Play Learn Lift

Start Playing. Keep Learning. Lift Others.

The three-stage journey from curiosity to mastery to teaching. The core MOOLLM methodology.

[!TIP] This IS the methodology. Every other skill is an expression of PLAY-LEARN-LIFT. Start here.

The Cycle

flowchart LR
    P["🎮 PLAY"] --> L["📚 LEARN"]
    L --> LI["🚀 LIFT"]
    LI -->|inspire| P

Why This Matters

Most learning is backwards:

• ❌ Study first, then do
• ❌ Master before sharing
• ❌ Fear mistakes

PLAY-LEARN-LIFT inverts it:

• ✅ Do first, understand emerges
• ✅ Share while learning, teaching accelerates mastery
• ✅ Mistakes are features, not bugs

Philosophy

"Low floor, high ceiling, wide walls" — Seymour Papert / Mitch Resnick

Failure-Friendly

You can't break MOOLLM. Files are inspectable. State is recoverable. Experiments are encouraged.

Each Stage in Detail

🎮 PLAY

"What if I just..."

• No prerequisites required
• Curiosity drives discovery
• Fun comes first
• "Oops" is learning data
• Everything is reversible (git, append-only logs)

Capture everything: Even dead ends teach something.

📚 LEARN

"I noticed you do this often..."

• Patterns become visible through repetition
• Connections make sense
• Confidence builds naturally
• Knowledge deepens organically
• The "aha!" moments

Document patterns: Future-you will thank present-you.

🚀 LIFT

"Here's what I learned..."

• Teaching solidifies understanding
• Sharing multiplies impact
• Create tutorials from your journey
• Community grows stronger
• Everyone rises together

Share the journey: The path matters, not just the destination.

The Cycle Continues

"Start with jazz, end with standards."

After LIFT, you discover new areas to PLAY in:

PLAY → LEARN → LIFT → (inspire) → PLAY → ...

The pun is deliberate: jazz is free exploration (PLAY), and standards are both jazz classics everyone knows AND the reusable patterns you crystallize (LIFT). The learning happens in between!

• Teaching reveals gaps in your own understanding
• Helping others sparks new questions
• The cycle accelerates with practice

In Practice

Solo

1. PLAY: Try something new, log what happens
2. LEARN: Review logs, find patterns, update notes
3. LIFT: Write a README, create a template, share with future-self

With Others

1. PLAY: Pair explore, capture together
2. LEARN: Compare notes, synthesize insights
3. LIFT: Write shared docs, teach newcomers

Related Skills

Contents

Protocol Symbol

PLAY-LEARN-LIFT (alias: PLL)

# PROTOCOLS.yml
PLAY-LEARN-LIFT:
  meaning: "Explore freely → find patterns → share wisdom"
  invoke_when: "Starting any new exploration, learning, or teaching"
  motto: "Start Playing. Keep Learning. Lift Others."

See: PROTOCOLS.yml#PLAY-LEARN-LIFT

The Intertwingularity

PLL is the methodology. Other skills are its expressions.

graph TD
    PLL[🎮📚🚀 play-learn-lift] -->|PLAY captures| SL[📜 session-log]
    PLL -->|LEARN structures| RN[📓 research-notebook]
    PLL -->|LIFT automates| SS[👯 sister-script]
    PLL -->|LIFT shares| SUM[📝 summarize]
    
    AP[⚔️ adventure] -->|IS| PLAY
    DB[🔧 debugging] -->|IS| PLAY
    TC[🎴 card] -->|created via| LIFT

Navigation

Start playing. The rest follows.