GNARLY REALITY THROUGH A KEYHOLE - What do good writing, good instructional design and good conferences have in common? I like Rudy Rucker's phrase, "putting gnarly reality through a keyhole." Rudy, mathemetician, computer scientist and philosopher (who believes and is close to proving that very nearly everything can be reduced to an algorhythm) spoke at a recent Institute for the Future meeting. At dinner afterward we chatted about his new book "The Lifebox, the Seashell and the Soul" (a great read) and commiserated about the challenge of turning messy complexity into a narrative with a through story. During "Extreme Learning" conference, I talked to instructors and leaders who are experiencing the same challenge. We agree that what makes us crazy is when we finally succeed in the step-by-step of putting gnarly reality through a keyhole, the result looks so simple, people figure they could have done it themselves.