“More Step-by-Step user friendly Tutorials PLEASE
” http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=14133 [sidefx.com]
A glimpse into the beginners' mind who has to learn new syntax, new paradigm, new abstract concepts, self-discipline and self-determination.. and handle information scarcity divided by information overload, sit-ups and finding clarity.
Lets, for few brief moments, pretend that there exists, a Monkey who is strapped to the hull of a Quantum Space-cruiser.. called ‘Self-employment’
The Space Monkey.
Monkey - mind you is not your average monkey, but a creature of above average curiosity and below average discipline is strapped (his own choice) to a space ship whose power he could not possibly fathom. Half of an anti-empty cup of chi is accidentally dropped on the control centres' touch-table. Another, nicer, monkey while wiping the liquid of the bio-luminescent display, accidentally touches the launch button… and boom.. the Monkey is propelled at unreal speeds to a mysterious and engaging universe of potential possibilities….
.. now I am .. sorry, the monkey is.. drifting through the depth of interstitial deepness of utterly spacious space. All around are the jewel encrusted 3d networks of stars and galaxies = clusters of churning info nodes and juicy Yata! experiences.
The Monkey has very little chance of getting his bearings in all this vastness so he propels himself to the stars clusters to see if there is anyone there who can help him. Eventually, after learning to talk the talk a little, he finds advice he seeks and realises that scattered disparately throughout the vastness of deep space are countless being who can help him. If only he had the energy and time to see them all.
With the protective spacesuit of self-control, support and guidance from his new friends, and shimmering fragmented space-map our clueless hero gravitates towards new constellations of learning. But a feeling of sadness suddenly befalls Monkey – he is overwhelmed by information and starved of quality and wishes someone would break things down for him, so he could take responsibility for his own adventure by getting to grips with some raw, fundamental basic laws of the universe he now finds himself in.
While taking a small, and much need break from all the floating around, Monkey remembers a story his grand grand father told him on the photonic disc about a old, actually ancient, timeless .. basically not very new at all, kung fu legend called ‘The One who knew he did not know’.
The One who knew he did not know…
Once upon a never time, an esoteric warrior squintillions of universes ago searched for incalculable aeons, battled dragons and subdued all sorts of energies just to have the chance meet the Dude. After being bruised and battered from all the trials and tribulations, having learned trillions of languages, dialects and modes of expression; having gone astray, been misled, been given incomplete information, the esoteric warrior collapsed at the foot of astronomically high mountain.
Scraping himself onto the first step of the stone-hot ladder he could at long last breathe a sigh of relief. At the end of that non-linear morphing ladder lies the Throne which the Dude affectionately referred to as that which can ‘actualize anything you visualize’. Thus, laying there.. worn out clothes..unshaven, but happy, he finally realized that his epic journey was, in fact, quite worth it in the end, even if he was obviously still far from reaching his aim of manifesting his dreams.
No one really knows how far he went up that ladder, or even if at all. It is told, however, that he called for help, asking to be shown the super secret technique of the Efficient Way of Learning. For its is only when he has mastered this most special technique could he hope to achieve his ultimate goal – Freestyle technique-less thingy of moving with ease through the 3 dimensions of the Dudes' ever-changing, complex formations of the mysterious mountain of interconnected whole, and then at last finally reaching the wish fulfilling throne. He also understood that his real journey had only just began. Oh, if only he knew how to proceed in small steady steps onwards and upwards, while taking time to see the stunning view of glowing opalescent hues in the vastly minute and impermaning Iz-ness…init. Smile
…as an after-taste:
In days of old, knowledge of mathematics was the privileged domain of select few. Insurmountable odds had to be overcome to learn maths and be able to apply it. Now, any book store or library has books detailing the A-Z of mathematics, giving the road map of logical progression from one level simplicity to another, which when combined, becomes an evolving emergent system of natural complexity. I salute human creativity and desire for self-betterment.
It would be rather nice to have a procedural road map of learning that is clear organized and devided into enough steps to get a thorough grasp of the mechanism involved and the implications of these tools.