WHERE TO BEGIN

RISE² is not meant to be read in one straight line.

It is a collection of Concepts, Books, Movies, Tools, and explorations of the Mind of the Martial Artist—different approaches to the same underlying problem:

How do we see reality more clearly, think more effectively, and become more capable human beings?

Here are five places to begin.

CONCEPTS

The Map Is Not the Territory

We do not experience reality directly. We experience our maps of it—our words, beliefs, theories, assumptions, and interpretations.

Learning to distinguish the map from the territory may be one of the most valuable habits of thought you can acquire.

First entry: The Map Is Not the Territory →

BOOKS

Superforecasting

Experts are often confident. That does not necessarily make them accurate.

Superforecasting shows that prediction can be measured—and that certain habits of thought consistently outperform conventional expertise.

It provides evidence for one of the central ideas of RISE²:

There are different ways of thinking, and some work better than others.

First entry: Superforecasting →

MOVIES

The Name of the Rose

Sometimes an idea is more powerful when you experience it rather than merely read about it.

The Name of the Rose places two ways of knowing in conflict: inherited authority versus observation, questioning, evidence, and revision.

The story takes place in the Middle Ages.

The conflict is still with us.

First entry: The Name of the Rose →

TOOLS

Operational Definition

Many disagreements persist because the people involved have never clearly defined what they are talking about.

Operational Definition asks:

What exactly do you mean—and how would we recognize or measure it?

It is a deceptively simple tool that can transform vague argument into something that can actually be examined.

First entry: Operational Definition →

THE MIND OF THE MARTIAL ARTIST

Super Value / It’s What You Are not what you have

The previous sections deal largely with ideas and methods.

This section deals with you.

Martial arts taught me that knowledge alone is not enough. What ultimately matters is what repeated thought, discipline, action, adversity, and practice cause you to become.

Skill becomes habit.

Habit becomes character.

And character eventually becomes something deeper:

It’s what you are.

That is the territory explored in The Mind of the Martial Artist—Body, Mind, and Spirit.

First entry: Super Value / It’s What You Are Not what you have →

These are only the first doors.

More Concepts, Books, Movies, Tools, and explorations of the Martial Artist will follow.

You do not have to accept any of them.

You are invited to examine them, test them, use them—and keep what survives contact with the territory.