You've heard of scope creep? That's when a project takes on a life of its own, pushing its boundaries ever wider. I'm facing scope explosion. Every evening while I sleep, the tendrils of my subject reach out to form new connections. How can I leave out __________ (fill in the blank)? My mindmaps are mushrooming exponentially.

My tale of informal learning would be incomplete without deep dives into complexity theory, cognition, collective intelligence, co-evolution, collaboration, conscious evolution, etc., and that's just the beginning of the list of words that begin with "C."

I am Mickey Mouse in The Sorceror's Apprentice. The water is rising faster than the brooms can carry it out. Stacks of books and articles and scribbles tower over my desk. So much to read, to learn, to integrate into my thinking. So many wonderful people to talk with about this. I'm about to drown in thought. And I have about ten working days left before heading to Learning 2005 and then Taiwan and then Abu Dhabi and then Berlin. My manuscript is due soon thereafter.


I must hop out of this escalating cycle
else risk burning out
so I'm changing course

The unified field model of informal learning
is a grail I will not reach
on the present journey

Instead I will be content to light the fire
to tantalize with examples
to make readers crave more

After all, research has found that lessons
left incomplete stick twice
as well as those left open


William Carlos Williams:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens