Welcome!
This was built to be a portal for everything by Joshua van Asakinda: projects, blogs, books, TRIBE, TRIBE: I/O, and ZenTactics. For those interested in first principles, we have included a Theory page; we have two blogs- Philosophy and Psychology; finally, we have included a biography and links to all our books- Slay the Maiden, Stranging the Beautiful Noise, with more coming- under XYZ, & Miscellany. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions!
Why
I was born in 1979 in a steel town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When I was 15 years old, I began studying the martial arts (Pencak Silat Cimande, primarily, with some Xingyiquan, Kali, and IRT combatives). Later, when I was 18 years old, I began studying Nietzsche, Jung, and Campbell; I was obsessed with existentialism for most of my 20s, though by that time, I was a nihilist and “living the life” in Las Vegas. This was not healthy for me. When I was 27, I traveled to Huangshan, China, where I discovered Mahayana Buddhism and became fascinated by questions of consciousness. And so I began studying psychology and philosophy, receiving my Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh and my Master of Arts degree from American Military University.
By this time, I was not terribly pleased with the modern paradigm of therapy, which seemed to ignore masculine psychology entirely, and so began developing my “heroic theory.”
However, in 2014, my brother passed away. This hit hard. Things back home required attention, so I left returned once more (vacillation between Pittsburgh and Las Vegas has been a theme in my life). Then in 2018, I found myself at the wrong end of a literal knife fight; ultimately, I won that battle, but it was costly: I found myself with PTSD, could not work, and lost everything for the second time in four years.
It was clear to me that if I was going to survive my PTSD without the use of drugs- which I was (and still am) adamantly against-, I was going to have to find some way to turn my suffering into fulfillment. So I determined to understand it in the hope that I might glean some wisdom from the experience that I could share with others. That mission succeeded; I learned something about trauma and tribalism, which I later put to good effect by providing personal mentorship to young men in the tech sector- engineers and entrepreneurs- who I found were amenable to my martial-existential-psychological framing of things. This is how I created TRIBE (my personal mentorship services for individuals), which later evolved into TRIBE: I/O (my professional mentorship services for organizations).
And this brings us roughly to now.
Looking back, I see themes. This is the great advantage of age and experience: We trade energy for understanding, and it turns out that understanding is more powerful (if we are not stupid about living). Thus, I came to realize that underlying all these theories, blogs, books, and projects is a singular realization: Something is wrong- insidiously wrong- about the way in which we have structured society, and it is slowly destroying us.
We are not designed to live in the world we have created.
This is not the end of the world. But we must rediscover the wisdom hidden in our shared human psychology, that we need- like a man dying of thirst in the desert- tribe, purpose, sacrifice…
What I do is apply old school psychology to modern problem-solving: I teach people how to build resilient psyches; how to realize themselves; how to cultivate strength, wisdom, and compassion within themselves; how to organize their lives, their goals, their teams; and, finally, how to overcome adversity and to wisely navigate everyday stress, black swans, and existential crises, actively and strategically.
Why, though? Because if there is anything that I have learned since “the injury,” it is that we cannot be fulfilled unless we connect that fulfillment to others. So if you need help, reach out.
By this time, I was not terribly pleased with the modern paradigm of therapy, which seemed to ignore masculine psychology entirely, and so began developing my “heroic theory.”
However, in 2014, my brother passed away. This hit hard. Things back home required attention, so I left returned once more (vacillation between Pittsburgh and Las Vegas has been a theme in my life). Then in 2018, I found myself at the wrong end of a literal knife fight; ultimately, I won that battle, but it was costly: I found myself with PTSD, could not work, and lost everything for the second time in four years.
It was clear to me that if I was going to survive my PTSD without the use of drugs- which I was (and still am) adamantly against-, I was going to have to find some way to turn my suffering into fulfillment. So I determined to understand it in the hope that I might glean some wisdom from the experience that I could share with others. That mission succeeded; I learned something about trauma and tribalism, which I later put to good effect by providing personal mentorship to young men in the tech sector- engineers and entrepreneurs- who I found were amenable to my martial-existential-psychological framing of things. This is how I created TRIBE (my personal mentorship services for individuals), which later evolved into TRIBE: I/O (my professional mentorship services for organizations).
And this brings us roughly to now.
Looking back, I see themes. This is the great advantage of age and experience: We trade energy for understanding, and it turns out that understanding is more powerful (if we are not stupid about living). Thus, I came to realize that underlying all these theories, blogs, books, and projects is a singular realization: Something is wrong- insidiously wrong- about the way in which we have structured society, and it is slowly destroying us.
We are not designed to live in the world we have created.
This is not the end of the world. But we must rediscover the wisdom hidden in our shared human psychology, that we need- like a man dying of thirst in the desert- tribe, purpose, sacrifice…
What I do is apply old school psychology to modern problem-solving: I teach people how to build resilient psyches; how to realize themselves; how to cultivate strength, wisdom, and compassion within themselves; how to organize their lives, their goals, their teams; and, finally, how to overcome adversity and to wisely navigate everyday stress, black swans, and existential crises, actively and strategically.
Why, though? Because if there is anything that I have learned since “the injury,” it is that we cannot be fulfilled unless we connect that fulfillment to others. So if you need help, reach out.
Huzzah! Contact Information!
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Joshua van Asakinda
Odinn Valfather Technologies, LLC
Telephone+1(702)918-2171
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