This page will collect the odd words, recurring ideas, and strange little terms that show up around Trowlen.
Terms
Borg Drones
A pop-culture comparison for perfectly compliant, programmable people. Trowlen does not seem especially eager to live in a collective.
Seen in: Parents Teach Your Kids ...
Causes and Banners
The language of movements, identity, and commitment. Trowlen uses banners as a metaphor for the causes people pick up, carry, and sometimes need to set down.
Seen in: A Cause
Cloaca
A biological word used here as a comic way to complain about grammar checking.
Seen in: Data Centers - You asked for it
Cognitive Decline
The gradual weakening of memory, attention, critical thinking, creativity, and other mental abilities when the mind is no longer asked to exercise them. In this context, it is driven by repeatedly outsourcing thought to AI and other conveniences: the less often people remember, reason, evaluate, and create for themselves, the harder those acts of thinking become.
Seen in: The Great Unthinking: Starving the Mind in an Age of Plenty
Frog(s)
Not real frogs. The frogs are the people Trowlen knows, the voices in the room, the personalities in his mind, and sometimes the imaginary chorus that comments from the edge of the swamp.
Seen in: Data Centers - You asked for it, Don't be a Jonah, Parents Teach Your Kids ..., A Cause, Happy Birthday America! 250 Years!
Full-time Frog Listener
One of Trowlen's self-appointed titles. It means listening to the odd chorus of people, thoughts, and internal commentary before writing anything too confidently.
Seen in: A Cause
Hermo
A hermit troll from Brandon Mull's Dragonwatch series. Hermo presents himself as blunt, solitary, and eager to be left alone, but his actions reveal a deeper desire for friendship and companionship. Trowlen uses him as an example of the difference between introversion and truly wanting no connection with others.
Seen in: Introvert.. Are You Really?
The Great Unthinking
Trowlen's name for the quiet, society-wide shift from using technology to support human thought toward allowing it to think in our place. It happens one convenience at a time as people trade effort and understanding for instant answers, gradually becoming less practiced at learning, remembering, reasoning, and creating without assistance.
Seen in: The Great Unthinking: Starving the Mind in an Age of Plenty
Karen Troll
A visual/narrative shorthand from the parenting rambling. It points at public scolding energy more than any one person.
Seen in: Parents Teach Your Kids ...
Physically, Not Emotionally
A location disclaimer for when Trowlen lives near something but does not wish to be spiritually identified with the surrounding argument.
Seen in: Data Centers - You asked for it
Professional Swamp Sitter
Another Trowlen title. This is not an accredited profession, though honestly it sounds more peaceful than many accredited ones.
Seen in: A Cause
Swamp
The mental and narrative home base of Trowlen. Sometimes it means a quiet place to observe the world; sometimes it is just where the frogs happen to be listening.
Seen in: A Cause, Don't be a Jonah, Parents Teach Your Kids ...
Wander Boxes
Trowlen's name for the small, community-run book boxes found along neighborhood streets and walking paths. They are also commonly called neighborhood libraries, little libraries, micro libraries, book-sharing boxes, or book exchanges. People are invited to take a book, leave a book, or help a story wander onward.
Seen in: Wander Boxes
