Greetings,
In case you missed our announcement last week, applications are now open – for only three more days – for our free course on sensemaking. Please see the original announcement below for more details.
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Something I hear often from listeners is a desire to move beyond understanding our predicament toward meaningful action. But in our current information environment, sensemaking itself has become extraordinarily difficult. We are embedded in systems of information warfare, digital manipulation, and fragmented communication that leave us with a distorted sense of what is true or even based in reality. It’s almost as if our information commons is trending towards ‘anti-reality’.
But how we make sense of reality determines how we respond to it. Understanding this topic - the crises in our information ecologies - underpins ALL the other content about the human predicament.
To that end, my team and I have been working on something behind the scenes that we hope will help with navigating these challenges: our first interactive learning course, which we’re calling Reality Base Camp: Crises in Information Ecologies.
Please watch the video below for the full announcement:
What Is This Course About?
The Great Simplification team, along with external experts who know this material deeply, have developed Reality Base Camp – a beta course on sensemaking. The course teaches certain truths about today’s information commons, and helps participants navigate the dangers of digital communication technologies. It takes a deeper dive into topics many of you will recognize: complexity, information warfare, social media, artificial intelligence, epistemology, and more.
This is an interactive learning experience designed to have you actively practice with sensemaking tools and approaches. The goal is for participants to walk away better equipped to make grounded decisions for future projects at various scales in their own communities, institutions, and professions.
We live in unprecedented times requiring unprecedented responses. Understanding our predicament is the first step, but it's not enough. We need people equipped to navigate information complexity, build community resilience, and make decisions grounded in reality rather than wishful thinking or manipulation.
Reality Base Camp is designed to help develop those capabilities.
How Much Time Will It Take?
This course was built for those ready for a serious, hands-on learning experience that expands how they think about the world. It's dense. It's challenging. It's not for everyone.
We estimate the course will require 15-20 hours of work, completed over a four-week period. Some will move faster, some slower, and some may choose to engage with all the optional supplementary material.
In addition to learning through reading and video material, you'll complete writing assignments and reflections, which are critical for applying these materials to your own life. Writing responses aren't just busy work; they're where you’ll wrestle with what you’re learning and integrate your insights. Since this is a beta course, we’ll also use your written responses to gauge how well the material lands.
If you're ready for serious engagement with these challenges and want to move beyond consuming content toward actively developing the skills our moment demands, this course is for you.
How Much Does it Cost?
The cost of the course is completely free.
Who Should Apply?
Since this is a pilot course and requires our team to review written assignments, we can only accept a limited cohort of about 150 people for this first run. We're looking worldwide for fully engaged participants with diverse professional backgrounds and perspectives – anyone who is prepared to deeply dive into this material. Our plan is to create a representative sample to be our “beta testers.” This first cohort will not only test this new offering but also contribute feedback on the experience.
While our staff’s bandwidth is limited and we cannot provide one-on-one tutoring, participants who complete all of the work will be invited to a virtual capstone seminar with me and other former TGS guests. But the real reward will be the eye-opening insights and new ways of navigating the world that you’ll gain from the course.
We are looking for people from all walks of life and experiences who are genuinely committed to this learning process, and who have the time and availability to complete the course. If this is you, we encourage you to apply.
Timeline and Process
Applications: Applications are open today, and will remain open for two weeks following this announcement.
Review Period: We will take about 2 weeks to review the applications and select participants for this round.
Notification of Acceptance: Those accepted into this first cohort will be notified between late September and the first week of October.
Course Duration: Participants will have four weeks to complete the course once it begins.
The course is completely free of charge.
Thank You for Experimenting With Us
We're excited to work with our most engaged community members on this experiment in learning.
On behalf of myself and my team, thank you for your continued engagement and commitment to TGS as we all work towards a future better than the default. We hope to receive your application soon.
I think it's brilliant that you are offering this course. If I wasn't so busy finishing up the rainwater to toilet flush system, building the inground greenhouse and harvesting the garden, I'd be on it in a flash.
Thankyou for giving..and giving..and giving.
I really hope you will offer this again in the winter. Right now involved in too many projects. Also wonder if there’s a way to connect and share ideas/build coalitions within this community?
Thank you for this journey.