steamHouse Book Suite (Drafts)
Six books. One journey. From awakening to mastery.
The steamHouse Book Suite tells a continuous story across six interconnected books—each answering a different question, together providing a complete framework for conscious human development.
The Journey
PhaseBooksCore Question
AwakeningTRICKED + HOOKEDWhat's happening to me?
UnderstandingMISMATCHEDWhy does this matter now?
RespondingYou Are the Author + TOGETHERWhat do I do about it?
MasteringFramework GuideHow does it all work?
The Books
TRICKED
The Complete Guide to How Your Brain Gets Fooled
Your brain is playing tricks on you—right now, as you read this.
TRICKED is a collection of 150+ demonstrations that reveal how your mind actually works, often very differently from how you think it works. Through hands-on experiences with optical illusions, cognitive puzzles, and psychological experiments you can try yourself, you'll discover the predictable patterns by which human minds systematically go wrong.
But there's a secret architecture to this book. As you move through the demonstrations—your senses, your attention, your memory, your judgment, your beliefs, your social brain—you'll experience a hidden pattern. Each section presents emotional and body-based tricks first, then cognitive ones, then shows where they meet. By the end, you won't just know about cognitive biases. You'll have experienced a fundamental truth about how you work: your brain cares before it thinks.
TRICKED begins 540 million years ago, with the evolution of the first eye, and traces the inheritance that shapes every perception, every judgment, every decision you make.
"If you want to see how these vulnerabilities are being exploited: HOOKED"
"If you want to understand WHY this matters now: MISMATCHED"
"If you want a framework for working with your brain: You Are the Author"
Status: Parts I–VIII drafted (~37,000 words, 138 demonstrations)
HOOKED
How They Got You—And How to Get Free
In 1929, Edward Bernays hired women to march in the New York Easter Parade holding lit cigarettes, which he called "torches of freedom." Sales to women doubled within a year. Bernays didn't change what cigarettes were. He changed what they meant.
HOOKED reveals how the vulnerabilities you discovered in TRICKED are being systematically exploited—not by accident, but by design. From Bernays' invention of public relations through today's algorithmic feeds, the tools we use have learned to use us.
But this isn't a book about despair. For each platform, each tool, each designed environment, HOOKED asks three questions: What is it good for? What else does it do? How do I use it on purpose? The book provides practical audits you can apply to your own digital life, and designs for using tools with intention rather than being used by them.
The compound exploit insight: Modern tools don't just use one vulnerability—they stack multiple exploits simultaneously. Your willpower isn't weak. You're facing a coordinated assault on multiple fronts.
"The variable reward schedule exploits your dopamine system. See TRICKED, Part IV, for the full demonstration."
"These tools are effective because they target brains designed for a different world. For the full mismatch argument, see MISMATCHED."
Status: Complete first draft (~33,500 words, 21 chapters)
MISMATCHED
Stone Age Minds in an Extremistan World
For 200,000 years, there was a deal.
Your brain would be calibrated for a particular kind of environment. That environment would remain stable enough for the calibration to work. Generation after generation, the deal held.
The deal is broken.
The environment has changed faster than evolution can track. Your ancestors lived in what philosopher Nassim Taleb calls "Mediocristan"—a world of bounded variation, where averages are meaningful and the past predicts the future. You live in "Extremistan"—a world of unbounded consequences, where single events can dominate, where power concentrates to degrees without historical precedent, where your Mediocristan brain keeps applying rules that no longer work.
MISMATCHED delivers the comprehensive diagnosis: why the collision between evolved minds and modern environments has become a crisis—for individual wellbeing, for democratic functioning, for planetary coordination. This is not a Luddite rant; the book honestly acknowledges what technology genuinely provides. And it's not hopeless; the brain is plastic, environments can be restructured, capacities can be developed.
The book traces six syndromes of the mismatch: The Exhausted Animal (body), The Unbelonging Self (heart), The Paralyzed Knower (head), The Lonely Combatant (social), The Overwhelmed Agent (scale), and The Unlocated Soul (meaning). Each represents what happens when calibrated systems meet environments they weren't designed for.
"TRICKED showed you the vulnerabilities. HOOKED showed you how they're exploited. Now let's understand why this mismatch matters—and what can be done."
"For the framework that turns understanding into action: You Are the Author"
"For the practice environment that makes development possible: TOGETHER"
Status: Parts I–VI drafted (~42,000 words); expansion to ~85,000 in progress
You Are the Author
A Framework for Becoming Who You're Meant to Be
Somewhere around 70,000 years ago, something unprecedented happened.
A human looked at another human, guessed what they were thinking, and then realized: they're doing the same thing to me. And then—the crucial step—they looked at themselves thinking this thought.
For the first time in the history of the planet, a creature became aware of its own awareness.
The witness had awakened.
This is what makes you different from the brain that TRICKED described. Yes, you have an ancient inheritance—540 million years of pattern recognition, threat detection, social calibration. But you also have something else: the capacity to watch that inheritance at work. To notice that you're afraid, that you're rationalizing, that you're seeking approval. To create a gap between stimulus and response.
You have the capacity to become the author of your own story, not just a character in it.
You Are the Author provides the framework: the five capacities of authorship (Recognition, Interruption, Reflection, Direction, Training), the three levels of consciousness (Automatic, Conscious, Purposeful), and the practical exercises that turn philosophy into skill.
Because here's the truth TRICKED and HOOKED revealed: if you don't wield your mind as a tool for your own purposes, someone else will enlist it for theirs.
"This framework develops best in the context of real activity with real people. See TOGETHER."
"For the complete research foundation: Framework Guide"
Status: Complete manuscript draft (~55,000 words)
TOGETHER
Building Teams, Finding Community, Creating Change
For 200,000 years, there was no such thing as individual development.
You grew up surrounded by 50-150 people who knew your story, who watched you stumble, who held you accountable. Development happened through real work with real people facing real challenges together. The band was not just where you lived—it was how you became who you were.
Now development is supposed to happen in isolated nuclear families, age-segregated institutions, and individual therapy sessions. The social context humans evolved to develop within has been dismantled.
You can't grow alone. The capacities we're building require other people—not as audience, but as co-builders. The myth of individual achievement is exactly that: a myth. Significant human accomplishment has always been collective.
TOGETHER is the companion to You Are the Author. If YATA provides the what (authorship) and the how (practices), TOGETHER provides the where (context) and the with whom (co-authors).
The book addresses teams (the functional unit of achievement), communities (the functional unit of belonging), and movements (the functional unit of change). It helps you find or build the context where conscious development becomes possible.
"Context without framework is aimless. See You Are the Author for the developmental architecture."
"For implementation resources: Framework Guide and operational documentation"
Status: Outlined, ready for development
The steamHouse Framework Guide
Complete Reference for Human Development
Not every book is meant to be read cover to cover.
The Framework Guide is the superstructure manual—the comprehensive reference for educators, researchers, program designers, and advanced mentors who need the full picture. It's where the research foundations are visible, where the developmental progressions are mapped in detail, where nothing is condensed.
31 chapters spanning six domains: Foundations, Understanding Self, Thinking & Deciding, Relating to Others, Acting in the World, and Context & Worldview.
58 development markers (Stars, Lenses, and Keys) with full definitions, progressions, and assessment guidance.
1100+ source texts synthesized across 35 research foundation files.
Most readers arrive here through the earlier books. The Framework Guide is not a starting point—it's where you go when you need depth.
"For the accessible treatment, see You Are the Author"
"For demonstrations to use with youth: TRICKED"
"For technology-specific guidance: HOOKED"
Status: 31 chapters drafted; appendices complete
Reader Paths
Curious General Reader: TRICKED → "This is fun!" → HOOKED → "They're using this against me" → MISMATCHED → "This is serious" → YATA → "Here's my framework" → TOGETHER → "Here's my practice ground"
Concerned Parent: MISMATCHED → "I knew something was wrong" → HOOKED → "Now I see what my kids face" → YATA → "Here's what to do" → TOGETHER → "Here's how to build it" → (Maybe TRICKED to share with kids)
Young Person: TRICKED → "Cool" → HOOKED → "Wait, my phone is doing WHAT?" → YATA → "This is about my life" → TOGETHER → "I need to find/build this"
Educator/Youth Worker: MISMATCHED → "This validates what I'm seeing" → TOGETHER → "This is what school should be" → YATA → "Here's the framework" → Framework Guide → "I need the full reference"
A Note on "Drafts"
These books are works in progress. We share them as drafts because steamHouse operates on a principle of transparency—we'd rather show you where we are than wait until everything is polished.
What you'll find:
Complete outlines showing the intended structure
Drafted sections ranging from rough to near-final
Research foundations already integrated
Cross-references showing how the books connect
What's still in development:
Not all chapters are fully written
Some sections are outlined but not yet drafted
Editorial review is ongoing
Design and formatting are preliminary
We welcome feedback. These books are being built in dialogue with the people who will use them.