ant village challenge

evan l pierce wrote:Thanks for the opportunity, Paul.

Thanks for blazing the ant village trail Evan.

Gilbert Fritz wrote:So if a current ant wanted to be in on the challenge, would they have to start over, I assume?

Currently, there is no ant village challenge.  There is just ant village.  

There is some discussion of trying to do ant village challenge again.  Not sure what the particulars might be.

paul wheaton wrote:

Kyrt Ryder wrote:Perhaps expecting a 50% success rate for ants is too high.

Might it be better to take on 18 challengers for a minimum of 6 ants or keep 12 challengers for a minimum of 4 ants?

While we did end up with 12 ants, it was "just barely".  And several of those never came out to the property even once.  So if we said "we will take in 500 ants" it would have made no difference.

You may be right Paul, the conditions and sign-up time may have only been able to produce 12 ants.

As is, for the first round, ants paid $800 and got 16 hours of excavator use.   I think that if a person tried to rent a 14 ton excavator for 16 hours, it would have cost more than $800.  So, in a way, it was as if it was free.  And then for several ants we provided additional "candy".  In other words, I think the price is already about as low as we can go.

There's value and then there is 'perceived value.'

To a prospective ant the value of that escavator use isn't nearly as high as it is to someone who is already on the land trying to make a go of it.

I don't have the answer either, but I hope there is a next challenge and it hits the finish line.

To read the ideas and thoughts about the possibility of another ant village challenge, see the ant village challenge 2019 brainstorming thread.

The ant village community that grew out of this first challenge is an awesome thing. I am so glad these folks are here and I hope they stay a part of wheaton labs for a long, long time.

Kerry Rodgers wrote:

If even one of the structures doesn't meet the bare minimum, then the whole challenge is off.

Gosh, I hate deadlines, even when they are not mine!  I hope you will let all of us out here in the ether know how the judging goes, tomorrow.

I hope (but have no data) that the Challenge is not the only stimulus moving Ant Village forward.  First place gets a huge prize, but then, only one ant would have ever gotten that.  Ants gotta wanna be there for other reasons.  Symphonies in Seed and Soil?

I'm very interested in the future of Ant Village.   But I'll save other questions for after tomorrow.

Kerry, thank you again for your support and I hope you are not too disappointed that the Ant Village challenge is off.

I am certainly here for symphonies in seed and soil. When the challenge was on, there were several moments where I was playing in the soil, planting seeds, mulching, and I felt guilty playing hooky from the responsibility of building my house. The stress of the deadlines were feeling a bit rat-race-esque, but feel such freedom and relief since it all ended. I am grateful for the impetus that accelerated the building process and continue to make progress daily. But when I take time to garden and watch clouds pass I enjoy it that much more.

As for the future of the ant village, I predict diverse homesteading incomes and a plethora of growies!

Please Kerry, keep posting your questions! Answering questions lends to a much more organic post for me than figuring out what to write all on my own. : )

Developing raw land without running water, roads in poor shape, and one uninsulated outhouse is challenge enough. The prize, a shrinking carrot, just wasn't enough motivation to make this life even more challenging. Evan, I am grateful you articulately communicated your thoughts in our post-Paul debriefing Wednesday. We came here for a certain freedom that the challenge inhibited and now we are all free as a bird!

The challenge did foster coorperation before deadlines, but I am thrilled and grateful to report that fellow ants still stop by to work on my house, despite not having the challenge-related obligation. Altruism is alive in the Ant Village! Thank you Evan, Steve and Josh!

Janet Branson wrote:Kerry, thank you again for your support and I hope you are not too disappointed that the Ant Village challenge is off.

Oh, I'm not disappointed.  I want all of you to be happy and productive (people care), and I don't know any of you well enough to know what that might look like.  So I don't have expectations about what I want Ant Village to be like.

I always felt that the Challenge was giving "interesting" inputs to the new community, and that I couldn't predict the effects it might have.  I don't know much about starting intentional communities but Paul does; and I think that he said somewhere that the whole ant idea was (among other things) "an experiment in community".  (Going  from memory.)  I'm glad you feel free after the system has made an adjustment!

Janet Branson wrote:Please Kerry, keep posting your questions! Answering questions lends to a much more organic post for me than figuring out what to write all on my own. : )

I don't ask too many questions in fear that it could feel creepy that people outside the community would be asking about what is, after all, your personal lives.  I usually ask details about something that one of you has already posted, so you kinda have to start. (maybe with just a simple picture or something.) But thanks for the feedback.  

So here're a few questions:  What is your house looking like these days?  What are you planning to do in the next few months?  Do you expect to spend some of the winter in Ant Village?  (maybe these answers belong in your "antics" thread?)