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Dojo is a native macOS application designed to support the Systems Thinking on Apple Silicon curriculum.

It is not a learning platform in the conventional sense. It does not deliver lessons, track progress, or abstract the system away.

Dojo exists to create the conditions for quiet, disciplined work with real systems.

What Dojo Is

Dojo is a learning environment for systems programming.

It provides structure, pacing, and context while deliberately keeping the learner in contact with:

• live binaries
• real filesystems
• real processes
• real toolchains

Dojo does not simulate systems. It does not replace the shell. It does not hide the operating system behind an interface.

Instead, it helps learners work with the system, not around it.

Pedagogy: Quiet and Deliberate

The pedagogy behind Dojo is intentionally calm.

There are no pop-ups, achievements, streaks, or urgency cues. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is gamified.

Progress is measured by understanding, not by completion.

We hope you think of it in terms of the Unix tradition.

Dojo is designed to support long, uninterrupted stretches of attention — the kind required to reason about systems, state, and failure.

A Distributed Network of Learners

Dojo is conceived as part of a distributed network of learners.

Each installation is local. Each learner works on their own machine. There is no central server coordinating progress.

What connects learners is not telemetry or metrics, but shared tools, shared constraints, and shared ways of thinking.

This mirrors how systems programming works in practice: locally grounded, globally informed.

Working With Real Toolchains

Dojo assumes that learning systems programming requires working with real artifacts.

Learners are expected to:

• compile code
• inspect binaries
• run programs
• observe execution
• use shell tools directly

Dojo embraces existing Unix tooling and shell programs rather than re-implementing them.

The goal is fluency with the system as it exists, not with a curated imitation of it.

Opinionated by Design

Dojo is intentionally opinionated.

It makes specific choices to reduce distraction and increase focus, including:

• the use of Ghostty as the terminal environment
• Zig as a primary systems language in the early curriculum

These choices are not claims of universality. They are constraints chosen to support clarity, consistency, and depth.

Different tools could have been chosen. What matters is that the environment is coherent and deliberate.

Relationship to Dipole

Dojo is not a debugger. Dipole is.

Dojo provides the learning environment. Dipole provides the systems microscope.

Together, they form a complementary pair:

• Dojo structures the work
• Dipole exposes reality

Dipole is in the early stages of development.

We would love to attract your interest and contributions.

Neither replaces the other.

A Curriculum Measured in Years

The Systems Thinking on Apple Silicon curriculum is a multi-year project.

It is being developed incrementally, one course and one dimension of failure at a time.

Dojo is built to support this long arc. It is not optimized for short courses or quick wins. It is designed to remain useful as the curriculum deepens and expands.

What Dojo Is Not

Dojo is not:

• a web app
• a sandboxed simulation
• a shortcut to mastery
• a replacement for reading, thinking, or debugging

It is a companion to careful work.

In Summary

Dojo exists to make sustained systems thinking possible on modern machines.

It favors reality over abstraction, discipline over convenience, and depth over speed.

If that way of working resonates, Dojo will feel familiar. If it does not, Dojo will make no attempt to persuade.