Timeless Way of Building 🔨
Differentiation is growth 💪
Happy Thursday Everyone!!! Adam here.
I am in the middle of reading a book that is unlike any book I have ever read before… Christopher Alexander’s The Timeless Way of Building.
What makes it so different relative to the other books in which I have read?
It’s Alexander’s blend of theory/knowledge on architecture, building and planning as well as obsession with building for the long-term that sticks out primarily from the other books I have read.
The thing that is really neat about Alexander is that he was more than just a theorist.
It has been reported that in Alexander’s lifetime he had designed as well as built more than 200 buildings all around the world as an architect as well as a general contractor. Christopher Alexander practiced what he preached.
Reading further into his ideas, I realized that we can apply his teachings into our life philosophies. This is what I will attempt to do today.
The Immortality of Ideas
Sadly, Christopher Alexander recently passed away on March 18th this year at the age of 85. However, the powerful thing about ideas is that they tend to stick around if they are powerful enough even if their originator passes away.
There was one chapter from “The Timeless Way of Building” in particular that gave me pause this week.
Chapter 19 of his book is all about the idea of “Differentiating Space”, which Alexander defines as:
“Within this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which pre-formed parts are combined to create a whole: but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes its parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.”
- Christopher Alexander
We are born whole.
However, it takes time to unfold into the person we truly are. That person that we’ve truly been all along.
Rather than adding to the core of the person we are, we unfold as we evolve and grow as a person as we split off into parts/develop more interests. Yet, thinking of our interests as not separated but rather as an integrated whole is a beautiful sentiment.
We are born whole, however, it takes time to truly unfold into the person in which we are destined to become.
Growth is Differentiation
"The process of development is, in essence a sequence of operations, each one of which differentiates the structure which has been laid down by the previous operations."
- Christopher Alexander
Reading this quote then led me to write the words “Growth is differentiation” in the margins of the text.
Development as a person results from differentiating ourselves. It takes stepping out of our comfort zones and uncovering hidden passions/desires in which we were too nervous to explore earlier in our lives.
Did I ever think that I’d get into writing a weekly newsletter? Hell no.
What about working out? Definitely not.
Yet, when I think about the kernel of these now immense passions of mine in writing and working out… I realize that perhaps these passions were there all along.
With writing, I had been obsessed as a youngster reading just about anything on baseball, specifically speaking, on the Detroit Tigers. If you have a love for reading of any kind, you’ll be surprised by how much you may actually enjoy taking the time to write yourself.
Developing a love for writing is encouraged by the prerequisite of a love of reading. If you already love reading (doesn’t matter what it is about) you have won half of the battle.
With working out, I loved playing baseball as a youngster. However, as I grew up my baseball playing days fell beside me. Nevertheless, the realities of playing baseball is that it is something in which the players have to show up more days than not, due to the typically intense playing schedule they have.
However, tending to something on a consistent basis no matter if you win or lose the day before, essentially starting fresh, is a framing I think we can all apply into our lives.
No matter what the score was yesterday, lacing up our cleats and/or throwing on our gym shoes is the first step. Just showing up to play each day is the biggest challenge.
It takes time and maturation within to have the recognition that not only do we feel that certain things like working out and writing are good for us, pushing us closer to our “whole” each time we do so.
Differentiation Is Growth
Repeat the line above. Differentiation Is Growth.
What new curiosities do we have that we want to further inquire upon?
For me: it’s been a recent obsession with community building. Not only as it applies to the various online communities I am a part of, but also flipping it on it’s head to apply these lessons into offline communities I am seeking to form.
I am determined to find/create a community of people passionate about learning everyday. To have that long-term scope and realize that everyday action towards something done over an extended period of time leads to gradual, then sudden change.
Playing the piano everyday in one week is one thing. Yet when played daily over the span of four years, holy smokes, you’ll be shocked by the progress.
I am obsessed with cultivating these “patterns” into my life and having this long-term scope to recognize that my life might not be exactly what I expected at this time… However, give me 5, 10, 15, 20 years… and holy smokes, if I continue to double-down on these activities that already give me such meaning… the potential is infinite.
But rather than being in the clouds of the long-term, ensuring I ground myself in the day-to-day reality of taking one step at a time. Sitting down at my desk to write this newsletter, changing into my gym clothes, as well as buckling down to finishing up this debut album.
(28 days away from the release of my debut album.)
Set a date for something you’ve always been too scared to do and take one action a day towards it.
You’ll be shocked by how far you can get.
On an aside: Another book of Alexander’s that has been sitting on my “to-read” list on Goodreads is his text: “A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction”
Listen to this mix for a grand start to your weekend.
Cheers to lifelong learning,
Adam Bartley (@bartadamley)