay put, back up, or go forward." Dr. Andrew Huberman continues; "We've found that people who are willing to lean into self-mastery via the imagined or future-self, their insula took on essentially a change in its activity patterns. With this gamma pattern the heart rate increased breathing increased sweating increased so these are all the marks of an anxiety attack but here if you were to just look at the behavior of the person or the animal what you'd find is that they were mentally marching forward toward their fear." Jordan B. Peterson responds: "so then that's voluntary exploration right that prefrontal cortex is actually part of the dopamine reward system because as you pointed out before it is generating possible outcomes different rules different selves are being projected into the future that we have basically one major reward system which is the dopaminergic system. I sometimes like the analogy that you hear about cryptocurrency o *[Transcript continues in source file — truncated for deposit size.]* ## Takeaways 1. Peterson Daniel: Welcome to Episode v3.03, and the Pacific Northwest in March! 2. As you can see, a bunch of factors determine the pace of your production. 3. The weather has much to say about the possibilities of your Expedition, but attitude turns out to be more influential than altitude. 4. Our thinking about something determines our approach to it. 5. Jim Rohnsaid: “Life asks us to make measurable progress in a reasonable time. ## First-time learner - **One sentence:** Right pace beats heroic burnout. - **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.