User:Jan Steinman
From EcoReality
Hi! I'm Jan Steinman. I grew up on a southeast Michigan subsistence farm with my parents, two brothers, and two sisters. We pretty much fed ourselves on five acres, while my parents worked full-time jobs -- Shirley, an elementary school teacher, George, a painter and remodeler. They still live on the farm today, while mumbling about moving into something smaller as the area they are able to garden gets smaller every year.
I learned how to run a budget and make a profit at 12 or 13 -- my dad would buy seed corn, fuel, and fertilizer, we kids would plow, disk, plant, weed, pick, and sell the sweet corn ("always give 'em a baker's dozen"), pay him back for his expenses, and pocket the rest! I sure felt rich at the end of the season to have a couple hundred 1960's dollars to split three ways!
My agricultural roots have simmered on the back burner since then, but it's all coming back now. It's amazing how much you learn at that age without really thinking of it as a skill!
Sometimes, my dad would match whatever we put in the bank for savings. The sweet corn and money I earned as a groom (sounds better than "stall mucker") at a nearby American Standardbred farm enabled me to start a stereo service business right out of high school at the age of 17.
Although I've been employed quite a bit since then, I've always kept a business of some kind on the side, and left traditional employment completely in 1990, and have been self-supporting since then.
Jan's vision of the ecovillage in five years is fun and upbeat. Jan's vision, 50 years later is dark and foreboding. 
These essays won first place in Beyond Peak's Scenario Contest!
I have some thoughts on possessions and sharing that may be of interest. Please edit and refine, and perhaps we can roll it into our policies someday.
I've also started a page on wiki hacks that I'd like to implement. Please add your suggestions!
If you'd rather chat, you can Skype me, but I currently don't use it often.
Brief Chronologue
- 1955-1973: Farmboy, musician, skater, painter's helper, stable hand, journalist, editor, cross-country runner, ham radio licensee, tested choleric-sanguine, electronics tech, 1974-1979: car stereo sales, self-employed electronics service, nightclub manager, hobo, TV repair, shoplifter, transcontinental bicycle tour guide, bicycle messenger, 1980-1991: 1980 Winter Olympics ski patroller, field service engineer (Korea, England, Cyprus), electrical design engineer, no-children vasectomy, carpenter, computer site engineer, software engineer, ski instructor/supervisor/examiner, project leader, Dvorak typist, systems architect, 1992-1999: systems architecture and development process consultant (Switzerland, Germany, Canada, others), mentor, magazine columnist, Internet/web pioneer, loving partner, Bachelor of Arts degree in Science/Ecology, home remodeler, herding cats (actually, organizing artists: board member on several local arts organizations), photography instructor, fine-art photographer, graphic artist, 2000-present: printmaker, art gypsy, Internet service provider, vegetarian, welder, biofuel user, award-winning recycler, PeakOil.com addict, danced with the New York City Rockettes, immigrant, Myers-Briggs INTJ personality, tribe historian, ecovillage founder, certified Permaculture designer, ecovillage staffer, certified Permaculture teacher, Photo Editor for Communities Magazine, community educator, movie star, currently self-unemployed!
Currently Reading
(I'm not happy unless at least two books are being digested.)
- Building Green, Clarke Snell and Tim Callahan
- "A complete how-to guide to alternative building methods," full of practical techniques for using earthen materials, straw bale, cordwood, living roofs, and more, culminating in a complete design for a small building, using most of the techniques described.
Recent Readings
- The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan
- a story of four plants, from the plant's point-of-view, on how they got humans to help them propagate and to spread their genes much broader than if they had to do it on their own.
- Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability, David Holmgren
- The co-founder of the Permaculture movement expands the original vision to include sustainable social, economic, and most importantly, energy systems. Specifically raised is the specter of energy resource peaking and depletion, which many so-called "sustainable" practices ignore.
- The Axemaker's Gift, James Burke and Robert Ornstein
- A cautionary tale of how technology has progressively exerted its influence over human behavior and the entire planet. The influence of Burke, best known for his Connections series on US public TV, is distinct, as they weave a brilliant tapestry from the earliest attempts at language through the wired age. Suspect, however, are the book's conclusions that the Internet is going to save humanity.
- A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander
- "The theory of architecture implicit in our world today is bankrupt," says Alexander, who introduces a pattern language for making living structures.
- A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut
- an American master's first work in decades combines joy of life with sorrow at the state of the world and America. Thanks for the Christmas gift, Mom!
- Power Down, Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, Richard Heinberg
- This sequel to The Party's Over describes four likely scenarios in a world of constantly diminishing energy resources. The most desired scenario, Powerdown, involves voluntarily reducing per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, among other things. How likely do you think that is? Although Heinberg does get into political futures, this book seems to be targeted toward present governmental structures, and largely ignores other possible scenarios, such as re-localization.
- The Party's Over, Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies, Richard Heinberg
- The world is about to change dramatically and forever as the result of oil depletion. Even with a switch to alternative energy sources, industrial societies will have less energy available. Competition for control of oil will lead to a continuing series of resource wars. We must: 1) transition to a slower-paced, low-energy sustainable society, 2) immediately begin a global program of resource conservation and sharing, and 3) find realistic ways for families, communities, cities, nations, and the whole world to prepare for the coming crisis.
- Creating a Life Together, Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, Diana Leafe Christian
- Practical advice for avoiding typical mistakes and addressing the social, legal, and financial problems that plague the 90% of intentional communities that inevitably fail. Every potential ecovillage should read it, says Bill Mollison, founder of the permaculture movement.
- The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander
- The introduction to his seminal A Pattern Language, this volume carefully and thoughtfully lays out the philosophy and methodology in A Pattern Language. While not necessary for using the latter, more famous volume, this book provides a broad overview, and ties together the various patterns into a cohesive whole.
Things I'm Working On
- Impatience: Is that thing you said you'd have done next week ready yet?
- Excessive focus: I'm really busy right now, so...
- Remembering what's important: ... I didn't notice that you are bleeding!
- Clutter: If I could find my list, I'd add 'find my list' to it!
- Procrastination: Why wait until the last minute, when you can wait until the last second!
- Priorities: understanding the difference between "busy-ness" and accomplishment.
- and many more faults that I beg your patience and understanding with!
Things I'm Not Working On
- Secret handshakes: There's a fine line between having a common purpose and being in a cult.
- Spectator sports: "Hey, how 'bout them Canucks!" "Oh, I'm sorry; I don't follow basketball. But I hope Tiger Woods pitches a goalie!"
- Petty arguments: I'm sorry, you're right, it will never happen again. End of argument -- and friendship. (See "Remembering what's important," above.)
- Veganism: Is a couple free-range eggs and some grated cheese now and then too much to ask?
Tests are fun!
Career Test Results
16 January 2006
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Extroversion |||||||||||||||||| 60% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||||||||||||| 73% Orderliness |||||||||||||||||| 53% Altruism |||||||||||| 36% Inquisitiveness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 80% You are an Executive, possible professions include - program designer, attorney, administrator, office manager, chemical engineer, sales manager, logistics consultant, franchise owner, new business developer, personnel manager, investment banker, labor relations, management trainer, credit investigator, mortgage broker, corporate team trainer, environmental engineer, biomedical engineer, business consultant, educational consultant, personal financial planner, network integration specialist, media planner/buyer.
Enneagram Test Results
16 January 2006
- Main TypeOverall Self
Maslow Inventory Test Results
16 January 2006
- Physiological Needs (14%) you appear to have everything you need to survive physically.
- Safety Needs (50%) you appear to have an adequately secure environment.
- Love Needs (34%) you appear to be content with the quality of your social connections.
- Esteem Needs (47%) you appear to have a medium level of skill competence.
- Self-Actualization (63%) you appear to have a high level of individual development.
Meyers-Briggs Personality Type Test Results
16 July 2006
- Your Type is INTJ
- Qualitative analysis of your type formula, you are:
- slightly expressed introvert
- distinctively expressed intuitive personality
- slightly expressed thinking personality
- moderately expressed judging personality
Strength of preferences
| Introverted | Intuitive | Thinking | Judging |
| 22% | 75% | 1% | 44% |
