The Way of Plus Ki
When the mind empties, body and universe become one — this is Plus Ki.
Don't Demand. Do.
Kyle Ingersoll
Zenpai
DevOps Cultivator
Socio-Technical Engineer
My interest in privacy in high school — and a growing suspicion of surveillance — pulled me toward Linux and the principles of Free Software. Early on I saw software as a place to defend individual agency: tools people can run, study, share, and modify. That seed convinced me that technical skill should serve freedom, not status.
In Community College I stood at a fork: writing or computing. I still craved mastery over machines — and, I now recognize, the quiet power that comes with it — even if I didn’t want to admit that drive. I chose computer science and began an apprenticeship in craft and consequence: learning to make things that work, and slowly learning what it means when they don’t.
Through Reddit I found Cloud Security Office Hours, a humble, helpful community, and was invited by Michael into Mindset Dojo. I didn’t connect with it immediately, but returning again and again — and learning from the Dojo and my Zensei — helped me fuse technical precision with conversational presence. Mindset Dojo became the brave space where writing returned and mastery shifted from being about me to being about the people I serve.
Internships at Richmond Community Schools and the Boys & Girls Club of Wayne County turned ideas into practice. Protecting classroom and community networks taught me readiness and resilience — that each patch, policy, and pipeline is an act of care. Those experiences finished the arc: I moved from chasing prestige to treating design choices as moral responsibilities.
Now I mix security, Free Software values, and conversational practice: building safe DevOps pipelines, enforcing automated quality gates, and writing Insight pieces — all toward one mission: to protect and expand human freedom through sociotechnical engineering. And yes — we have fun doing it. Zen-like discipline without joy is just a posture; the real practice is rigorous, kind, and, occasionally, delightfully playful. After all, what is a dream without resonance? A delusion.
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Insights
Recent writing and reflection
The Human Guides, the AI Follows
When code becomes debt, only human guidance can teach AI the Way forward.
The Hand-Sword and the Shadow - Force for Peace
When resonance fails and words no longer reach, the true martial art is to wield even one’s shadow with clarity — using force not to conquer, but to protect the peace that presence built.
The Ethical Technologist’s Ki Manifesto
When the coder becomes the cultivator — ethics ceases to be rule-following and becomes resonance itself.
Unlearning Hierarchy
In the Dojo, leadership is cultivation, not control. Circles replace chains of command. Authorship replaces ownership.
Fear as Teacher, Shadow as Mirror, Presence as Response
How fear becomes a teacher and what its shadow reveals about presence and response.
The Way of Paradox
Paradox is the hidden gate of leadership, where resistance dissolves and the small self expands into the boundless flow of Ki.
Tone
Tone is the subliminal weather of a conversation — it quietly decides whether others open, build, or shut down.
Map of Consciousness
When life punches first, the Map of Consciousness helps us notice where we stand — below the line in contraction or above it in creation — and trains us to shift through breath, tone, and awareness.
A Fable on Opposition
Opposition is not just resistance — it is the sharpening edge that deepens our roots, clarifies our direction, and prepares us to rise beyond limits.
The Breath of a Stance Shifts the Mountain
When tension hardens between mismatched energies, Stances offer a way to realign through breath, tone, and presence—shifting both yourself and the field of conversation.
Not Knowing Is Most Intimate
A reflection on how the Mat Sessions and community practice of Mindset Dojo helped me transform ego-driven self-improvement into humble, fearless growth through beginner’s mind.
To Build Is to Owe. To Wait Is to Win.
A reflection on the MetaShift from Visionary to Organizer energy, where doing nothing—*for now*—becomes the wisest move.
Houston, We Have an Attitude
When tone shifts, awareness follows—revealing the MetaShift from control to connection that transforms every conversation into practice.
Blue Belt Reflection
Through Blue Belt training, I learned that Fearless Leadership begins not with control, but with the awareness to lead, follow, and act through balance.