How to Use This Book

Read it in order. Each chapter builds on the one before it. You can’t build a secure group without first understanding your own exposure. You can’t coordinate across groups without first understanding how a single group holds together.

Level 1: See Clearly (Chapters 1–12) covers individual digital security — what’s being collected about you, how to close the most dangerous gaps, and how to recognize when information has been manipulated. This is the foundation.

Level 2: Find Each Other (Chapters 13–26) covers the harder thing: finding people, building trust with them, making decisions together, and surviving the difficult middle stretch where most groups break apart. By the end of this level, you have a functioning team.

Level 3: Build Together (Chapters 27–36) covers connecting groups into something larger — shared governance, joint action, conflict resolution, and reproducing what you’ve built so others can use it without you.

If you’re new to these subjects, this book is written for you. The sequence assumes no prior knowledge.

If you’re experienced in operational security or community organizing, Level 3 is probably where this book offers you the most — governance frameworks, coalition structures, and network coordination patterns drawn from documented organizing traditions. The earlier levels may still surface something useful; they’re grounded in research, not assumptions about what readers already know.

If you want to introduce someone to these subjects — a friend, a family member, someone who senses that something is wrong but doesn’t know where to start — share this book with them.