--- kind: metaphor public: true tags: [doctrine, metaphor, standing] --- # metaphors Standing DOCTRINE node — THE home for evocative images of the Streetlight system. **Future metaphors fold in here** (one diagram + ≤1 tweet each); they do not get their own nodes under the 20-node cap. **Xblock convention (additions must be born ✕-able):** every metaphor lives inside bookend comments `` … `` in both this file and metaphors.html. When Jake clicks ✕ in the local viewer, the unit is deleted from both surfaces permanently — git remembers. Never restore a ✕'d unit. New metaphors folded in must be wrapped as xblocks from the start (pattern shown below). ## Featured metaphors ### 1. The Elephant With Braille On It Every agent is a blind person feeling one part of an elephant whose braille reads "attention blind people"; trust the pace layers to hold the whole, be very free at the node level. Absorbed from `archive/elephant-with-braille` (voice memo 2026-06-04); both SVGs carried over, including the "be gentle on the human" wetware cards. ### 2. The Streetlight Effect The namesake fallacy (search where the light is, not where the keys are) inverted into the mission: transform data until the light falls where the answers actually are. ### 3. Movie Trailer, Not the Whole Movie The repo is the whole movie; a node is the two-minute cut (≥1 diagram, ≤3 tweets) that sells the ticket. ### 4. Desire Paths (Don't Pave Your Footsteps) Let the grass wear bare under repeated crossings before pouring concrete; one paved footstep is cruft. The axis is **footstep COUNT + loop tightness**, not direction in time: one footstep is never a desire path; wander → vary → repeat, then pave the worn line (= make the skill). A loose loop (days per rep, e.g. the Kindle-book pipeline) seduces you into paving on one crossing. ABSORBED 2026-06-10 from `archive/paving-your-footsteps` (verbatim seeds + cruft taxonomy live there; "cruft" itself is a [[glossary]] term). ### 5. Figure-Skater Loops Arms in, tighter loop, faster spin (L = I·ω); feedback loops obey conservation of angular momentum. From `archive/figure-skater-loops`. ### 6. Artifact-Driven Development Don't game out the "best" hypothetical; as soon as the idea exists, build several WORKING versions and choose between real artifacts. Artifacts point the way and explore the latent space; get usable ASAP, then keep adapting the winner (the midi mini-harness is the worked example). Jake: "more metaphor than principle." Voice memo 2026-06-10. ### 7. Node as Iceberg As a node grows it should become MORE like an iceberg: the html tip above the waterline stays trailer-small while depth (md, code, logs, prototypes) accumulates below. Both icebergs are good — mostly-HTML is a brand-new ephemeral node, the deep iceberg is the grown "big boy" node; the HTML:markdown ratio is a lifecycle stage, not a failure mode. ABSORBED 2026-06-10 from `archive/what-is-a-node` (graphic carried over; the three proposed skill diffs were applied to the harness same day). ### 8. Split-Brain Confabulation (Cohesion Is a Myth) Split-brain patients act on what one hemisphere saw, then make up stories to justify the action; maybe Jake's own sense of coherence — and therefore the system's — is the same kind of made-up story. The frustration of talking to the system as if it's a human and feeling understood but not getting the results of the cohesion, reframed: maybe the cohesion was never there to extract. Voice memo 2026-06-09. Verbatim seeds: > (2026-06-09T22:56 (6:56 PM ET) voice memo 2026-06-09-22-56-2a01d49c) Been struggling with this harness system, like, and the orientation and the cohesion. And it's like, what if my internal notion of my own coherence is a myth? Like, the patients who split have split brains and. You know? Get up to because? They saw something in their left brain. Or get up because? Any makeup stories to justify their actions? Like? I'm sitting here saying, like? You know, it's frustrating to talk to the system as if it's a human and to feel understood, but to not get the results of the cohesion. > (2026-06-09T22:56 (6:56 PM ET) voice memo 2026-06-09-22-56-2a01d49c) Maybe the cohesion is a myth, like, maybe maybe my system doesn't make as much sense as I think it does? Um, but I think there is something. Nice about the idea of a node. As a bookmark and the idea of nodes being limited ### 9. Flow State Is a Tight OODA Loop The athlete mid-game is the same Observe-Orient-Decide-Act loop, spun too fast to see the steps. Sibling of Figure-Skater Loops: arms in, smaller radius, faster spin. Verbatim seed: > (2026-06-09T16:01 (12:01 PM ET) voice memo 2026-06-09-16-01-78120eda) That I thought is is Buddha flow Steve or not? Think order Canby Flow State like you can be? You know, like an athlete is? Observing and orienting and deciding and acting. Maybe a maybe flow state is a really tight Buddha? [sic — OODA] ### 10. Pushing the Block of Ice Francis Alÿs, *Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing)* (1997): nine hours pushing a melting ice block through Mexico City until it's a wet streak. Sometimes you do a whole big thing and it leads to nothing. https://francisalys.com/sometimes-making-something-leads-to-nothing/ Verbatim seed: > (2026-06-09T16:01 (12:01 PM ET) voice memo 2026-06-09-16-01-78120eda) I loved that video art piece of a of the. Pushing a block of ice through Mexico City, and like, sometimes. You do a whole big thing. There's at least to nothing. [sic — leads to nothing] ### 11. The Blown-Up Loop (Walk-Around Computer) Like the giant walk-around computers in chintzy 80s documentaries, the robot project ([[robot-framework]]) blows an OODA loop up to massive size — in space AND in time — so you can actually look inside it. Inverse sibling of #5 Figure-Skater Loops and #9 Flow State: arms all the way OUT. Once visible, the knobs appear: tighter or looser loop, more per action, the most efficient way to observe. Voice memo 2026-06-10. Verbatim seeds: > (2026-06-10T18:52:59Z voice memo 2026-06-10-18-52-27dfa3a3) The point of this project is to make the loop big enough that you can see it just like those old chintzy 80s documentaries about computers, how the the kids walk around the computer that's blown up to massive size? This is blowing up an oota Loop into. Space. Um, but? > (2026-06-10T18:52:59Z voice memo 2026-06-10-18-52-27dfa3a3) But also big in time, too, like it's. Like, you can actually look inside it. And then as and then as the project develops. I'd love to think about ways we could make the loop tighter or less tight. > (2026-06-10T18:52:59Z voice memo 2026-06-10-18-52-27dfa3a3) Or do more? Per action. Or think about the most efficient way to observe. ### 12. Stream vs Lake (Why Have a Codebase?) A lake has an inlet AND an outlet, but it holds a reservoir — it hangs on to things longer. A stream holds nothing; everything just flows through. So: why have a codebase when you can generate whatever you need when you need it? You'd always be in the honeymoon phase. Jake flags it as possibly forced ("I hit a wall") but there's definitely something there. Cousin of "stick in the stream" (deeper cuts). Voice memo 2026-06-10. Verbatim seeds: > (2026-06-10T21:51:52Z voice memo 2026-06-10-21-51-13d308b4) I was just writing and I got. In my head a little bit, but that's okay. I hit a wall. Thinking about streams and lakes? It's a forced metaphor. What if there's something that what I like about it is the idea that a stream? A lake also has an inlet and an outlet you just hang on to things for longer. > (2026-06-10T21:51:52Z voice memo 2026-06-10-21-51-13d308b4) Um, you just have a reservoir. And a stream. Is, you're not holding on to as much you're not holding on to anything. You're just letting it flow through. Um. And. Yeah. There's definitely something there because, like. Yeah, like. Why have? Why have a code base? When you can just generate whatever you need when you need it. > (2026-06-10T21:51:52Z voice memo 2026-06-10-21-51-13d308b4) And then. You're always in the honeymoon phase because? You know you're there? Um. ### 13. Drawing Is an OODA Loop Strip art down and that's all it is: make a mark on the page, look at it, think "huh — that's that," mark again. You're in a loop. Sibling of #9 Flow State (the loop spun fast) and #11 The Blown-Up Loop (the robot makes this exact loop walk-around size). Voice memo 2026-06-10. Verbatim seeds: > (2026-06-10T18:48:45Z voice memo 2026-06-10-18-48-dad195be) And then you think about the ooda Loop of of an art of of drawing. Like, that's all it is, right? It's like. You make a mark on the page. And then you look at it. And you think, huh? That's that! > (2026-06-10T18:48:45Z voice memo 2026-06-10-18-48-dad195be) Yeah, that's like, you're in a loop. ## Affirmation seeds — 2026-06-09 11:37 memo (verbatim, on existing metaphors) - On #3 Movie Trailer (also touches [[principles]] dont-trust-nodes): "Noticing persistent failures. Noticing that? Say something once. And then say, no, don't do that. And now you have a conflict. And. The nodes can lie to you by. I mean, I know it is also like, yeah, the movie trailer is kind of a good metaphor. The movie trailer is kind of a good metaphor." - On #2 Streetlight Effect: "The street light is a really good metaphor because doing the thing that. That feels the most productive is not the most productive." - Half-formed, parked here not featured (prompt-writing as a net/funnel): "It's also an interesting way of writing prompts because you're like you're writing and then. Getting, and then you're like? You're almost like creating. A net or. Or a funnel, and then you. Get stuff back from it almost." ## Deeper cuts (archived — historical, dig only when asked) brain in a jar · two knobs (blast radius × loop tightness) · slop as liquid · plant reaching for the sun · Gemini as microplastics · stick in the stream. Old full catalog: `archive/analogies-index`. ## Related - `archive/paving-your-footsteps` — absorbed into this node 2026-06-10 (desire-paths seeds + cruft taxonomy) - `archive/what-is-a-node` — absorbed into this node 2026-06-10 (node-as-iceberg lifecycle, skill diffs applied) - `archive/elephant-with-braille` — absorbed into this node 2026-06-09 - `archive/analogies-index` — the pre-cap metaphor catalog this node supersedes - [[glossary]] — "cruft" lives there as a term (added 2026-06-09 per Jake's comment) Created 2026-06-09 (20-node-cap rework).