Programming Class? – D33

This afternoon and for the first time, Kyle run an hour late for our programming class. Meanwhile, he told us that the two groups missing to present their Project Euler Problem should present and when he arrive, we will discuss a couple of chapters of Taming the Infinite. It was hard for everyone to pay attention to the first group presenting, and for the rest of the class only some dedicated some work to solving the problem. When Kyle arrived, he started helping the group who was solving the problem and the rest of the class did practically nothing but talk. In the solving group were Isa, Alejo, Mabe, Chacho, Marce, and Grace. I dedicated my time to talk with Carmen and Carla, but nothing more. It was a very interesting talk though.

During debriefing, the commitment issue surged again, mainly because of the problem in programming class. Once again, everybody committed to be more self-governed and make a greater effort. And that was it for this Monday… 

Some Dancing for Performing Arts and Individual Work – D33

After eating a McDonald’s McRib Menu (of course enlarged, and of course not a good idea at all) for lunch, Grace made and taught us a small choreography for us to dance it. It was a very funny time, which I think everyone enjoyed very much, including Bert and Ingrid. We decided to have like a couple of dancing classes per week in order to perfect our dancing skills. Later, we had individual work; time where I decided to read The Trivium.

Grace’s Morning Meeting, Group Brainstorming, and Individual Work – D33

Grace directed today’s morning meeting. For that, she showed us some videos about dancing. One, which I very liked, is called, To People Who Love Dance. The others were of dancing choreography of a dance show and of her own dancing.

After Agora and Bert’s instructions, we got with our groups to brainstorm about UFM’s resources. Then, we told our contributions to the whole group and put them in order. We are making a Google Doc for later putting them with a better structure and more professional for our curriculum. We end our morning with some time for individual work and a Free Cities conference, which turn out to be a presentation of a doctoral thesis about seasteading. I must say that this conference is one of the worst ones I have ever had. It was terrible, bad rhetoric and not very good arguments. If I have to say something about what I learned from this experience, is to choose wisely how I use my time and not spend it in useless conferences. Ok, maybe I did learn something else, and that is about other forms of creating competition to the government. What I really disliked was the how the conference was given.

Euclid’s Propositions Presentation and Debriefing – D32

To end our day, Alejo, Mabe, and Lucía, showed us their videos of Euclid’s first three propositions. I’ll be posting them as soon as we put them on our Youtube channel.

Nothing interesting happened at debriefing as far as I can remember.

First Approach with Dylan Evans – D32

After some individual work, Dylan Evans, a great psychologist and author of many world-recognized books, visited us. He is a visiting professor at UFM because he is writing a book about Free Cities, and since the Free Cities Institute is at UFM, it is "the place" to be if you want to do research about that subject. During his visit to the MPC, he talked us about his life and his discovery of his passion for psychology. Also, he talked us about our future reading, a book called, Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. It was a good first approach with Dylan, whom I found very honest and entertaining. What I liked about him was his honesty and courage to say what he thinks and what is, even if that is against common acceptance or of that which a group believes, for example he telling us the reason why he got expelled from school, or how he believes that laziness is a good thing if done well. We concluded our dialogue by making the schedule for this book, which we are going to discuss every Thursday.

One fun fact about Dylan’s books is that all actors in the Matrix movies must read one called, Introducing Evolutionary Psychology. Also, one of his major contributions to psychology is a dictionary of Lacan called, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis.

Be Original: Alejo’s Morning Meeting – D32

Today’s morning meeting was about a couple of videos. The first was a clip from the movie Garden State, which was about creating a completely original moment in history. After this clip, we decided to create our original moment in history. It was very funny! I encourage you do the same, you’ll feel great. Then, we watched Steve Jobs’ Vision of the World and discussed it later. We talked about believing and being certain that you can change the world and the things around you. When you realize this and combine it with hard work, then the world is just waiting for you to change it!

Dialogue with Kyle and Debriefing – D31

This afternoon we didn’t had programming class, but instead, talked with Kyle about our curriculum and our process at the MPC. I really like that he is genuinely interested in what is happening at the MPC and with our learning process, and I appreciate that. He also showed us the Pomodoro Method, which is to work for 25 minutes and then rest for 5. Also, that he stands up for working and then rests for 5 minutes and read some book’s pages, randomly. I think I’ll try the Pomodoro Method.

Then, we had a dialogue about chapter 2 of Taming the Infinite, and talked mostly about music, which was a lot of fun and instructing. Alejo also helped a lot with his insights and expertise on music. We discussed how sound waves work and how Pythagoreans saw the world through music.

To end our day, we had some debriefing, which was pretty chill and funny. We talked about things to do like an a cappella group, making the MPC journal, and I proposed to come with costumes for Halloween. The funniest thing of this part of the day was Bert’s joke suggesting that Pablito should come in a Sister Miriam Joseph costume!

Here’s how I picture him! (Sorry Pablito)

Some debriefing and some Emerson – D31

For performing arts, nobody had anything prepared so spontaneously we started debriefing. We talked mostly about the “silent room” now called “individual work room”. We decided to keep it as a room for individual work, with everyone more commited on working on their stuff.

After that, we had a dialogue/reading of Emerson’s Self-Reliance, which I enjoyed a lot and also think that everyone enjoyed it as well. What I’m learning from Emerson’s essay is to live with integrity, do what you want to do with your life and not by what society expects or wants you to do, don’t give up on your liberty, think and speak for yourself, not for your party or “usages that are dead to you” as he writes. I have found this essay very insightful and wonderful, a true piece of art!

The Right Perspective: Lore’s Morning Meeting – D31

For the first or second time since we began de MPC, we were all on time (except Ingrid in both occasions). It was great to start the day like this. Today was Lorena’s first direction of a morning meeting. After some announcements, she showed us a video called "Having the Right Perspective", by Joel Osteen, a Christian preacher and a great speaker. I have to admit that at first I thought it would be a video of Christian values and finding God, and I don’t like those kinds of messages. I was wrong. The video talks about having a level of gratitude for what we have, and not complain of what’s possible wrong with our life. It is about finding, in everything, the positive aspect. It also relates with the previous video we watched called, “Celebrating what’s right in the world”. It’s not that having a positive attitude will fix everything or that we have to ignore our problems and wrong things we have, it’s about having a better perspective to confront the problems we may have.

We had individual work until 11 a.m. Then we were supposed to have a dialogue on “The Trivium”, but since almost everyone had not read more than 50 pages, Bert talked to us about commitment and “giving a shit” for the MPC. After this pep talk, we did start the dialogue, which was based on, “what is the metaquestion of chapter 1?” We inquire in many of the chapter’s topics, and at first concluded that the metaquestion was, “what are the liberal arts and what is its purpose”. Later, we talked about other related subjects such as the trivium as the only way of finding the truth, since the trivium stands for all aspects of communication. We didn’t got to answer the metaquestion, but it was a very interesting dialogue.

Euclid time and Debriefing – D30

Once again, after lunch we worked on the first three Euclid’s propositions individually. I started practicing the proposition four, but then decided to practice a little more the first three. Later, Alejo and I practiced the demonstrations of these with each other and received feedback. I think I know how to do them very well by now.

As you may know, today was a short day so after Euclid, we debriefed. It was supposed to start at 2:30 p.m. but some were late, which made us talk about commitment issues that lead to other important subjects as well. One thing I didn’t like was Bert’s attitude toward me, because at first the only ones at the circle were Chacho, Mabe, Alejo, Bert, and I, so Alejo and I were talking when Bert asked something to Mabe and demanded we paid her attention, when it seemed that they were only talking to each other. I made the claim that every time, except for the morning meeting, we wait for everyone to start, but he responded me in a very impolite and inconsistent way, even ignoring me. I didn’t pay to much attention to him, for my conviction I was standing for what we all agreed was correct and I thought he was only having a rough time making everyone committed with the MPC. Nevertheless, I despise those types of attitudes and just made me remember how people respond to different situations.

After some 6 or 7 minutes, everyone was at the circle so we started talking about commitment issues and some proposed that we should let everyone in if they were late, even though they could only participate as listeners in the morning meeting. Alejo and I opposed to this idea entirely, contrary to what almost everybody wanted. I don’t think of it as a good idea, because it gives the wrong incentives to not care if one is late. I think it should be a personal commitment if you really care to be at the MPC, and also a matter of respect to your classmates. What surprised me a lot was to hear some voices like Lucía, Franz, Majo, and the Javieres, defending this idea and talking about commitment when one can see they are the least committed to the MPC, or at least of arriving on time. We had a long time discussing this and although I stood to my position, everyone except Alejo agreed on the idea, so I made it very clear that I didn’t thought this was the solution and that didn’t agreed on it, but if everybody else wanted to try it, so be it. The other subject was the silent room, which Alejo proposed to eliminate because it didn’t worked. I supported that motion, and as a “surprise”, almost everyone opposed to it. We “won” the argument by saying that it was the same thing as allowing late arrivals, because it’s the same principle that applies. The principle that we talked before was the flexibility with the rules and remaining open to evolve and change them. Apparently, the ones that were opposed and especially Javier P. didn’t understand their “argument, principle” very well or at all, because they were not consistent on applying it on all cases. So, this is how our day ended, but don’t get me wrong, it was hilarious to discuss all of these.

Franz’s Morning Meeting and Individual Work – D30

After resisting for 30 MPC days to direct a morning meeting, Franz finally directed it. His activity was about reading something he wrote called, “What I talk about when I talk about “This” and “That””. As I understood it, it was about doing what we really want and not what society expects and wants us to do, just to fulfill some “social requirements”. It relates a lot with Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance, because both talk about speaking up for yourself and not to surrender your liberty to the society’s approval. The activity was cool, although it lacked some dynamics to do it more interesting. Plus, he didn’t make time for announcements or for making the schedule for the day, but I don’t blame him because, being honest, he hasn’t been in many morning meetings for him to know that.

The rest of the morning was for individual work. I decided to work on some documentation and to make most of the eight-week self-evaluation Bert gave us. I think it was averagely productive.

Nailing on Debriefing – D29

Bravo, bravo, bravo… (Standing ovation to everyone) Clap, clap, clap (8)

So, we first talked about Kyle’s library project and the possibility to visit it one of the following weeks. I’m not going to get into detail with this, because the most important part of the debriefing was our approach on problem solving as a group. Because of Pablito’s request to talk about the Greek class and how inefficient we are in it, we discussed a better way in which we can engage in the class and have a better use of its resources, especially Moris’s time. We concluded that one of the main characteristics of an MPC student is his or her capacity to adapt to different situations. We all agreed that if we keep asking so many questions, we are going to advance very slowly. As a solution, we decided to leave Moris do the class as he wanted, whether a lecture or not, and we’ll leave room for questions after, as long as we have prepared ourselves beforehand and really tried to master the class. By the way, Gaby told us she would stop receiving Greek class with Moris and do her own syllabus.

One more thing and the most important about the debriefing was Gaby’s honesty (after a question from Marce) that she was having second thoughts on whether to leave the MPC or not. Mainly because of her frustration and as she told us, “was not feeling good physically or mentally”. She feels she is not having a good time doing all the MPC stuff and thought was not well prepared for this career. It was a very emotional moment for all, especially the ladies, because many of us have thought and felt the frustration of not catching up with our homework and readings. I told her afterward that I totally disagreed on what she said, because I think of her as a very intelligent and capable person, and if in any case an MPC’er is leaving the MPC, that would not be her case. So, a very interesting and good way to finish a long day at the MPC…

Programming Presentations – D29

For programming class with Kyle, we first talked about the course of the class and decided to work on a mini project for this semester and a bigger project for next semester, I am thinking of a phone app. After this, Pablito and Carmen presented their Project Euler problem (20) and because they didn’t had it finished, we all finished it together during the rest of the class. Although it was a little slow, it was a good approach of solving this problem and I did learned a lot.

Project Euler's 20

Presenting the Liberty Project and some more of Emerson – D29

After lunch, Isa, Alejo, Pablito, Marce, and I presented our idea on forming a liberty club, and I must say that it didn’t went as we expected. Many of our classmates misinterpreted us in many things of our project and reacted in a negative way towards it. After some intense dialogue, I found it helpful to see other perspectives and actually decided as a group that it would be better to implement some suggestions they gave us and substitute them for what we had before. After the discussion, we were able to improve our project in order to do a better work.

Later, we read some more of Emerson’s essay, which we are finding the true meaning of what Emerson is trying to tell us. I found this essay very interesting and accurate in his ideas. I’m also starting to think that Emerson is quite a libertarian for the way he writes and what he claims on individualism.

Carmen's look during the dialogue

Just dialoguing

Some more Greek – D29

Some Greek reading exercise

Today we did had Greek class. As it appeared to be, nothing very important happened, although I do have to admit I felt a little bad, because I’m still late on the lessons and I’m not doing my best to master this class. In fact, this is the class I haven’t paid attention to so it was important for me to realize that my performance on mastering this class has been very poor. I made a commitment in getting up to date this week and I’m going to accomplish it, even if I don’t sleep. Yes, that’s how badass I’ll be.

Our Greek professor, Moris

Carmen’s qualities morning meeting – D29

After the usual announcements, Carmen made an activity for the morning meeting. It consisted of writing in a piece of paper our name and then pass it to the right, in order for that person to write something positive about that person. At the end of the round, we ended with more than 20 positive things, since Carla and Bert joined us for the activity. I really enjoyed it and think it was a great activity to reinforce our perspective on the positive things each of the MPC’ers has.

This is what everyone wrote about me,

How to advance liberty workshop with Alexander McCobin – Saturday 20

SFL Workshop @ Acton MBA

 Just for you to know how much we like liberty, seven of the MPC’ers (Isa, Marce, Mabe, Alejo, Franz, Pablito, and I) went to a workshop this Saturday (Revolution holiday) to a workshop about student group organizing with Alexander McCobin. He told us many useful tips about organizing and spreading the libertarian ideas. Also, we made a brief workshop in which the MPC’ers decided to work as a team to create a club or organization to reach this goal in Guatemala. We concluded we would start a kind-of-club (We don’t know the name yet) and make the Liberty Café. Our goal is to, “Engage others to achieve their own understanding of liberty.” This we would achieve by three major means, Le Sticky Method, a webpage and a fan page, and the Liberty Café. Le Sticky Method consists of creating stickers, buttons, and pins with questions about relevant daily topics such like, The Social Healthcare would fail, want to know how and why? The objective of this is to encourage people to ask you this question and start an important conversation anywhere you are, whether a cafeteria or the street. After this conversation, you can invite them to the Liberty Café and offer them to visit our webpage, in which they may find all resources needed to be prepared for the dialogue tables. These resources would include videos, essays, books, and other important ones. Finally, the Liberty Café consists of round table dialogues about important topics. We found this project very interesting and easy to replicate in other places starting in universities, and we even got contacts from Alexander for funding this project!

Excuses are like elbows...

MPC'ers working as a group

How to advance liberty – Dialogue with Alexander McCobin – D28

This afternoon, we had AlexanderMcCobin as a guest at the MPC. Alexander is the president of the huge, pro-liberty, student movement, Students for Liberty. He studied a major in the University of Pennsylvania and now is getting a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown. Our dialogue was about the best ways to advance liberty, and for that we read Leonard Read’s article, How to Advance Liberty, a Learning, not a Selling Problem. By the way, it’s a great article, which I highly recommend. Our dialogue was very interesting, dynamic, and thoughtful. As Bert told us later, “I was very proud to hear so many strong voices in the dialogue yesterday. Very thoughtful and courageous. We have come a long way from our first dialogue.” I have to agree with Bert, we have improved dramatically since our first dialogues and I hope we keep improving.

The argument, which Leonard Read proposes, is that in order to advance liberty, we must use the power of attraction and it consists of attracting people to the libertarian ideas through our passion and expertise towards these ideas. He opposes to mass media communication because he believes it’s not a selling problem but a learning problem, which we must engage personally. Although many of the MPC’ers thought like this, Alexander didn’t. He thinks marketing is very useful to accomplish the expansion of libertarian ideas. I agree with both perspectives in the sense that marketing is a useful tool to engage people to learn the libertarian ideas, and we must also encourage them through our experience and expertise for them to understand these ideas by themselves. What we all agreed on, was that there is a long road in the success of advancing liberty, nevertheless we must start now and do our best to expand them.

*Download How to Advance Liberty!

Documentation Presentation – D28

This morning we presented our best features of our documentation. Each of us presented their webpage or blog and talked for 5 minutes of their main features. To be honest, I’m not so proud of mine, mainly because I’m having trouble catching up with it so I’m a little behind.