the stack

This stack is a mental model of human reality which even a child can grasp and use.

It is composed of a pattern, a shape, a story and a game.

The what, the why and the how of each stack element will be presented.

Through understanding how elements work and compose the whole, we will find coherence in the world around us.

The stack sheds light on every aspect of our lives because it models life's fractality.

The personal, the professional, the transcendental - new insights and coherent understanding unites them all in our model.

At the end we will hit close to home and apply the full stack to the old personal questions:

• Who am I?
• Where am I going?
• What should I be doing?

The elements are stacked in the order of their emergence and move from the basic to the composite.

For the ease of understanding we will disregard the stack's fractality and just focus on piecing the whole together.

To demonstrate how the abstract manifests in the concrete, we will look at a dead simple example of a red, steel chair.

Pattern

The pattern is that which repeats.

What repeats is coherent enough to survive in time.

What survives in time can be relied upon.

The durability of a pattern is what makes it our building block.

It is patterns that compose our breath, thought and speech.

It is patterns that compose the ground beneath, the sun above and the people around.

When we look at our old, red chair, all we see is that which is solid:

• the pattern of a red color;
• the pattern of a crooked leg;
• the pattern of an odd gift.

Shape

The shape is a collection of patterns arranged proportionally.

Shape's proportions determine its function.

Shape's function we see is the one we value.

Functions and proportions of one shape alter those of another.

Push and pull of the world changes the proportions of our mind and body.

As shapes change, their functions follow.

Our red chair has its function as long as there are the right proportions between the patterns of:

• the seat and the back-rest;
• the ground and the seat;
• the seat and our ass.

Story

The story is a sequence of shapes.

We represent the shape sequences of the world as the shape sequences of the mind.

Our mind's stories are true if they cohere with the world's ones.

A true story connects the shapes we see with those we don't.

A coherent story reveals every mind's and world's shape in its sequence.

Stories make all shapes of the past, present and future accessible to us.

The shape of our red chair is connected through stories with many hidden shapes:

• the shape of a defect when it is heavily discounted;
• the shape of a loss when it is being pushed of a cliff;
• the shape of a motive when it is not in its usual place. Again.

Game

The game is the collections of stories played in a sequence.

Every story is in at least one game.

Each game produces the shapes required for its stories.

Games we value promise a reward.

The reward is a shape at the game's end.

Its price is a submission to the shapes of a gameplay.

We pay the price when we sit in our red chair in the pursuit of the game's reward of:

• a rested body;
• a diploma;
• a mohawk haircut.

Now that we are equipped with our new mental model, we can tackle the questions from the top.

You can try to answer them on your own before reading my takes.

There are many routes to the same peak.

Who am I?

I am what I do.

What I do is a function of the shape I assume.

I am a shape, one of many.

I can choose only the shapes which I can name.

My shape is as much named as its patterns are.

I can only name the patterns I see.

The unnamed patterns hide in the proportions of my:

• breath;
• emotion;
• belief.

Where am I going?

I am going where my story ends.

My story is the sequence of shapes which I assume across my life.

The rest of my life begins with my next and ends with my last shape.

To choose one is to choose another.

My next shape leads to the last one.

My last shape reveals my next one.

I can choose my guiding last shape to be:

• calm;
• blissful;
• empty.

What should I be doing?

I should play a failure seeking game.

To find a failure is to see an incoherence.

To see an incoherence is to see a broken pattern.

The more patterns I reveal, the more I can name them.

The named patterns reveal the shapes for me to choose.

The choice of a shape is the choice of a story and a game.

To have more choices I should seek a failure of my:

• breath;
• emotion;
• belief.