On opening sourcing

Show your work

I remember this phrase from grade school math class, as I’m sure you do. Get the answer, sure. But, critically, show us how you got there.

I also saw it embodied in Arthur’s shop. Arthur is a carpenter whose workshop is down the hill from my house. I noticed it the first time I stopped by to ask him to help me out with something. To Arthur, everything was process. First, he adjusted the table saw, then he checked to make sure the wood was square. He produced small wooden jigs he’d made to routinize production and perfection. He spent almost no time cutting wood. The outcome — the perfectly cut 1/4 inch slivers of cherry I’d asked him for— was a forgone conclusion. He barely looked at the cut pieces, and didn’t check them. He didn’t need to. I didn’t need to check them either: I saw exactly what he had done. When I assembled the shelves I’d designed, using the pieces he cut, every single one fit perfectly.

I return to this now, because I’m a non-expert embarking on a climate-related project. I’m not in an academic setting, and there isn’t a specific person to whom I’m showing my work for grading or review. When I jumped into this in March, I spent a bunch of time cold-calling, on the recommendation of my wife (a writer and former fact-checker). I found the phone numbers of professors leading biochar research, machine-operators in academic and for-profit environments, field leaders a decade in, founders of companies big and small, scaled and shut down. I dialed. And they all picked up.

“Hi. Is this Akio?”

“Yes.”

And off we’d go. (Thank you Akio. 👑 ) Half an hour later, I’d have reading lists, technical holes poked in my flimsy hypotheses, and a better understanding than I could have possibly on my own. I’m grateful.

Forgive the preamble, I’m prone to storytelling. The point is this: I will be open-sourcing everything I learn. In part because I am emulating the existing biochar community, and in part because I want that ethos to become a defining feature of The Burning Question community.

I’m new at this and more than answers I’m looking for understanding. So I’m going to avoid the frame of focusing on and providing answers, and instead focus on process, on showing the work as I work through basic questions: Why do this? Why not? What have people tried, and where did they fail? Why does this obvious thing not make sense?

I’m hopeful that this practice will be useful to you. Our how matters more than outcomes. It increases the value of our work as it makes our thought process, and work, verifiable. Critically, if we’re wrong, other people can help figure out why.

Lastly, biochar is natural and therefore complicated. I have a list of topics I’m excited to explore, but I’d love to hear from you. What don’t you understand about biochar? What is surprising? What is confusing?