II10 domains
Domains of Practice
A map of the territory rather than a syllabus. The divisions are conveniences: useful for describing where you have spent your attention, and not a claim that the world arrives in ten separate pieces.
- I
Lore
History, mythology, literature, languages, philosophy.
The accumulated record of what people have thought, made, believed and argued about. Lore is not nostalgia; it is context. Most new problems turn out to be old problems wearing different clothes.
- II
Natural Philosophy
Physics, astronomy, biology, geology, ecology.
The older name for science, kept here because it describes an attitude rather than a profession: looking closely at the world and expecting it, eventually, to make sense.
- III
Technomancy
Computing, electronics, engineering, AI, security, making.
Systems that do what you tell them rather than what you meant. Technomancy is the work of actually understanding the machines we have surrounded ourselves with — including the ones that now answer back.
- IV
Alchemy
Chemistry, cooking, brewing, materials, experimentation.
Transformation of matter, taken literally and without mysticism. Bread, steel, glaze, solder, dye and fermentation are one discipline observed from several different kitchens.
- V
Artifice
Craft, fabrication, repair, tools, practical competence.
Making and mending. The ability to look at a broken thing, open it up and form a reasoned opinion is the most consistently underrated skill in modern life.
- VI
Creative Arts
Music, visual art, writing, performance, illusion.
Work judged by whether it moves someone. Illusion is included without apology: it is applied psychology, performed at speed, in front of people who are actively trying to catch you.
- VII
Discernment
Logic, critical thinking, evidence, observation, media literacy.
Telling the difference. Between a study and a headline about a study; between a strong claim and a confident one; between what you know and what you have simply heard often enough.
- VIII
Human Arts
Psychology, communication, teaching, negotiation, leadership.
People, who remain the most complex system any of us will ever work with. Knowing a thing and being able to hand it to someone else are separate skills, and the second is much the rarer.
- IX
Wayfinding
Travel, navigation, outdoorsmanship, cultures, exploration.
Knowing where you are, in every sense. Maps, stars, tides, timetables, languages, and a genuine willingness to be a beginner somewhere unfamiliar.
- X
Service
Applying knowledge and skill in useful service to other people and communities.
The domain that keeps the other nine honest. Knowledge that never leaves the study is a hobby — an entirely respectable thing to have — but this is the part that makes it a practice.
The list is a first attempt. At least one of these is probably wrong, the boundaries between several of them are arguable, and there is a reasonable case for an eleventh. Corrections are welcome and will be acted on.
How to read this
Nobody is expected to master all ten.
The ideal is breadth of curiosity, depth somewhere in particular, and continued growth in both. Most people arrive with one domain they know professionally, two or three they have pursued seriously for years, and a standing interest in several more that has never quite become a project.
That is the normal shape and it is not a deficiency. A person with one domain and a good question is further along than a person with ten and no practice. The list exists so that you can see where your attention has actually gone — which is frequently a surprise — and where it has not been for a while.
The tenth domain is deliberately different in kind. Service is not a subject; it is what stops the other nine from being a private collection. Knowledge that never leaves the study is a hobby, which is an entirely respectable thing to have. This framework is interested in the part that gets used.