Heft: Finding Weight in a Weightless Age
Heft might be due a revival... The path forward requires more than just reaction to the lightness of technology; it requires the intentional protection and promotion of those weightier parts of life that tether us to meaning, responsibility, and connection.
On How Technology Made Us What We Are
This chat between Tom Chatfield and and Tom Hodgkinson was interesting, I thought. I’d no idea that when the Incans – and, from some quick browsing, other Mesomerican peoples – invented the wheel, they saw it as something for children. It stayed a plaything because their lives were dominated by mountainous slopes.
On Gerolamo Cardano
He was certainly an extraordinary man. There’s something, I think, to telling students stories about the people who have helped invent today’s: mathematics. It may be the most abstract of subjects. But the range of characters involved in it are far from dull. This wrestling with the abstract, perhaps, might provide an In for those...
We design AI as the sea designs a boat
Tom Chatfield ‘s Wise Animals is a fabulous book. (A big thank you to Simon Roberts for the recommendation) This, from Daniel Dennett via Emile-Auguste Chartier, made me think. “One could then say, with complete rigour, that it is the sea herself who fashions the boats choosing those which function and destroying others.” It made...
Exam Results, Systems and Events vs Behaviour
While I fully agree with the below, in the face of an event it is hard not to lose sight of the behavioural perspective. There are some interesting journalistic approaches to this – Slow Journalism and magazines like Delayed Gratification, for example, purposefully delay their publications so that the behavioural view is easier to...
Pupil Curiosity
Prof Coe’s 2013 talk has aged well, I think. I’d forgotten this prompt, but it’s a lovely way of framing the challenge of teaching curiosity. “If your pupils knew the answer, but didn’t know why, how many would care?” Improving Education – A triumph of hope over experience from CEM on Vimeo.
Leadership Themes #2: From Clockwork to Complexity: Recognising Diverse Environments
Part of leadership is correctly recognising the environment in which we are operating. To be able to do that, we need a) to understand what the different types of environment are, and b) understand what their distinctive qualities are. That gives us a theoretical appreciation, but it may also be useful to have an appreciation […]
Book List: Leadership and Education
I’m finally beginning to put together some thoughts on the project I first started thinking about here. In terms of projects, I’m curious to see what the common themes are in the various leadership, organisational structure, internal comms books I’ve read are. It’s by no means academically rigorous – more just for me to feel...
Wayfinders, Navigation and Progress
Wayfinders are extraordinary – highly trained, technology free and remarkably successful navigators. I’ve been wondering quite a bit recently about data, measuring progress and all that sort of thing, especially given complexity, and these Polynesian navigators provide some rich lessons, I think. They’re not operating...
Making better use of Kindle Highlights 2
Getting your Kindle Highlights from Readwise to Roam isn’t hard but getting them in the way you want them takes some playing around. Step 1: Connect Once you’ve logged in to your Readwise Dashboard, you need to connect Roam as a service. There’s a good step by step tutorial here but the short version is: […]