For forty years, I've been tracking the same pattern across different scales: systems that maintain coherent structure while preserving individual autonomy. Not by accident, but by finding their natural equilibrium point—the φ-spot where order and freedom balance.
That pattern shows up in peripheral peoples evading state control, in starlings moving as murmurations, in planetary orbits, in atomic bonding, in middle management dynamics, in personal health protocols. The mathematics are consistent. The question is always the same: how do you stay governed just enough to function within larger systems without being crushed by them?
These three research threads explore different aspects of that question. They're not separate domains—they're facets of the same underlying geometry.
James C. Scott's "The Art of Not Being Governed" maps how peripheral peoples in Southeast Asian highlands maintained autonomy at the edges of state power for two thousand years. They weren't primitive. They were sophisticated practitioners of strategic positioning—close enough to benefit from state systems, far enough to avoid being absorbed.
That same pattern appears in organizational life. The middle manager navigating between executive demands and team loyalty. The individual designing life at the intersection of social expectations and personal autonomy. The question isn't "state or no state"—it's finding the equilibrium point where you're connected enough to function but autonomous enough to remain authentic.
Murmuration dynamics offer another lens. Thousands of starlings move as one coherent flock, yet each bird maintains individual flight. No central control. No leader. Just local field awareness—each bird responding to the six or seven nearest neighbors, creating emergent coordination at scale.
What if organizations work the same way? What if the org chart is theatre, and the real coordination happens through field dynamics nobody's mapping?
Key investigations:
Scott's peripheral peoples as model for organizational positioning
Murmuration field theory and emergent coordination
Middle management as craft: finding equilibrium between upward and downward forces
The geometry of autonomy within systems
The φ-ovoid shows up in atomic structure. In planetary orbital mechanics. In biological forms. In the ratios that David Ramsay Hay identified in 1856 as principles of beauty in art and architecture.
These aren't coincidences. They're stable solutions to the same structural problem: maintaining coherent form while allowing dynamic response to environmental forces.
Walter Russell's cosmology proposed that atomic structure follows pure harmonic ratios rather than quantum mechanical randomness. Everyone dismissed it as mysticism. But when you map his periodic table against Harry Partch's 43-tone microtonal scale, the patterns hold. Elements bond up to the Perfect Fifth (702 cents). Ionic compounds appear at the Octave (1200 cents). The math works.
Harmonic theory isn't just about music. It's about resonance—how systems find stable states through frequency relationships. Chemical bonds. Planetary orbits. Organizational structures. Personal health protocols. All finding their φ-point through the same underlying mathematics.
Key investigations:
φ-ovoid geometry across atomic, planetary, and biological scales
Russell's cosmology validated through Partch's microtonal mathematics
Hay's 1856 harmonic proportions tested computationally
Chemical bonding as musical intervals
Solfeggio frequencies and golden ratio approximations
Theory is beautiful. Practice is truth.
This thread documents experiments in living at equilibrium points. Some succeed. Some fail. All are tracked systematically because that's how you learn whether the maps match the terrain.
The 77:17 framework: Body composition maintained at 77kg/17% body fat through 17-hour intermittent fasting, systematic supplementation, daily 5km walks, Muay Thai practice. Not a diet plan—a governance protocol. Just enough structure to optimize health, just enough flexibility to remain sustainable.
Middle management as craft: Not "how to succeed in corporate life" but "how to practice a role that's structurally impossible if you accept its stated terms." Finding your equilibrium between executing upward demands and protecting downward loyalty. The art of being governed just enough from both directions.
Personal autonomy protocols: Living in a solar-powered trailer on a Canterbury farm. Maintaining independence at the edges of conventional life while staying connected enough to function. Literal peripheral existence as research methodology.
Key investigations:
Health optimization through systematic tracking (weight, blood pressure, 7-day rolling averages)
Middle management equilibrium: case studies and field observations
Intermittent fasting protocols tested across years
Evidence-based supplementation (hibiscus tea, L-citrulline, creatine, fish oil, copper/NAC experiments)
These threads aren't linear. You don't read them start to finish. You enter where your curiosity pulls you, follow connections that intrigue you, map your own path through the territory.
Field Notes document investigations in progress—often raw AI conversation transcripts showing how ideas develop, including dead ends and course corrections.
Library holds finished artifacts—polished research papers, Flying Blind, synthesized conclusions that have crystallized into stable form.
Everything is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Take what's useful. Build on it. Share what you create.
The maps are free. Your navigation is your own.