Ei Decoded

An unofficial guide to Experience Institute lingo

If you happen upon a group of Experience Institute fellows gathered together in one of their natural habitats — that hip new coffee shop, for example, or perhaps that other coffee shop next to it—you will hear the sound. The murmur of cathartic venting. Moans of exasperation. Encouraging words. Feedback. Offers of assistance.

You may notice, if you listen very carefully, the distinctive background buzz: The pitter-patter of MacBook keys. The ping of incoming Slack messages. Hear the simulated whoosh of an email sent, followed by a very much unsimulated sigh of relief. Perhaps you can pick out the subtle noise a Post-it Note makes when being unpeeled from its pad. Or the oh-so-satisfying squeak of a Sharpie being liberated from its cap.

As you turn your attention to the intra-cohort chatter, you will begin to detect a peculiar language. A jargon. The Ei lingo.

I’m in the challenging, early stages of my own fellowship year, so I’m still mastering the nuances of the Ei language myself. But here are the most essential words and phrases I’ve learned so far.

Boom! (exclamation) used (chiefly by Tom) to express joy when a fellow secures an experience.

Coffee Shop. (noun) any place outside the home where there is caffeine and wifi.

Cohort. (collective noun) The group of Ei fellows of a particular year.

“Which do you think is more enterprising: a pride of lions, a murder of crows, or a cohort of fellows?”

Comfort Zone. (in legend) a comfortable but boring place in which learning cannot take place.

Co-work. (verb) activity performed by two or more fellows at the same time in the same coffee shop.

“Toddlers are supposed to engage in parallel play as part of their social development. It’s like co-working without the coffee.”

Conversation. (noun) a coming together, often involving coffee, of a fellow and a non-fellow to learn about one another and explore possibilities for mutually beneficial work arrangements.

Community of Support. (noun) a group of people who have consented to love, support, and receive email newsletters from a fellow throughout the year.

Document. (verb) the easy-to-forget, and often-kind-of-awkward process of recording still and moving images (chiefly by means of smartphone) throughout a fellowship year as evidence of experience.

“Can you do me a favor and record two seconds of video of me walking out of this building? I have to document. Make sure it’s in landscape mode!”

Ei. (abbreviation) no one will tell me why the “i” isn’t capitalized.

Experience. (noun) a three- or four-month job, internship, or apprenticeship.

Experience Hunting. (noun) the frustrating — er, I mean, educational — process of emailing, researching (see: stalking), and holding conversations, all done with the goal of arranging an experience.

EXP4. (abbreviation) the fourth cohort of Ei Leap Year Fellows.

Leap. (noun) a pilgrimage beyond the comfort zone in search of growth, accomplishment, and insight.

Meetup. (noun) a quarterly gathering of Ei fellows devoted to intensive learning, reflection, planning, and community.

“I can’t wait to see everyone in Chicago for Meetup — it’ll be like spring break, except the exact opposite of spring break.”

MU1, MU2, MU3, MU4 (abbreviations) standard nomenclature for each of four meetups held during the fellowship year.

“EXP4’s MU2 looks a lot like EXP3’s MU4, don’t you think?”

Really Good Coffee Shop. (noun) any place outside the home where there is caffeine and wifi and plenty of power outlets.

Shipped! (exclamation) used to express satisfaction or alleviate terror after sending that damn email or publishing that damn blog post, even though it wasn’t perfect yet.

Stalking (noun) the not-at-all-creepy-I-swear activity of reading everything on the internet about a company or individual in attempt to facilitate a successful conversation.

Synchronized Stalking (noun) see: co-work, above.

Year. (noun) the totality of one’s Ei fellowship experience — including “experiences” proper, as well as meetups, stalking, co-working, etc. Often used in conjunction with leap.

“This is tough now, but you’ll have an awesome year to look back on. So don’t forget to document!”