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 My year spent as a MacroTransient at FoAM is now over. One year of not being a student, not being an employee, not being unemployed. One year with no expectations. One year of incredibly pure freedom of action, movements and thought. One year to re-design a lifestyle, figure out tough life choices, defining a personal and professional identity. One year of careful help from FoAM to try to answer that crazy questions: "What do I want to do with my life ?"
-Below is an attempt to summarize this crazy year, and maybe give you a hint of how this feels, or even give you the will to go through the same difficult but rewarding process.
+Below is an attempt to summarize this year, and maybe give you a hint of how this feels, or even give you the will to go through the same intense and rewarding process.
-====Before this year====
+====Initial Conditions====
+{{ :michka:greenloop.jpg?400 |}}
+I had met the FoAM team in 2012, as I was an intern at [[http://www.greenloop.eu|Greenloop]]. I was in the last year of my engineering studies, and except writing my thesis, I did not really knew what my future was made of. I was quite disappointed by the world of science and technology I was coming from, and trying to find a way to integrate other dimensions to make (bio)technologies more relevant to society. It was the right moment to enter the temple of Generalism.
+{{ :michka:sony.jpg?400 |}}
+However, I was proposed two nice jobs in Paris. One at Sony Computer Science Laboratory, where I contributed to the development of the P2P Food Lab project, for which we developed a bio-sourced temperature sensor at a biohackerspace called la Paillasse.
+{{ :michka:cfi.jpg?400 |}}
+The other job was as a Biomimicry Promoter in a governmental agency fostering innovation, Paris Region Entreprises. I met wonderful entrepreneurs, (tried to) talk them into using biomimicry to solve their (eco)-issues, and developed the first version of an open-source exploration tool for professionals wanting to include Biomimicry in their strategy.
+After these two passionating working experiences, I was even more ready for a Transiency. Maybe the question I wanted to focus on was less my professional life than my whole lifestyle, including where, for who, and the way I would work, but also the space I would leave for the rest of my life.
+===The Self-Sufficiency Hypothesis===
+{{ :michka:selfsufficiency.jpg?400 |}}
+During one year working full time in Paris, I observed several phenomenon.
+   * Even though the work I was involved with was very interesting, too much of a good thing is no good. I felt I lacked diversity in my activities. I especially lacked outdoor and body-involving activities.
+   * Living at the core of a 10-million megapole made me even more conscious of the unsustainability of our (urban) lifestyles. At my individual scale, I found quite counter-productive to spend so much time & energy at work, to earn money, to buy stuff I could actually do myself instead of buying it from obscure and maybe unhealthy and socially-descructive industries.
+{{ :michka:initial_conditions.jpg?400 |}}
+Based on these observations, I had the hypothesis that I would better live a bit out the monetary economy. By improving my self-sufficiency, I would spend more time doing outdoor and body-involving activities. I would increase my resilience, by learning many different know-hows which may be useful, especially in case some unsustainable industries would collapse. By using fine-tuned appropriate technologies, I would free some time to volunteer for the cause of moneyless groups, involved at local or global scale.
+In addition to correcting my lifestyle balance, this hypothesis would also improve my coherence, as I would reduce my dependency on industries and practices I disagree with because of their environment and social impact.
+I entered this Transiency with the idea to implement this hypothesis, or at least test it. It is not exactly what happened.
 ====Winter - Decelerating====
@@ Line 95: / Line 125: @@
 ===Reading===
-I needed to feel inspired, and learn from others' experiments. So I picked up to experiment-based books from my reading list:
+{{ :michka:reading.jpg?400 |}}
+I needed to feel inspired, and learn from others' experiments. So I picked up two experiment-based books from my reading list: [[http://www.moneylessmanifesto.org/the-moneyless-man-book/|The Moneyless Man]], and [[http://fourhourworkweek.com/|The Four Hour Workweek]].
+The Moneyless Man is about the experiment Mark Boyle performed over one year. He tried to live without earning, spending or using any money during one year. It is great book, easy to read, and full of tips on how to reduce your reliance on a destructive monetary economy. However, I could not find any answers to the two most pressing questions I had with moneyless lifestyle:
+   * How to get healed in case of a big incident ? Mark Boyle relied on the rights he precently acquired to the British Security system. However, the book gives hints on how to self-heal yourself with plants, and how mutual aid provides you help when you deeply need it.
+   * What happens to your social life with less coherent people ? Mark Boyle says that it was one of the most difficult aspect of his experiment. He could not spend time with friends in money-based social activities, which is OK for one year, but for more ? Does it make sense to transform your social network for the sake of coherence ?
+I think it is important for me to be able to meet people which opinions are far away from mines, to understand better their viewpoints and what builds the difference between me and them. I have the feeling that if I live such a life, I will cut myself out of such opportunities.
+The Four Hour Workweek is a book about entrepreneurship. This world has always interested me, as I like the strength and perseverance of people getting involved in the creation of a company. However, I always felt distant from them in the sense that I am not attracted by the idea of devoting all my time to one single project, thereby risking to lose everything in case of failure.
+This book gave me a quite uncommon answer. What if your company was designed to bring you money back to do whatever you want to do ? Even though I do not agree with all the strategies proposed in this book, I like the idea of designing your income source so that you can maximize your freedom of lifestyle - and not necessarily try to merge both. It was a very pleasant, inspiring and thought-provoking read.
+The full reading list of this year is available [[http://lib.fo.am/michka/reading_list|here]].
+===Traveling===
+{{ :michka:traveling.jpg?400 |}}
+One of the things I disliked with my studying & working lifestyles was the forced sedentarity induced by the fact of having to follow courses / having to work in a give place. However, my initial hypothesis was to become self-sufficient, which means even more sedentarian.
+It was one of the conclusions of this Transiency: I prefer to travel than to garden. As I discovered this in April, I traveled a lot ever since.
+The very first important trip of this year was to Slovenia, a place where Amélie lived for a couple of years. After visiting Ljubljana and some very nice friends there, we moved to the countryside to spend some time at [[http://rollinghedgehog.com/|Rolling Hedgehog]].
+Rolling Hedgehog is a self-sufficiency experiment, led by Amélie's ex-roommates in Slovenia. We spent three day here helping in the garden, drinking schnaps & kombucha, gathering bear's garlic to prepare Forest Pesto, and eating cheerfully all together copious meals to fill our bellies emptied by the countryside work & fresh air.
+It was a wonderful stay, however I understood that I would not transform it into a lifstyle. I would love to introduce slices of several weeks of this lifestyle, but I would also like to be able to escape it, and see other people, other places, other parts of the world.
+The self-sufficiency hypothesis was dead.
+===Being Coached===
+{{ :michka:being_coached.jpg?400 |}}
+Besides being actively followed by the FoAM Brussels' Core Team, I had the chance to go through a coaching program with a professional coach, [[http://fo.am/people/vali.lalioti/|Vali Laliotti]].
+During six sessions, we tackled deeply rooted brakes which left me doubtful and/or discouraged. Through very precisely phrased and chirurgically-targeted questions, Vali helped me unravel deep nodes in order to constructively & effectively move forward.
+For instance, after six sessions, I was able to precisely phrase what I felt was my mission in life. I also learned practical ways to be more efficient in my work, especially with unpleasant tasks, and how to deal with emotionnally perturbing events.
+I think that this process was one of the two most effective ones in the whole Transiency. I feel like I am work - and do stuff in general - more effectively, more peacefully, and - most importantly - with more passion.
+And yes, I will talk about the second process later.
+===Forecasting===
+{{ :michka:forecasting.jpg?400 |}}
+Between April and June, the FoAM Brussels Core Team guided me through the [[http://lib.fo.am/future_fabulators/transiency_scenarios|Transiency Scenarios]] process. This scenario planning process, fed by the works done by FoAM on this topic for a few years now, aimed to use futurology methodologies to understand better what your possibles futures are as an individual, and help you better understand dynamics at stake and make decisions on your life trajectories.
+At the end of the process, we obtained four scenarios representing extreme situations. Scenario narratives can be found here:
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/basement_researcher|Basement Researcher]]
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/passionless_expert|Passionless Expert]]
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/new_edge_hacker|New-Edge Hacker]]
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/edge_hiker|Edge Hiker]]
+Such scenarios can be used as a compass. Thanks to this work, I could better understand which of my decisions would guide me to one or the other futures.
+We also designed a masterplan of what to do from today on to reach the possible futures, which helped understand which actions I should start now in order to reach the future I want to implement.
+===Meditating===
+{{ :michka:meditating.jpg?400 |}}
+At our very first Transiency meeting, I was talking with Maja, Rasa & Nik about my issues of body-mind connection, and my focusing issues I was experiencing since the middle of my studies. At that time, Maja had advised me to go through the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_stress_reduction|Mindfulness 8-weeks course (MBSR)]], she thought it would help me with this. Her Dutch-speaking mindfulness teacher advised me a French-speaking one, and because of affluence & scheduling issues, I could only start with the cycle in May.
+It was worth the waiting.
+I remembered mentionning the quest for "inner peace" to Vali during our first session. This cycle was basically a course on how to find inner peace. With very simple meditation techniques inherited from buddhism, we would quiet, slowly but surely, whatever wind or storm troubling our souls.
+I felt more body conscious, and did recover most part of my focusing abilities. But I also managed way better with emotionnally perturbing events, increased my perseverance in unpleasant or tedious tasks, managed to get back to contemplation on a daily basis, and logically started to find beauty more frequently on my way.
+You may have guessed it: with coaching, going through this process was the most positively transformative experience I lived this year, and I cannot not stop being lyrical about it.
+===Getting Inspired===
+{{ :michka:getting_inspired.jpg?400 |}}
+In May, I was invited by [[http://www.evabakkelsett.com/|Eva Bakselett]] to teach in a workshop at [[http://schumachercollege.org.uk/|Schumacher College]], a mythical teaching place devoted to ecology I had heard of numerous times. It was a wonderful experience, mainly because of the incredible people I have met there.
+On the picture on top of this section, you can see two people. The guy is a former graphic designer. After three months of work, he found out that working behind a screen was not his way. So he knocked at the nieghboring baker's door and asked for an apprenticeship. He got accepted, and is now a (talented) baker for several years. On the picture, we can see him teaching how to make bread from a grain polyculture flour to a Horticulture apprentice from the College.
+And he is only one example of the amazing people I met at the College. And he is only one example of the amazing people I met this year in Totnes, Nantes, Marseille, Paris, Brest and so on.
+I want to keep meeting diverse people in the upcoming years. With diverse interests, diverse opinions, and amazing life trajectories. Because it is so pleasant & enriching, and it helps me so much re-shape my vision of the world.
+====Summer - Experimenting====
+===Researching===
+{{ :michka:researching.jpg?400 |}}
+In June, my friend [[http://zprod.org/|Paul Granjon]] came over for one week. Paul is an artist who works on co-evolution of humans and machines. Lately, he is has been dealing with e-waste a lot.
+We had a one-week long research workshop, during which we tried to build supercapacitors out of dead PC batteries.
+It was my first "technical" research experiment in a few months. Without having stated it very clearly, I think that I was in the process of escaping "technical" research, for several reasons. Mostly, I found research very frustrating. Trying to make something work for weeks, mostly failing, and having once in a while a bleak enlightment when something worked was not for me.
+However, reasearching with Paul was completely different. We had a very nice week, I learned tons of stuff, and even though we did not manage to have anything working as well as we wish it would, I felt it was very pleasant.
+I think that the combination of five weeks of mindfulness training helped me deal with the frustration inherent to research. But, also, having someone like Paul as a teammate for this project changed everything. We had very nice discussions, for instance on the wider context of the research we were performing.
+After this week, I was no longer sure I wanted to give up on "technical" research.
+===Connecting===
+{{ :michka:connecting.jpg?400 |}}
+Strengthened by the experience with Paul, I headed towards Nantes, and the [[http://summerlabnantes.net/|Summerlab]] organized by [[http://www.pingbase.net/|Ping]].
+This event aims at offering a temporary experimental space to researchers of all kinds, from writers to tailors, including programmers, furniture designers, or musicians.
+During one week, we would meet every morning to discuss what were the ongoing projects, and then we would spend the day working on them. Every night there was a party. Wonderful week.
+I met tons of people from diverse communities, and got people excited on the two projects I proposed: [[http://etherpad.pingbase.net/summerlab-ateliers-dynamomoteur|building a dynamo from a printer DC motor]], and [[http://etherpad.pingbase.net/summerlab-ateliers-pilemicrobienne|experimenting with microbial fuel cells]].
+This event confirmed that the essence of what I want in this period of my life is: traveling, meeting people with diverse backgrounds & ideas, and doing stuff with them.
+===Wandering===
+{{ :michka:wandering.jpg?400 |}}
+I also spent some holidays with Amélie, and later in the summer with my family. During this period, I just spent time with people I like, contemplated many diverse and beautiful landscapes, walked, played games, and read a few serious books.
+During this period, I could feel the experiments and works of the past few months sediment deep inside, fermenting a little bit maybe, and starting to produce new flavors in my present and potential future life.
+Wandering is also very important. Spending some time far away from the daily routine, loosing some time in between, is vital. It seems that the new stuff I seeded earlier needed this stage for a healthy development.
+====Autumn - Preparing====
+After seeding, letting things develop, experimenting, and getting a few answers, most of the time of the Transiency had flown away. Now has come the time to prepare for the future life, post-Transiency.
+===Replicating===
+{{ :michka:replicating.jpg?400 |}}
+When an experiment is performed once, it brings a few insights. But to confirm these insights, replication is needed.
+I spent most of my autumn expanding the positive experiences I had this year. I went one week in Paris, for a [[http://www.biomimicry.eu/evenement/biomimicry-and-responsible-innovation-in-smes/|symposium on Biomimicry]], and another one on [[http://technologos.fr/documents/Programme_assises_2014.pdf|Technique & Degrowth]]. Then, I brought my [[http://lib.fo.am/michka/research/microbial_fuel_cells|microbial fuel cells]] to Marseille for the [[http://reso-nance.org/whattheflok/accueil|What the flok ? festival]]. Guillian Graves and I [[http://www.enzymeandco.com/blog/conference-au-ceebios-11-octobre-2014/|gave a talk]] about our Biomimetic Kettle in the [[http://ceebios.com/|European Center of Excellence in Biomimicry]] (Senlis, France) and in [[http://www.eesab.fr/brest/actualites/conferences-1er-semestre|Brest]]. I went to Lausanne, to discuss a potential inclusion in a start-up, and enjoyed the [[http://nipconf.com/|NipConf]]. Finally, I brought the microbial fuel cells back to Nantes for [[http://fablabo.net/wiki/Pile_microbienne|a workshop at Plateforme C]], [[http://pingbase.net/|Ping]]'s fablab. Besides this, I performed some research on microbial fuel cells here [[http://lib.fo.am/michka/research/microbial_fuel_cells/bruxelles2|in Brussels]].
+All of these experiments were positive, and confirmed that I was heading the right way for my post-Transiency life.
+===Designing===
+{{ :michka:replicating.jpg?400 |}}
+I was left with the tricky part: designing the lifestyle. Now that I knew most of the components, how could I fit them together in an smooth way ?
+Travelling around to meet people and do stuff with them. Mostly people with low budgets. Keeping a freedom of actions & movement while still earning some money.
+The current hypothesis I will try from January on is the following:
+   * Most of my income may come from my work at a small start-up, based in Lausanne, and dealing with artificial closed ecosystem. It is going to be a very interesting job, in an entrepreneurial contexte, in which we will develop useful technologies for depollution, ecosystem restauration, and recycling. As I will most probably be working 20% (one week a month) in Lausanne, I will have three to four weeks a month free for other stuff.
+   * During these periods, I will partly be traveling around to meet & visit interesting people working in "edgy" multi-disciplinary communities.
+   * I will also spend some time in Brussels, meeting the local communities here I did not take the time to visit yet, and keeping some days available to start new projects at FoAM. I want also to keep some time to read, and explore Belgium more seriously than I did so far.
+   * I will keep spending some time with people I like, both in Brussels and elsewhere, and some time wandering around, to let space for things to happen.
+====(Un)Conclusion - Lessons Learned====
+My work will now to test the second hypothesis highlighted in the section above.
+Again, I think that the lifestyle balance will be quite good.
+In terms of coherence, I changed a little bit my mind. My "purist" vision of coherence between opinions and actions  felt inhibiting, as most of the non-marginal action in this society would bring me to induce some destructive consequences somewhere in the world.
+After discussing about it with may different persons, I decided to move towards a more experimental approach, which leaves the issue of coherence a little bit aside, and let space for potentially imperfect though impactful actions.
+{{ :michka:new_hypothesis.jpg?400 |}}
+The question of coherence remains open, and I plan to spend some of my free time reading, discussing and experimenting about it.
+In a way, I am back to the starting point, which is testing a new lifestyle hypothesis, strengthened with the experience, work and tools learned this year.
+This makes me think that the Transiency will, in my case, continue a little bit as a continuous process for a while.
+I had to wrap this year up, I would say that I mostly started learned how to experiment at lifestyle scale. Below are a few lessons I learned during this year. May they be useful to you, if you feel like starting a similar process:
+   * **External constraints are not the hardest.** Once I had 100% free time to do whatever I would feel so, I started to feel lost. Things that appeared to be very desirable before looked suddenly pointless and boring. More importantly, I discovered that my fears were inhibiting the transformation more than my agenda. I needed to work on that, and take quiet time for it, because it can be very hard.
+   * **The deepest personal work is the more transformative.** Learning how to do my own laundry soap was great. However, coaching and mindfulness allowed me to understand better who I am, and unlocked some of my internal barrieres to action.
+   * **Free experimentation space & time is more relevant than a five-year detailed plan.** I think that the most important ingredient for a life transition is the freedom of action, movement and thought. Leaving room for experimentation and trying stuff was an important condition to learning about myself, and my five year plans quickly became obsolete after small short-term experimentations. Fail soon, fail often, as they say.