Author Archives: setemheb

Saturday with Robert Anton Wilson

Longer ago than is probably wise to admit Robert Anton Wilson’s ideas crashed into my life over a Holiday season. He was a needed contribution to my thinking, and an example of someone from the same featureless backwaters of Brooklyn who did something with his life while also being weird as hell. Everything in myContinue reading “Saturday with Robert Anton Wilson”

Tactics of Rulership: Tension, Mobility, and Compensation

Due to certain quirks in our awareness, we spend most of our lives in physically uncomfortable positions. Hunched over computers, twisted up in couches, and standing on public transit, we create networks of habitual tension due to a lack of awareness of our physiology. The answer to this process of unconscious habitual tension is toContinue reading “Tactics of Rulership: Tension, Mobility, and Compensation”

Tactics of Rulership: Introduction

Applying the Gift of Set effectively involves learning to see non-obvious solutions. It also means, to some extent, learning to see why the obvious solutions are traps in their own right. One of the most apparent areas for this is the tactics people use for what they consider “success.”  Ask someone the one thing thatContinue reading “Tactics of Rulership: Introduction”

The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Further Reading

Part III: The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell  The Structural Study of Myth by Claude Levi-Strauss  The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious by Carl Jung  Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin  The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy by E. D. Hirsch  Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson Continue reading “The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Further Reading”

Orienting by Desire: Cycling Through the Curved Qualities

Exercise: Cycling Through the Curved Qualities  Having now covered five “curved” qualities of the Gift of Set and fifteen tools that utilize these features, let’s take a practical run through them all. This is only one pattern with the tools and qualities; other orders can be developed. Those of you who choose to develop otherContinue reading “Orienting by Desire: Cycling Through the Curved Qualities”

The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Germinating

Germinating  The final curved quality of the Gift of Set I will discuss is its capacity to create emergent systems. The best metaphor for this is that of plants germinating, which requires an interaction between a seed and a soil matrix. In addition to the direct metaphor of Germination, it also provides additional considerations, namelyContinue reading “The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Germinating”

The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Modeling (iii)

Conscious Abstracting  You are bombarded with more information every second than your nervous system can cope with. Most of this happens below the threshold of your awareness. Within your awareness, you will need to develop skills at recognizing what is important and, perhaps more critically, what is not important for you to pay attention to.Continue reading “The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Modeling (iii)”

The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Modeling (ii)

Component Modeling  A powerful modeling tool has been woven into this series thus far. It is the way of looking at the world through the six physical, emotional, and mental dimensions of the self-complex, with ecology, community, and culture as dimensions of the external world. Each of these layers has an interactive effect on theContinue reading “The Curved Qualities of the Gift of Set: Modeling (ii)”