Fluid, not Linear or Strict

A Radical Alternative to College

Sunday, July 27th, 2025

Writing to you from Uruguay

I just started a course on meteorology this week - something I’d like to further my knowledge on since it relates to flying. Technically, I started the course when I was twelve…

My mom had given me a dvd set of the exact same course I’m taking now.

At the time, I was highly interested in meteorology and, to be more specific, tornadoes. For 5 or 6 years of my life I had a lingering interest in the subject and was even given the opportunity to go storm chasing with Reed Timmer - who dubs himself an “extreme meteorologist”.

An extreme meteorologist he is…

My father and I met him at his home in Oklahoma before heading off to track down a storm in Kansas. Several hours into the drive we began to see a huge cumulonimbus building off in the distance. For a moment, after getting up close and personal with the storm, I felt an eerie calmness that has only replicated itself in my life a few times since.

The orange glow of the sunset combined with the ever-growing darkness of the storm and the silence was, in retrospect, a sign of what was to come…

Doesn’t look like it, but the tornado was on the ground.

The sun seemed to set as soon as we all piled into the car and were making our way through country roads in the pitch black. Surrounded by tornadoes and being hit with hail - it was scary.

Anyway, that event sustained my interest in meteorology for many years to come. But, I never finished that course that course that I am currently taking.

Knowledge furthered = principles of the world discovered

Whether it’s weather, economics, or history there are - in the short term - changes that seem unique, but if you expand your timeline you begin to see repetition in everything.

Every storm is built off of the last. Every event was set to occur by the conditions of the past just as the “unique” event itself sets the stage for every related change thereafter.

Everything is beautifully connected and valuably revealing once you see the principles of the world.

The trouble lies in first being able to see enough to discover the principles. Until we can, life seems to be a series of random events where we are affected by each stage in the flow of change. Everything seems to come at us, not from us, with seemingly negative events striking us like flak.

It seems to me that the purpose of an education (at least a major part of it) is to gain the ability to identify the principles, not about piecing together abstract facts.

No true understanding comes from that.

Discovered and rediscovered

When we are growing up we are under the illusion that things are as they seem:

• Parents know what they are doing

• Scientists know what they are talking about

• Our teachers are teaching us the truth

The world seems fixed and certain.

But, this isn’t true. And this is something I’ve come to see throughout my time in The Preparation. The world is not fixed and the rules and limitations we assume to be in place are nothing but blockades in our mind stemming from our lack of understanding.

Speaking of…

I started getting some flight hours in this past week - 3 flights in total (4 hours) out of an international airport. After starting flight training in the states I came here and then decided to continue building experience and hours in Uruguay.

The flight school that I’ve been using had never had an international student pilot before. In the beginning they were unclear as to whether or not I could actually train here…and so was I. Actually, I was under the assumption that it was impossible at first.

Anyway…

At this point I’ve been fortunate (and unfortunate) to have a total of 6 different flight instructors, but it has allowed me to discover something interesting once again.

While training with my new instructor I began to see something I’ve noticed a few times before: every “expert” has a different way of doing things, which, at least to me, cancels out any reason to feel inferior to their supposed authority.

It’s funny when you see men in different parts of the world act nearly cocksure that they know how to fly a plane…and yet they do it noticeably different.

Why does this matter?

Things like this change the way you see the world.

People or events that seem impassible (or above you) suddenly come down to your level as just your fellow man or a problem to work through. Therefore, you’re no longer subjecting yourself to authority or the roadblocks it puts up, but you’re able to flow around it.

I think this is critical for anyone entering into their own Preparation because it gives you the proper perspective: you don’t see the path to success as one in which the “authorities” and rules must be adhered to, but as a path in which the world is much more open and fluid - the possibilities are expansive.

Do away with the whole idea that people know what they are doing and the faulty assumption that just because someone hasn’t tried something it’s impossible (just like me assuming that it was impossible to fly here).

Flying in Uruguay

In some ways, flying in Uruguay is much more fun than flying in the U.S. - I mean you don’t have air traffic control on your ass every time you make a minor mistake in your radio call, there’s much less traffic, and people more relaxed in general.

Not to mention that I’ve had some of my best landings here.

The southerly winds from the ocean make for unpleasant crosswinds, but let’s call it a training opportunity…Overall though, the healthy balance of relaxed and alert is absolutely enjoyable.

I’ll be flying here for many months to come to rack up hours and experience. Eventually, at a good time, I’ll make it back to the states to take the check ride for the Private Pilot’s License.

The plan from here is to shift into shift into a different area of study and work for The Preparation, but I’ll definitely be flying often as well. It just won’t be the main focus.

But, as I’ve said, flying here has affirmed a thought that has come up a few times over the past two years: things are fluid, not linear or strict.

I truly believed that it was going to be impossible to fly here and the people I asked to fly with were unsure about it as well. Turns out it’s entirely possible. Along with that, until coming here I held flight instructors up on a pedestal because I thought they knew (with 100% certainty) what they were doing. Only upon coming to another country and training with a new instructor was I reminded of that fact that someone has specialized knowledge or a position of authority doesn’t mean that they are all-knowing.

That realization makes life much better and much more interesting.

Though, I suppose I should have already learned not to put the “experts” on a pedestal after covid…

What I’ve been reading

• Finished reading Self-Reliance by Emerson

• Started reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

  

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  Are these updates informative? Are they useful? Entertaining?

  Leave a comment below if you’ve got any suggestions or questions for me.

  And don’t forget to send this to someone who might benefit.

  I’ll speak to you next week.

  -Maxim Benjamin Smith

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  I am acting as a guinea pig for a program which is meant to prepare young men for the future. This program is designed to be a replacement for the only three routes advertised to young men today - go to college, the military, or a dead-end job.

  All of these typical routes of life are designed to shape us into cogs for a wheel that doesn’t serve us. Wasted time, debt, lack of skills, and a soul crushing job define many who follow the traditional route.

  This program, which we can call “The Preparation”, is meant to guide young men on a path where they properly utilize their time to gain skills, build relationships, and reach a state of being truly educated. The Preparation is meant to set young men up for success.

  What appeals to me about The Preparation is the idea of the type of man I could be. The path to becoming a skilled, dangerous, and competent man is much more clear now. I’ve always been impressed by characters like The Count of Monte Cristo, men who accumulated knowledge and skills over a long period of time and eventually became incredibly capable men.

  Young men today do not have a guiding light. We have few mentors and no one to emulate. We have been told that there are only a few paths to success in this world. For intelligent and ambitious people - college is sold to us as the one true path. And yet that path seems completely uncertain today.

  We desperately need something real to grab onto. I think this is it.

  I’m putting the ideas into action. Will it work? I can’t be sure, but I’m doing my best. I’m more than 60 weeks into the program at this point. So far, so good.

  You can follow me along as I follow the program. Each week, I summarize all that I did.

  My objective in sharing this is three fold:

  1. Documenting my progress holds me accountable.

  2. I hope these updates will show other young men that there is another path we can take.

  3. For the parents who stumble upon this log, I want to prove to you that telling your children that the conventional path - college, debt, and a job is not the foolproof path you think it is.