8 thoughts on “Principles from Nature

  1. These will make wonderful games in our classes! I’m wondering if substituting the word maximize for exploitation in card #10 will soften the current use of that word so we don’t reintroduce that spirit of domination into our sessions

    1. I’ve actually thought about that myself. The full principle is ‘maximise and exploit edges’s maybe I should have Maximise Edges on the card then explain the ‘exploitation’ term somehow differently in the mind maps? I’ll look back through Mollison’s writings to see if their is a softer way of putting it. Maybe Principle of Edge Effect? Or Edge Principle?

      1. MAYBE USE, INSTEAD OF EXPLOITATION, .. Principle of Edge Effects’ Extra Yield…or, Principle of Gain Extra Yield at the Edge (or at Edges)

        Also, these cards are fantastic, thanks so much
        TOM T

        1. Thanks.It would be Use Edges Principle or Principle of Using Edges. I have been trying to keep the principle names, where they don’t already have one, as short as possible. I’m leaning towards ‘Edge Principle’ as the shortest version. The actual principle ‘identify, create and exploit edges’ are Bill’s words so I haven’t wanted to alter them. I know some people don’t like the term exploit and personally I prefer the term ‘utilise’. Actually that’s another potential name for it: Principle of Edge Utilisation’. Utilisation would have been what Bill meant when using the term exploitation in that context, and certainly didn’t mean exploit as it is generally used but as meaning ‘to utilise that edge for all the functions it can provide’. Any thoughts anyone? Should we alter it to Principle of Edge Utilisation? Another possibility is Principle of Edge Maximisation.

    2. I took what you said onboard, as the saying goes, and changed it to utilise and also changed the principle name to Principle of Edge Effects. This is what Bill calls it in Intro to Permaculture, so is probably a better name than Principle of Edge Exploitation. The accompanying mind maps in Word are also up now. They don’t seem to open properly with the Word app on my tablet so will need to be downloaded to a desktop. I will put up a pdf version up when I’ve altered them a bit and change local references to make them more ‘global’. People are free to download and alter the mindmaps in Word to make them more relevant to their local conditions.

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