These string figures are thinking as well as making practices, peda-gogical practices and cosmological performances. Some Navajo thinkersdescribe string games as one kind of patterning for restoring hózhó, aterm imperfectly translated into English as “harmony,” “beauty,” “order,”and “right relations of the world,” including right relations of humansand nonhumans.

tologically heterogeneous partners become who and what they are inrelational material-semiotic worlding. Natures, cultures, subjects, andobjects do not preexist their intertwined worldings.

Relays, string figures, pass-ing patterns back and forth, giving and receiving, patterning, holdingthe unasked-for pattern in one’s hands, response-ability; that is core towhat I mean by staying with the trouble in serious multispecies worlds.Becoming-with, not becoming, is the name of the game; becoming-withis how partners are, in Vinciane Despret’s terms, rendered capable.7 On-

It matters what matters we use to think othermatters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with;it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, whatdescriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters whatstories make worlds, what worlds make stories

Playinggames of string figures is about giving and receiving patterns, droppingthreads and failing but sometimes finding something that works, some-thing consequential and maybe even beautiful, that wasn’t there before,of relaying connections that matter, of telling stories in hand upon hand,digit upon digit, attachment site upon attachment site, to craft condi-tions for finite flourishing on terra, on earth.

you should not let your knowledge, notes, and markings simply rot. Make sure you assign them to an action to produce something deliverable.

We all naturally have a desire to create — to bring to life something good, true, or beautiful.

organizing content for action, according to the projects you are working on right now. Our notes are things to use, not just things to collect

Spending too much energy on analytically deciding whether the content is worth keeping takes away your energy for being creative. When you spend all your energy on that decision, you have less energy left for valuable steps like making connections, imagining possibilities, formulating theories, and creating new ideas.

capture what truly resonates with you

in any piece of content, the value is not evenly distributed

[…] creativity is about connecting ideas together, especially ideas that don’t seem to be connected. — Tiago Forte

Using a “Second Brain” for our thoughts allows our “First Brain” to focus on creativity rather than getting bogged down by remembering tasks.

Cybertext, as now should be clear, is the wide range (or perspec-tive) of possible textualities seen as a typology of machines, as vari-ous kinds of literary communication systems where the functionaldifferences among the mechanical parts play a defining role in deter-mining the aesthetic process.

the Ekumen,whose goal is "the augmentationof the complexityand intensityof the field of intelligentlife. The enrichmentofharmony..."(?3), comes perhapsas close an any politicalsystem can to a viablereconciliationof unityand diversity,as suggestedby the juxtapositionof the words"harmony"and "complexity."And it does this only by stressingwhat Genlylearnsin the course of the novel-the I-Thourelationshipon the individuallevel must beontologicallypriorand more valuedthan any unificationon a largerscale. It is bothbeginningand basis. Towardsthe end of the book Genly says:Alone,I cannotchangeyourworld.ButI canbe changedby it. Alone,I must listen,as wellas speak.Alone, the relationshipI make,ifI makeone, is not impersonaland not onlypolitical:it is individual,it is personal....So I was sent alone,foryoursake?or formy own?I don'tknow.[?8]The question raised at the end of this passage echoes the opening of the novelwhen Genly wonderswhose story it actuallyis. In the context of the entire book,the question is rhetorical:it is the story not primarilyabout single and separateentities but about the relationsamong them

one can "know"a fact but not fullyapprehendit withoutthe imaginatio

When you grow up, you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. And that is: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.