Hi, I'm Sam.
The origins of this project reaches back decades. In many ways I look “normal” - I’ve raised a wonderful family, earned a graduate degree in Molecular Genetics from the University of Cambridge, worked at some of the largest companies in the world.
But since I was a teen, I’ve also been carrying a personality disorder that has taken a great deal of my energy and time to manage, often less successfully than I would like.
In a real way, this has forced me to rebuild my nervous system from the ground up. I had to figure out how to feel like a whole and complete individual, how to move through reality, how to respect reality, and how to uncover more of my authentic self.
None of this was - or is - easy. But there’s a silver lining: I had to go back to fundamentals of what a healthy, thriving life looks like, feels like, and acts like.
This is the crucible out of which this model was born.
I observed. I learned. I experimented. Over time, patterns started to emerge from the chaos.
Once I felt like I understood something with some clarity, another pattern would click into the first and then another and another. Repeat this over many years and a general theory began to form.
A good theory explains many different real-world phenomena with a simple set of principles. If something in reality violates a theory, the theory must be expanded, adjusted, or abandoned.
This is the rigor that I have required of myself - and it reflects my scientific training. No just making things up because they sound good. No reliance on the spiritual. No faking… anything. If a concept doesn’t reflect reality, I simply drop it and keep looking. There is already far too much noise out there and little signal. And when wrong information is pervasive it carries a tremendous opportunity cost paid through dead ends and missed opportunities.
I finally got the chance to package what I learned starting in 2023 when I hit a period of unemployment. This project is now going on more than 3 years, and is still going.
To give you a sense of the scale of effort, 3+ years and counting, more than 40 drafts of the main guide. I have iterated the States maps more than 1,000 times (true), I have to wear arm braces, wrist braces an often a neck brace because I’m at my computer an unnatural amount of time.
Sounds extreme, but that is because I refuse to put anything into the world that doesn’t pass my rigor test. I’d much rather offer nothing than offer something that is useless, or potentially damaging. It’s been an engaging, fun, trying, and many times exhausting act of co-creation with reality.
It helps you recognizing when survival is organizing you, releasing that, and letting your true self emerge that is already underneath survival. The outcome is to thrive.
It’s currently a contentious topic, but AI has played some specific roles putting this together. I use it to challenge test framework logic and consistency to surface where I might have errors. I use it to help limit framework drift. I use its power in language to explore words. I use it to summarize and write much of the text - but only once my idea is formulated. I’m not a writer and I find that if I try to write all myself too much of a concept is obscured and not presented cleanly. I know I’ll lose some people over this but it’s a trade off I’m willing to make. Without this help this model may not have ever made it to the real-world.
Only a few theories are 100% locked in, and this model is no different. It will evolve. But it is solid enough at this point to put into the world.
This model isn’t a philosophy, a belief system, or a spiritual practice - it's a map.
If it helps you make sense of things that haven't made sense before, great, and if it doesn’t, that’s fine too.
Either way, I'm glad you're here.
Sam
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