1/ The Edge is alive — and it’s happening now.

In pop-up cities like Esmeralda, where climate futurists, civic hackers, and parents with toddlers gather to prototype new ways of living.

But the real opportunity?

Bringing that same spirit to anytown USA.

🧵

(paɪəˈnɪərɪŋ ˈspɪrɪt) a willingness to endure hardship in order to explore new places or try out new the new
|| PioneeringSpirit.xyz || bit.ly/patwater

3/ In education, we can do better than factory schooling.

At Esmeralda we saw pop-up pods and passion-led learning.

What would it look like to bring that home?

In 2015, I shared a vision: inquiry-based education grounded in place and wonder.
Read it here:

4/ Climate resilience isn’t abstract here.

It's helping dig a stormwater ditch in a day.

It’s fire-resistant siding, greywater hacks, and multi-gen households built not from policy but from love and necessity.

Edge wisdom, camouflaged as backyard common sense.

https://protocolized.summerofprotocols.com/p/dirt-simple

3/ In education, we can do better than factory schooling.

At Esmeralda we saw pop-up pods and passion-led learning.

What would it look like to bring that home?

In 2015, I shared a vision: inquiry-based education grounded in place and wonder.
Read it here:
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2013-04-02-a-radically-practical-vision-of-education

2/ My hometown of La Crescenta is one such place.

A typical suburb in Southern California. Quiet. Tree-lined. Mall-adjacent.

But just beneath the surface, it’s a perfect testbed — a place to reimagine what suburbia can become.