seed & spark
via 180 studio and http://www.esadesign.com/the-people/
intro’d (i think) via sam chaltain‘s newsletter.. not sure why i didn’t download at the time.. i think i just felt bad getting the free download? anyway.. adding page and submitting for download this day:
@monk51295 Have you seen https://t.co/ynMvQsAMbM yet? I feel like it’s right up your alley . . . and PS HI :)
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/samchaltain/status/1352987088615067649
pretty sure i’m in a diff alley (as you’ll most likely see in comments below).. but so thankful incredible people are keeping alleys like this (https://seedandspark.live/).. because i realize too that the crazy alley i can’t unsee.. might not work
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notes/quotes from book (180 pg pdf):
Everything you see has its roots.. In the unseen world . . … Why do you weep?.. That Source is within you..and this whole world..Is springing up from it. – Rumi
let’s focus on that.. let’s org around and trust that.. ie: itch-in-the-soul ness
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In the pages that follow, we identify seven design principles from the natural world that enable
all living systems to thrive, and provide illustrative case studies and actionable ideas to help you
apply those principles to the creation of truly living schools, workplaces, and social structures —
ones that can give voice, clarity, meaning and form to a new story for how we learn and live, so
that together we can build a better world, by design.
We need a new story (which is, in truth, not new at all) because the one we have lived with for centuries is antithetical to who we are and how life works. And so this book is an effort to help (re)orient us to what the wisest among us have always known: That the universe is not like a clock, but a cloud. That everything is not separate, but connected. And that the change we seek will not come via critical mass, but critical connections.
To that end, the structure of Seed + Spark mirrors the structure of a healthy ecosystem. We begin with the three properties that animate a living system and provide it with seeds for growth: identity, information, and relationships;
? id? info?
from there, we outline the conditions that allow such systems to naturally evolve, change and emerge; and then we move to the three properties that regulate a healthy system’s ability to regenerate itself: patterns, processes and structures.
patterns? if alive? i don’t think that is organism as fractal
Within each of these sections, you’ll encounter examples from art, science, and culture that progress along a continuum from the conceptual (the big idea) to the practical (how it looks when it’s applied). Periodically, you’ll find words of wisdom that are meant to serve both as provocations for reflection and threads you can hold as you move throughout the text. And at the end of each section, you’ll find a set of “Inquiry Seeds” — questions, prompts, and community actions — that any of us can apply to our own work and life, immediately, in order to
begin thinking and acting ourselves into a new way of being.
How we are at the small scale, after all, is how we are at the large scale.
this is a key point .. i think we’re all missing:
1\ we have no idea what we’re like at the small scale (if legit free).. evidenced in ie: if we’re trying to try something diff but in man made (cancerous) structures like school/work et al..
2\ we seem to have no idea that we now have the means to facil the (initial) chaos of ie: 8bn legit free people
3\ if we don’t allow for 1 (legit free people – local) and don’t facil/org/infra for 2 (8bn legit free people – global) then we’ll get neither.. part\ial ness is killing us.. it just keeps perpetuating tragedy of the non common.. so we keep not seeing the legit dance of us.. dance
again.. this is huge.. and we’re missing it
And transformation is first and foremost an inside job.
This, then, is how we can build a better world — by ensuring that all living systems, from our schools to our companies to our homes and communities, are designed to affirm each person’s inner spark, not dim it.
we can’t hear any inner sparks until we undo our hierarchical listening (ie: tech as it could be)
Learn more at seedandspark.live.
let’s not learn more.. let’s (has to be all of us or it won’t work) jump in.. imagine if we
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a new world is struggling to be born – it will not emerge soley thru reinvention of institutions and social structures.. will not arrive solely thru reformation of policies/priorities
actually.. need to let go of all those concepts.. they are rna ing us.. to death
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the world we seek depends on our ability to remember that our id is interwoven into a living planet, and an interdependent human fam
yeah.. so let’s be sure to only use living organisms as fractal
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goodness, genius and the quest for meaning reside w/in every one of us
let’s let go of those ‘good words/concepts’ as well.. they keep getting in the way
imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch in 8b souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to connect/coord us.. we might just get to a more antifragile, healthy, thriving world.. the ecosystem we keep longing for
the energy of 8b legit alive people
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the needs and dreams of each of us are far more alike than they are diff
let’s just go w needs.. and just two.. (ie: maté basic needs) and org/infra around that..
if we don’t make this deep/simple/open enough for 8b people to grok(because already in them)/access(because no prep/train needed)/try(because in a legit free space).. today.. it won’t work
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they must be ignited and nurtured w fealress intention adn commitment
huge red flag.. goes against our means to ongoing energies.. ie: the it is me over commitment/intention.. et al
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*we are born learning beings – **powerfully shaped by the environs in which we learn
*yeah that **so far powerful alright.. but not in a good way/. begs ie: hari rat park law.. which means sans any form of telling people what to do .. any form of measuring/accounting
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how children are taught to think/solve problems in school is how they will think/solve problems out of school
that’s the problem.. legit free life isn’t about solving problems.. and via p 13 – we’re born to learn.. don’t need to be taught.. in fact.. teaching/training et al.. is killing us/spark
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the business of schooling has become the unquestioned answer of how we ed our children
but.. and this again is huge.. the question isn’t how we ed our children..
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knowing what we now know, we can no longer do what we now do.. to do so is *ed malpractice
but we’re missing what we really could know.. we’ve been using non legit data forever.. so we really have no idea what we know.. ie: it’s not about better ways to come together to do ed.. thinking we have to do ed (any form of people telling other people what to do) is the *malpractice (aka: the death of us)
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to build a world that can work for all people.. the innate power and creativity of the human spirit must be liberated in service of the needs we all share – security, community, fairness, belonging, hope..
let go of security, fairness, hope, .. or we’ll never get there.. let’s just focus on 2 needs & a cure
brown belonging law: the opposite of belonging.. is fitting in.. true belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are.. it requires you to be who you are.. and that’s vulnerable.. –Brené Brown
21 – table of contents
pg 25ff wouldn’t load – wouldn’t load on kindle.. but whole book did load on ipad.. back at it tomorrow
peaking ahead
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the question we hold become the maps we walk
yeah that.. let’s facil that ie: imagine if we; cure ios city; as infra
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foreword: stephanie pace marshall
‘Stephanie Anne Pace Marshall FRSA, is an American educator and the founding president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy‘
lit & num as colonialism et al
hannah arendt: ‘ed is at the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it. and ed too, is where we decide whether we love our children enough not to expel them from the world, not to strike from their hands their chance of undertaking something unforeseen by us, but *to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world’
like lots about hannah.. this quote is off/awful.. depending on how you define ed.. if defined: to draw forth from w/in – ok.. but then wouldn’t also be saying things like.. *to prepare them in advance.. that it’s their **task to renew the world.. the awful ness comes in saying this (which is actually the death of us) is telling of our love .. for the world.. for our kids..
oi. we’re so messed up
let go.
as an educator for over 50 yrs.. the intellectual flourishing, emotional well being and soulful growth of children have been at the center of my work
i’m sure she’s lovely.. but like the rest of us.. ie: maté parenting law; sinclair perpetuation law; of math and men; intellect ness; et al.. if science/math really worked for humanity.. it would see educating people does harm to fittingness – keeping us from us – supposed to’s of school/work et al
i have listened to them; honored their questions.. joined them on spontaneous expedition of inquiry and imagination and held them in gratitude, never knowing when their boundless creativity might emerge and shift everything
black science of people/whales law – we have no idea what legit free people are like.. what we need is a means to undo our hierarchical listening (for the record.. i thought i was doing the same.. until i heard things i can’t unhear/see)
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quotes harari in 21 lessons
21 lessons – we have to let go of any form of m\a\p
we can choose who we want to be
yeah.. but not what others want to be
sometimes there are moment sin human history that beckon awakenings.. they challenge us to re eval our beliefs, relationships,, patterns, and reigning cultural stories.. they invite us to create new language/rules/systems, and they call us to author and live into new stories that illuminate truths that have been present all along but we have forgotten how to see
yeah.. and a big part of that forgetting is thinking humanity is about intellect ness et al.. we need legit new/old language/rules/systems.. so that the renewing is an everyday event for 100% of us.. ie: cure ios city.. imagine if we
if equity is everyone getting a go every day.. redefining public education becomes revolution of everyday life.. aka: global equity
part one – seeds for growth
id – who (and why) we are
in times of extreme uncertainty, when the old stories and maps can no longer guide us, we need to reconnect to our deepest roots.. every thin emerges from id..
rather.. if we legit reconnect to our deepest roots.. everything is extreme uncertainty.. and our souls love that.. and id becomes irrelevant
how then has the old story shaped how we see
black science of people/whales law – blinded us.. like whales in sea world..
shifting to book page numbers now (rather than pdf numbers)
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on hamlet and staying true to self and accepting role society has assigned him.. a central question we all must wrestle with.. great majority of our time 93% of history as a species.. was we not me.. as foragers we lived in unquestioning obedience to the unknowable marvels of the natural world.. most likely to find comfort and sense of id thru *ability to fit usefully/invisibly into a larger community.. to wonder about world was to focus one’s gaze outward/upward.. over time however, human gaze has **shifted
both are non legit on their own.. need both simultaneous.. *this happens if we are living our fittingness.. but we don’t know/trust that.. because we’ve not yet tried it.. not even in the 93% of time.. if we try to *fit into sea world.. we end up rna ing (messing with) the dance..
we’ve only yet tried one extreme or the other.. we’ve not yet tried simul\taneous ness.. everyone in sync.. so we keep perpetuating tragedy of the non common.. causing us to swing to the other end of the pendulum
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dan siegel: ‘brain is a social organ, made to be in a relationship..’
true.. but again.. the dance won’t dance if we’re not legit being our fittingness.. which means if we want a change (as you say a new story) .. any mech/means needs a detox embed.. otherwise we’re spinning our wheels trying to dance w 8b people who are not legit themselves.. not legit parts of our one body
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rifkin: ‘ it is awe that inspires all human imagination.. ‘
sheldrake: ‘we are ecosystems.. composed of and decomposed by – an ecology of microbes.. our selves emerge from a complex tangle of relationship only now becoming known’
agree w first part.. of rupert sheldrake – but i think we still have no clue.. and if we really did.. i think that’d mean we were dead (in sea world).. i think thinking we know the tangle.. is part of our demise.. part of the death of us
ie: ‘in undisturbed ecosystems ..the average individual, species, or population, left to its own devices, behaves in ways that serve and stabilize the whole..’ –Dana Meadows
i think it’s the not knowing ness.. that keeps us alive.. and dancing the dance
sheldrake: ‘mycelium is a body w/o a body plan’
yeah that.. let’s assume we’re that.. no plan, so no prep, and not predict\able.. not knowable
siegel: ‘the very thing at the center of our most personal sense of self – the mind – may not be as distinct as we’d thought’
and may not be so center of us ness.. as we thought.. imagine if we tap into the itch-in-8b-souls.. everyday
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it’s how living systm operate in natural world – by existing and creatively organizing w/in and between a boundary of self..
andreas weber on notion of self: ‘every subject is not sovereigns but rather an intersubject – a self creating *pattern in an unfathomable meshwork of longings, repulsions, and dependencies’
yeah.. that un know able.. ness.. if even a *pattern
‘in undisturbed ecosystems ..the average individual, species, or population, left to its own devices, behaves in ways that serve and stabilize the whole..’ –Dana Meadows
francisco varela: ‘life is a process of creating an id.. every organism is a meshwork of selfless selves..
if selfless self.. why creating an id? i think it’s even inbetween that seeming betweenness of varela ie: i think when we’re in an undisturbed ecosystem and legit common\ing.. we’re not even thinking about such things (so in that sense selfless?).. we’re just doing the dance
our findings:
1\ undisturbed ecosystem (common\ing) can happen
2\ if we create a way to ground the chaos of 8b free people
what’s true for the microorganism is just as true for the megalopolis.. but what does that really mean in the daily whir of our personal and professional lives? and how do we intentionally build our empathetic muscles in the service of building a living, thriving org? .. siegel: ‘from not only inner life but interlife’
well.. there’d be no professional ness.. whatever that means..
imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness.. we might just get to a more antifragile, healthy, thriving world.. the ecosystem we keep longing for..
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the science of the human brain – has allowed us to integrate two very diff ways of making sense of the world and our place in it
see.. i think if we’re (has to be all of us) legit free.. we’re not going to be thinking about making sense of world and/or our place in it (think of a legit free 5 yr old).. fittingness completely changes things.. we currently have no idea.. all our data/assumptions/research/history.. is like it’s from whales in sea world aka: non legit
we need a legit re\set.. where we listen to legit different data
james baldwin is a direct challenge to myths that have shaped our shared sense of what it mean to be an american
ie of irrelevant/cancerous red flag that we’re doing it/life wrong: to be an american.. taleb center of problem law
insights of thich nhat hanh offer a window into ways our understanding of the mind shape our capcity for well being
i’m thinking focus on things like ‘understanding the mind’ are what’s keeping us from well-being.. what’s keeping us from us
and the vision of embassy ed, a nascent network of elementary/secondary schools in ho chi minh city, vietnam , is to leverage the creative power of arts ed in order to help vietnamese children *develop a better, more integrated sense of selves
that’s our intoxicated selves talking.. legit free children are not yet scrambled.. so more integrated/sensing than us.. so.. actually we’re stopping that process by thinking we have to school them .. and by school.. i mean any form of m\a\p..
weber: ‘w our craving to build new/better world we have thoughtlessly given up that one crucial sphere to which we are linked by the umbilical cord of life. we have attempt to sneak away from our siamese connection w all other human beings.. we have tried to escape from ourselves.. ‘
true.. but again.. legit free 5 yr olds grok that and are naturally/ongoingly grokking whatever they need.. we take it (that ability to ongoingly grok/be alive ness) away from them when we suggest school.. when we alternate paragraphs of school and weber words
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we live the stories we tell about ourselves..
yeah.. maybe we need to let go of the stories.. and listen/live deeper
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it (the brain) is the primary author of the deeply personal story we tell ourselves about who we are and why we’re here
lit & num as colonialism.. the story we’ve been telling/hearing.. not so deeply personal.. not so true/legit
and it never shows us the world as it truly is – only as we need it to be
only as we’re taught to think we need it to be
this is the conundrum of the human brain, which is why understanding its peculiar science is s prereq towards our ability to imagine and then build a better world
dang.. so something impossible.. understanding the brain (in its legit ecosystem).. is a pre req? towards our ability to imagine?
that’s wack.. we’re so messed up..
beau lotto: human beings didn’t evolve to see the world objectively; the evolved to ‘not die’.. and all living things have managed to ‘not die’ thus far by developing diff perceptual overlays on teh same planetary backdrop
our only evolution to date has been toward the death of us
iaian mcglichrist believes it (brain evolved w a singular blueprints stamped out twice) happened to help us ‘attend to the world in two completely diff ways, and in so doing to bring two diff worlds into being.. 1\ live, complex, embodied world of individual, always unique, forever in flux .. a net of interdependencies, forming/reforming wholes, deeply connected.. 2\ a re presented version of experience, containing now static, separable, bounded, but essentially fragmented entities, grouped into classes, on which prediction can be based’
second is just cancer evolving in us from all the supposed to‘s.. ie: if you can predict us.. we’re surely not alive.. not us.. we’re like whales in sea world
iaian: ‘these are not diff ways of thinking about the world.. they are diff ways of being in the world.. left hem is hem of ‘what’ .. right hem.. w its preoccupation w context.. the relational aspects of experience, emotion and nuances of expression, could be said to be the hem of ‘how”.. and says we have become left hem heavy (logic over emotion)
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james baldwin on the intimate dance of mutual self destruction.. throughout his life, baldwin questioned how his fellow americans could develop a health sense of id in a society that spent so much energy cultivating an image that was not grounded in reality
am thinking.. that thinking we have an id.. rather than an ongoing the it is me ness.. is not legit.. ie: fellow americans? marsh exchange law et al
jb: ‘the failure to look reality in the face diminishes a nation as it diminishes a person.. if we are not capable of this examination, we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations’
non legit ness: there are no nations.. no borders.. nationality: human if even that
jb: ‘our dehumanization of the negro thens is indivisible from out dehumanization of ourselves’
yeah that.. with any label.. ie: american et al.. imagine if we only used 8b daily curiosities as label(s).. in order to detox/reconnect us (augmenting interconnectedness)
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to recognize one’s true id as an american, therefore, requires recognizing the full weight of our racial history..
no true id.. let alone american id.. we have to let go of all that.. we have to let go of thinking there are pre req’s for living ie: learn the history; learn the science of the brain; .. those are just curriculums.. those are just forms of m\a\p
jb: ‘what binds us together is not these *artificial categories of social construction, but our endless connection w and responsibility for each other’
jb writes so deep.. so spot on in many ways.. but if still using ie: *american et al .. seems to miss the point
also.. responsibility ness is another red flag we’re doing it/life wrong
those aside.. yeah.. let’s focus on getting us back to our interconnectedness ie: thurman interconnectedness law: when you understand interconnectedness it makes you more afraid of hating than of dying – Robert Thurman
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we have the seeds of everything in us
yeah that..
huge
let’s org/facil around that.. [but that means we let go of any form of m\a\p]
how do we wake up
this is huge.. and we keep missing it: it matters that we wake up in sync.. evidence of that is in our history.. people have been waking up .. but never in sync.. so the dance can’t dance.. and so we are still living the tragedy of the non common.. and so we perpetuate the myth that waking up isn’t enough.. that what is already in us.. that us.. isn’t enough
huge
so.. begs a mech (w detox embed) that 8b people can (and deeply desire) to use.. today
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bui (founder of soul music/arts academy in nam): ‘ultimately that’s why we exist – to inspire the next gen to be unafraid and to find/use their voice’
this too is huge.. and we keep missing it.. ie: thinking that someone who didn’t fit in school.. now says they are happy via fitting in art school.. that’s not legit voice.. and we’re all so intoxicated (and since this won’t work unless we’re all detoxed in sync).. we keep thinking it is legit.. so what we really need at this point in time.. is a means/mech to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature ie: tech as it could be
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if we’re serious about changing the way the world sees us and the arts, we have to build a new ecosystem that puts creative ed at the heart of learning
rather.. we have to let go of thinking we have to do ed/learning.. ie: cure ios city
than: ‘not knowing who you are, not knowing your purpose, that’s the biggest problem in the world.. ‘
rather.. if we org’d to get 8b of us back/to our fittingness.. we’d *see that ‘who we are’ and ‘our purpose’.. are ongoingly changing.. and so to talk of them would be irrelevant/deadly (actually.. we probably wouldn’t even *see/think about who we are and our purpose as ongoingly changing.. we’d be too busy living/being.. the dance.. )
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everyone want our schools to be better. now e must choose if we want them to be different
i think what we really all want is to not even think in terms of schools.. diff/better/whatever.. if we let our souls truly speak – and we truly listened – we’d do so much less talking (at least about these things)
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now what – to support your work translating these principle into practices we offer 7 sets of inquiry seeds, probes/question that are aligned to the design principle of living systems..
see.. that’s a great ie of not legit believing that the seeds are already in us.. that those seeds (whatever you want to call what is already in us) don’t already grok living systems ness..
holmgren indigenous law et al
if we think we need any form of training/prep et al.. huge red flag we’re doing it/life wrong.. huge red flag we don’t really believe the ‘seeds’ are already in us
huge
let go
seeds are funny things. we don’t actually make them grow, instead we till the soil, ensure adequate sunlight, provide necessary nutrients and get rid of pests.. seeds don’t grow because we *make them; they grow because we nurture the **optimal conditions in which they can grow.. in that spirit, inquiry seeds are designed to help you ask ***better questions and act more sustainable so that slowly but surely – w ‘urgent patience’ your questions/actions can help foster the growth of a shared learning culture that is more emergent, dynamic and alive
hmm.. providing questions.. 7 sets of inquiry seeds.. sounds more like *making them than focusing on **conditions.. (hari rat park law et al).. ie: who’s deciding what ***better is..?
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map your learning culture..? take a school transcript and imagine what a more dynamic accurate reflection of each student’s deeper id and skill set would need to look like
wow.. let go
meg wheatley: ‘we suffer from a fundamental misperception of info.. we have treated it as a thing as a physical entity, which has kept us from contemplating its other dimensions.. the content, character and behavior of info.. we expect info to be controllable, stable and obedient.. we expect to be able to manage it.. in the new science however, info is a dynamic changing element.. *w/o info, life cannot give birth to anything new.. info is what allows for the emergence of a new order‘
wow.. info ness is what’s killing us.. keeping us not us.. ie: all data today is non legit.. it’s from whales in sea world.. life isn’t about info.. it’s about our interconnectedness.. and if we get that right.. if we facil that.. things like info/intellect .. become irrelevant..
great ie of *lit & num as colonialism
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although our relationship to info has always shifted w each new innovation – *from the alphabet to the printing press to the smartphone.. the new order emerging around us has in fact, been predicted for generations
predict\able ness is a huge red flag.. we’re not alive.. dang.. how is it predictable and emergent? and too *language as control/enclosure et al
mufleh humanity law: we have seen advances in every aspect of our lives except our humanity– Luma Mufleh
what should we do about the flood of bits and bytes its is producing.. how should it impact the ways we think about preparing our children to build a better world?
all the bits/bytes currently .. non legit.. let go..
let go of thinking we have to prep kids..
if we try legit diff data (everything else is just noise/cancer).. we’ll all be able to be/swim/emerge/live in the not yet scrambled state of a 5 yr old
as you’ll see in stories that follow, first step is to ask, amidst the deluge, what’s meaninful.. and to follow on another’s answers wherever they may take us
rather .. what we need is curiosity over responding/decision-making (what is meaningful what is not)
meg: ‘we need to develop new approaches to info.. not management but encouragement, not control but genesis. how do we create more of this wonderful life source?’
we need to listen to/for legit diff info.. all the info we currently have is B (too much bs)
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on reggio emilia yielding the finest (and most equitable) nursery schools in the world
nursery schools are about equity – let go of any form of m\a\p
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peter senge: ‘western language, are biased toward a linear view.. we need a language of interrelationships, a language made up of circles..’ this is the language/science of feedback loops
better to have the legit non linear language of idiosyncratic jargon.. loops are linear – reciprocal flow is linear
feedback loops provide a language to map and explain that activity, biologically
biologically if we map/explain it.. it’s no longer alive
neg feedback loops great for machines – lousy for humans beings..
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pos/amplifying feedback loop.. notice something new and amp it into messages that signal a large need to change.. pos loops do not promote order.. but disequilibrium.. which is the hallmark of a truly living system.. to continuously import energy from the environ and export entropy in order to constantly change and grow.. prigogine’s work.. demo’d that .. *disequilib is in fact the necessary condition for growth in a living system.. this is why they’re called self org systems..
this is so spot on .. organism as fractal et al.. but this little paragraph is embedded in contrary thought.. embedded in our broken feedback loop of mechs to perpetuate hard won order
taleb antifragile law et al
meg: ‘neither form/function alone dictates how system is org’d instead.. process structure, reorganizing into diff forms in order to maintain their id’..
yeah.. i don’t think id ness is antifragile
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robin wall kimmerer – braiding sweetgrass..
eagle and condor ness – holmgren indigenous law – et al
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robin: ‘difficulties of sci world.. we name something.. almost becomes end to inquiry.. ignores all of its relationships.. reduces tremendously’
not to mention has the naming.. deadens it/us
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on grammar of animacy – robin: ‘english language calling beings an ‘it’.. at root of a worldview that allows us to exploit nature..’
robin: ‘notion of reciprocity is really diff from that (sustainability).. it says our notion is to not just take.. reciprocity broadens notion to say that earth sustains us and we sustain her in return’
reciprocity is a form of m\a\p .. ie: we get caught up in all the measuring/owing.. rather than trusting/being/listening.. it’s not about returning things (messes w our head.. makes us not us).. it’s about the dance
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on reggio’s finest nursery schools in world.. and how it might be replicated elsewhere..
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goal is no tknowledge, it’s commuicatoin.. all adults believe that all children have at dipsoal a hundred idff languages.. and that typically th eschool steals 99.. bylanguage no mearelry words.. but also caly paper color joy imagiantion.. anything that can help a child commuicate his/her inner thoguhts w pwopel aroudn them..
wonderful..huge.. ie: idiosyncratic jargon .. but have to also be freed from space where distinctions of child/teachers.. id ness.. et al..
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reggio teachers have no predetermine curricul bu tneigher to they work as constan imprivser.. instead,, short/long range projects..
this is (invisibly/subtly) stifling (like a raised eyebrow).. projects are the death of us.. thinking we have to stay committed to them .. et al.. (rather than thinking the it is me).. and .. the teachers in the space lose their unique ness.. by not just living/being (ie: thinking they’re there to improve teach.. whatever).. which then means the children in the space lose that essence as well..
the teachers *follow the children not the plans .. to see this in action is part of what makes reggio so magical.. teachers are not there to deliver content but to activate the meaning making competencies of all children.. as malguzzi put it ‘they must try to capture the right moments, and then find the right approaches,, for bringing together int a fruitful dialogue their meaning and interpretations w those of the children..’
*great words.. but not legit if following ‘the teachers’ – form of m\a\p.. and if in a space where they are watching/observing children in order to ‘capture right moments/approaches.. make meaning.. interpret.. et al’
what kids need (what all of us need) is for all of us to be living/being in a legit free space/ecosystem.. ie: cure ios city.. all of us in the city.. as the day
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‘we in reggio.. assert the right of children to Ed from birth.. the child is therefore a competent citizen..’
rights, responsibility, informed populace/citizenry, .. all red flags we’re doing it/life wrong – they are agendas that become the death of us (no matter how much kinder/better/whatever they seem)
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enter a reggio classroom and you will see teachers scribbling notes, taking pics, recording convos, of filming the children as they work.. here, assessment is not something that occurs at end of project or course of study to measure knowledge of info; its’ the lifeblood of a culture of praxis and the central way in which both *adults/children make meaning out of their work together‘
i’ve witnessed first hand this nice sounding reform as being not the ‘lifeblood’ but the death of us ie: filming, scribbling notes, et al.. are the raised eyebrows.. kids know they’re being watched.. they know there’s an agenda.. many know this space is better than their alternative.. so words coming out of their mouths.. the things you are filming that they are doing.. et al.. are not from legit free people.. (think panoption ness)
*if we are all truly free.. and we come together in a space via that legit freedom ie: from curiosity over decision making.. then things like ‘making meaning’ become irrelevant s.. ie: saying we need to make meaning.. is a red flag
let go of any form of m\a\p.. for (blank)’s sake
carlina rinaldi: ‘the way we think of documentation.. is as visible listening.. w/in the word eval is that word value.. thai is what we offer to the learning processes of the children .. from your documentation, the *children can understand not only their processes but what you value as meaningful for their learning processes.. in this way assessment becomes more democratic.. the children can see the meaning that the teacher has drawn from their work and that **they are seen and heard and appreciated and understood‘
i know this is supposed to sound lovely.. but it makes my skin crawl.. (probably because it’s supposed to sound lovely?).. ie: why are we evaluating each other.. ? why should a kid care what an adult assigned to his room values about what he/she just did.. has down.. will do?.. we’re missing that child (adult/person/whoever) once we place expectations.. once we lose the unconditionality our souls crave.. our fittingness craves.. belonging ness craves
*from david graeber‘s theory of value:
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anthro from beginning entirely diff.. has always been most interested in action of those people who are least influenced by practical/theoretical world in which the analyst moves/operates.. esp true in days when anthros saw selves as studying savages; but to this day anthros have remained most interested in people whose understanding of world and whose interests/ambitions, are most diff than their own.. as a result.. it is generally carried out completely w/o a thought to furthering those interests/ambitions.. when malinowski was trying to figure out what torbriand gardeners were trying to accomplish in acting as they didi, it almost certainly never even occurred to him that whatever that was, reading his book might make them better able to accomplish it. in fact, when an anthro discovers that anyone is using anthro texts in this way – say as a guide for how to perform their own rituals – they are usually quite disturbed
huge
and that still doesn’t get to the space we all need to be in every day.. ie: we don’t need people studying us.. batra hide in public law et al
**also from david graeber‘s theory of value:
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basic issues have never been resolved.. same problems keep re emerging.. as we shall see, a lot of what passes for the newest and most refreshing poststructural theory nowadays is largely warmed over transactionalism, minus the fancy econ formulae, w some even fancier linguistic formulae pasted on instead..
and that last bit on respect vs love (back to seed and spark).. we only think that way because we have no idea what legit free people are like.. because we keep not grokking/practicing/being trust and unconditionality
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image of space
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what – inquiry seeds of info
living system are dynamic open systems that enable the continuous flow/exchange of info.. info serves as the system’s nourishment and its source of vibrancy and sustainability
yeah.. i don’t know if that’s legit.. i don’t think that’s key to living/being (info)
however not all info is equally valued or responded to .. because not everything that enters a system is equally relevant to its id or essential to its purpose
yeah.. i don’t think id and purpose are key to living/being either.. i think all those (id purpose info) would become irrelevant to us if we were all legit free in an undisturbed ecosystem.. i think we have no idea.. so we keep trying to know.. and we do need info (doesn’t matter if it’s legit or not) for that
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me – ask self.. what sorts of info are most meaningful to me.. does reality of your daily life match the rhetoric of your deepest aspirations
most/all of us don’t know our deepest aspirations.. too distracted by all the supposed to’s of school/work et al (one close ie w/in the ‘we’ section below
let’s just try self-talk as data – temporarily dead/static (1 day at most) info in order to detox/connect us
we – id what youwan tyour students to know (competentices, skills, habits of mind/heart, actively engage) in or to learn deeply and become authors of their own lives
wow.. so disrobe/dehumanize.. so they don’t know themselves.. then say.. be yourself..? the death of us
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books to go deeper with
included: marshall mcluhan; braiding sweetgrass; stamped from beginning; zac chase;
need to go back and look at first list..see if i’ve read any of those
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relationships – how/why we connect
in a living system, everything is connected. ther are no parts to e exchanged or fixed
so.. why keep trying to fix kids? (in the name of prepping/respecting them et al)
how then can we deepen both the quantity and quality of connections in our lives
quantity? but how: augmenting interconnectedness
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17th cent: descartes ‘i think therefore i exist’ and newton developed math formulation that could provide a consistent math theory of world (classical physics) .. shift away from notion of organic, living and spiritual universe and toward a mechanistic, linear world of separable parts.. dominated western culture ever since..
embodiment (process of).. organism as fractal.. of math and men.. lit & num as colonialism et al.. we need to calculate differently and stop measuring things
155 – section on dan siegel: ‘mind is the essence of our fundamental nature, our deepest sense of being alive, here, right now, in this moment.. if who we are.. both in our personal id and felt experience of life.. emerges as a mental process, a mental product, a function of mind, then who we are is who our mind is.. the mind is not just the brain.. not even the social brain.. the mind may be something emerging from a higher level of systems functioning that simply what happens inside the skull.. this system’s basic elements are energy and info flow.. and that flow happens inside of us and between ourselves and others and the world.. ‘
yeah.. not buying that.. too limiting of human being ness
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‘a healthy mind then is one that has optimized self org.. by promoting integration.. w/in and between’ – dan
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what must our children fall in love w so they will cherish and not destroy it
rather.. they are in love.. with life/wonder.. let’s stop covering that up
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part 2 – seeds for change
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emergence
it’s in *our nature to gravitate toward the well worn path.. how do we also summon the **courage to ***choose the road we can only make by walking?
*whale‘s nature..
**not about courage.. rather about delight/love (as referred to in 173) of legit free people
***not about choosing a road.. that’s still a path/agenda/spinach or rock
on one level this is the very defn of intelligence.. roots of word mean to ‘choose between’
ha.. no wonder the whole intellect ness is so unsettling.. life isn’t about choosing.. that’s reductionist ness we’ve created in sea world
and no organism can live w/o the capacity to choose – even an amoeba must choose between competing routes to potential food or to avoid a toxin.. yet asking ourselves to choose the road not taken is also asking to go against certain aspects of our evolutionary design
can’t live w/o capacity to choose? or dies when we think choosing between some finite set of choices is the way to live?
and again.. the evolutionary design of whales
in part.. we have made it this far by learning how to stay safe.. part of what has kept us safe is making the world predictable
oh my.. safety addiction and predict\able ness as the death of us
steven johnson: ’emergent behavior are all about living w/in the boundaries defied by rules, but also using that space to create something greater than the sum of is parts’.. in that sense, the central features of emergent systems outline a set of rules from the natural world that are both timeless/timely: give/receive feedback; pay attention to your closest neighbors; see order, not control; follow the meaning
not sure about the rules needed for emergence.. at least not as we see rules.. and not via the rules given ie: follow the meaning? not sure that is or would create emergence
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the science: a murmuration
there is not familiar way to make sense of this natural phenom.. a natural manifestation of a set of principles for organizing complex behavior and an observable phenom that runs counter to *the way we human beings have made sense of the world for as long as anyone can remember
and why we need to let go of *it.. making sense and having to explain/understand things is keeping us from the dance.. from murmuration ness.. we have no idea what we’re missing.. by not letting go.. and so we keep coming up with all these ways to see.. but none of them to date.. have let go of control enough.. to see
so.. we just keep drowning/perpetuating the tragedy of the non common
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so what can this behavior teach us about ourselves, our rogs, and our ability to change the story of the way we work and learn?
that we need to quit focusing on working/learning
andreas weber’s bio of wonder: ‘the spirit of poetic ecology is the spirit of swarms.. we have to think of beings always as interbeings’
a reminder in physical form that our own bodies, cultures and classrooms are governed by same rules..
classrooms? nah.. ones you get in sea world.. so cultures as well.. those rules don’t work
andreas: ‘these are the principles of poetic forms that are so thorough we can even tech them to a computer.. they are the primary shapes of a poetics of living things’
yeah.. i think if we can teach them to a computer.. that’s not free enough.. at least not for human being ness.. (again to theory of value loc 7)
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the art: jazz
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jazz is like democracy itself. it’s a process that will nto always go your way. it will force you to adjust
yeah.. let go.. decision making (democracy) is unmooring us law
jazz is a way of wrestling w what it means to be human
maybe for some.. and.. maybe we don’t need to wrestle w what it means.. just be it
jazz is not the notes you play; it’s the notes you leave out. listen.
yeah.. that’s like democracy ie: public consensus always oppresses someone(s) .. let go.. listen deeper
for the record.. i love jazz..
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adrienne maree brown’s book – emergent strategy
i don’t think those words go together.. esp to point here.. i don’t think emergence can be strategized.. and i think strategizing kills emergence
adrienne: ‘how do i in my lifesimte, do my part to help return the species to itself’
begs we let go of all our responding ness.. ie: moten abolition law; moxie on democracy; .. and try something we’ve not yet tried.. for (blank)’s sake
adrienne: ‘systems that last are ones that are most biodiverse.. and not trying to be each other’
yeah.. that begs a mech to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature- has to be all of us .. detoxed.. our it won’t work..
brown belonging law et al
adrienne: ‘main question for me w emergent strategy is how do we improve relationships w each other, as well as improve how we are in relationship to the planet.. if we can do these two things, we may stand a chance of earning our place on the planet..
how: imagine if we (but not about earning.. that thinking we’ll keep us from us)
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adrienned: ‘how do we right now give people the tools they need in order to tell their story? in order to speak the truth to each other and to get to see new truths?’
how: via a means to undo our hierarchical listening ie: 2 convers as infra
perhaps we can have tech w/o judgment ie: tech as it could be
like you say.. we need to let go of judge\ment (other-ing).. and realize our interconnectedness.. i know you ness
but more about cure ios city.. than story.. history ness is killing us.. it’s all about whales in sea world.. so we just end up spinning our wheels.. judging/tiring rather than being.. once we let go of any form of m\a\p.. we’ll be blown away by the possibilities (new truths)
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adrienne: ‘how are you willing to be in an experimental phase instead of a permanent phase?’
great question.. but (to me) dangerous/unethical even (what we found in the lab/house).. until it’s all of us.. and only say this because today we do have the means for it to be all of us.. experimenting.. as the day.. everyday anew
adrienne: ‘the shift we need as human beings is to grow our souls as big as that shift from agrarian to tech was..’
yeah.. that.. and even more ginormously-small.. imagine if we legit listened to the itch-in-8b-souls everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness
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adrienne: ‘we must get more passionate about healing that we are about punishing..
mufleh humanity law: we have seen advances in every aspect of our lives except our humanity– Luma Mufleh
thurman interconnectedness law: when you understand interconnectedness it makes you more afraid of hating than of dying – Robert Thurman
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blue school how to inspire creativity.. the holy grail of org redesign .. beyond culture building rituals, blue school also works proactively to translate the latest research on cog sci and child devel into all classroom practices and pd courses.. intention to cultivate a specific set of habits of minid in its students..
let go..
ie: cure ios city sans any form of m\a\p
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on how to transfer the magic to all schools/communities.. sedlock: ‘almost everything flows from our ability to answer two questions: what does it man to really observe children? and how do we document each child’s learning more meaningfully?’
oh my.. total death to any magic/creativity/curiosity.. right there.. let go..
imagine if we org’d around two basic needs.. rather than two means to dehumanize/chain/distrust us..
ashley semrick: ‘i think a read danger is to think the solution is simply not to plan or have goals or to just give yourself over to eh whims of whatever the kids want to do at any give moment.. it’s the opposite actually : it won’t work unless you have really clear goals for both individual kinds and the larger group’
um.. actually.. won’t work until we are all set free from sea world.. the only reason we think we need those ‘clear goals’.. is because we’re all already chained/intoxicated.. all of us.. and so we have no idea what legit free people are like.. and we won’t if we keep trying part\ial solutions/experiments/living
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part 3 – seeds for regeneration
regeneration.. alvarado regeneration law
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patterns
a living system can be mapped.. what then are the pattern w should be looking for? what is the shape of what we seek?
yeah.. i think we’re off on that thinking.. i think once we map/pattern/label something.. we kill it.. and it can no longer legit emerge/regen
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robert shaw: ‘you don’t see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it’
don’t buy that either.. ie: what about not yet scrambled ness.. i think having any pre req is a red flag we’re doing it/life wrong.. and it actually blinds us.. so that we only see what’s on agenda.. what other people are telling us to see
let go..
wade davis says these are the patterns of human behavior that expose the fallacy that it as ever possible to achieve infinite growth on a finite planet. it is, he warns, ‘a form of slow collective suicide. to deny/exclude form the calculus of governance and econ the costs of violating the bio support systems of life is the logic of delusion’
doing the calculus in the first place is the suicide – ie: if we do calc in the costs of ‘violations’ ..we’re just perpetuating the idea that we should be measuring things
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bill mckibben: ‘the great advantage of 21 cent is.. having lived thru 20th.. able to scratch some ideas off the list’
gotta go deeper .. for (blank)’s sake
beau lotto: ‘overcoming uncertainty and predicting usefully from seemingly useless data is arguably the fundamental task that the human brain, evolved to solve’
whoa.. uncertainty is what keeps us alive.. predict\ablity is the death of us.. this statement is a great ie of why our obsession with and focus on the brain is such a killer..
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dan pink: ‘future belongs to a very diff kind of person w a very diff kind of mind.. creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers.. moving from econ/society built on logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of info age to econ/society built on inventive, empathic, big pic capabilities of what’s rising it its place’
true on diff kind of person.. but that just means.. back to legit human beings.. rather than whales.. and that means letting go of all the things we think we need to train/prep for.. and just trust/swim in the uncertainty (aka: aliveness of life)
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as you’ve read thus far, a healthy living system depends on interplay of 3 interrelated characteristics for growth: clarity of individual/shared id; circulation of relevant info; strength of reciprocal relationships
red flag in each 1\ identity 2\ intellect ness 3\ reciprocity
over time however living system depend on 3 additional design principles for regen: patterns – things we notice; processes – way we work; structures – things we build
meg wheatley: ‘to understand and work w the system.. we need to be able to observe it as a system, in its wholeness.. wholeness is revealed only as shapes, not facts, systems reveal themselves as patterns, not isolated incidents or data points.. and in groups/orgs.. it is structure of relationship among individuals that .. when changed.. gives rise to diff behavior patterns’
i’m thinking that in order to legit work (i prefer dance – to me work has become solving other people’s problems) w the system .. we need to let go of trying to understand it.. listen deeper .. in the moment.. otherwise just killing ourselves/it softly (or not softly)
i’m not sure wholeness is revealed.. shapes/patterns.. i think those are just more broad data points/facts.. so just as deadly.. we’re so busy observing.. analyzing.. finding meaning.. that we’re not able to just be the dance.. (and as floofy as that sounds.. it’s more ridiculous to keep not trusting it/us.. ie: look around)
meg wheatley – walk out walk on
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school must never be a vehicle for id theft
thinking we have an id is part of the theft.. let go ie: the it is me.. always changing
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the science: spirals
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close observers feel its upward circular path maps a traceable pattern of movemetn that helps govern the one universal contact: change
why do we have to govern/control/know things.. let go
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the art: humans of ny
we feel powerful and invisible, alive and unmoored and we wonder a lot if anyone else feels the same
decision making is unmooring us .. any form of m\a\p is unmooring us
brandon stanton.. a virtual map of homo sapiens in all our dialectical beauty/madness and patterned psychological swirl..
brandon: ‘i always said if i’d had the idea of hony.. i’d never have begun hony’.. at same time.. stanton is wary of anyone reading too much into such patterns ‘i think people try to put it into a bos of shogin th commonality of humanity. my purpose is not to tell the story of humanity, it’s to tell the story of the person right in front of me’
in the now.. not in the patterns..
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and yet.. thru all the individual faces/stories stanton recorded.. there is as maria popova has written ‘a magnificent mosaic of lives.. ‘
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there exists a fundamental tension between the logic of nature and the logic of human industry – pollan explains
maté parenting law; kiss the ground (doc); et al
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margon has done all that any of us can do – intentionally craft a space that invites others to be more aware, present , connected, and informed..
invited vs invented.. let’s make a space.. ie: cure ios city for all of us to be more alive
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living systems are attracted to wholeness and *order.. over time embedded and reinforced patterns of behavior create the system’s **norms, which are very difficult to change.. and although a system’s patterns are not visible, they are ***discernible and can be mapped.. in ways thatreveal to us what we have either intentionally or unintentionally created as a living system (and a living ****school)
wow.. i don’t know.. how do we know that.. ?
i’m thinking wholeness is attracted to letting go of *hard-won order
**sounds like death.. why would something living crave that?
***? again.. death if you do that.. but (to me) if you do that.. ie: think you’ve mapped it.. then i don’t think you are legit discerning it.. again.. i don’t think it can be mapped/ordered/unchangeable.. if so.. wouldn’t be living
****oi… let go
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cognition is the fundamental process of life.. how will we know when they’re (living systems) working?
when we quit talking about all the red flags.. any form of m\a\p
if cognition was the fundamental process of life.. we’re so screwed.. because all the data we keep cognit-ing over.. is non legit.. like it’s from whales in sea world
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the problem is we dan’t solve complex problems unless we change the ways we talk and listen
the problem is thinking that life is about problem solving
not to mention.. if we legit listened to self/others/nature.. we’d not have the problems
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freire: ‘keeping curiosity is absolurelty indispensable for us to contiue to be or to become’
yeah that.. let’s go with that.. ie: cure ios city.. everything else is noise right now .. non legit data noise
taylor compulsory law et al
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the science: slime mold
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megan dobro: ‘slime mold doesnt have politics.. itit’ just choosing what’s good for the whole..
rather.. i don’t think it’s even thinking/choosing what is best for whole.. it’s just being what it is.. which is what is best for the whole
ie: ‘in undisturbed ecosystems ..the average individual, species, or population, left to its own devices, behaves in ways that serve and stabilize the whole..’ –Dana Meadows
ie: brown belonging law: the opposite of belonging.. is fitting in.. true belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are.. it requires you to be who you are.. and that’s vulnerable.. –Brené Brown
we haven’t yet trusted us enough to do/be/see that.. so we have no idea we could do/be that..
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greta
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structure
complex systems depend on simple structures to thrive.. what are the simple structures
ie: as infra
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measuring complex systems will always be imprecise..
and cancerous.. we got to let go of any form of m\a\p
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creating space for all of them/us to found our rightful place, form and expression.. maria popova: ‘the riches relationships are often those that don’t fit neatly into the preconceived slots we have made.. we meet people who belong in no single slot.. we then must stretch ourselves to create new slots shaped after these singular relationships ..’ this is the work
creating space to hear every voice ie: as infra – imagine if we – but sans the ‘creating new slots’ .. why can’t we just let that go.. we’re not meant to be slotted.. let’s just listen and use that data to augmenting our fractured interconnectedness
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the questions we hold become the maps we walk..
if we listen deep enough to the legit questions/daily curiosity.. rather than just assuming the whales‘ questions are from the heart .. when they’re actually forms of cope\ing with the assumptions of how we’re supposed to be/ask/learn
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the art: sim city
goal of simcity is less about winning and more about seeing the structural ripples that flow from a series of seemingly unrelated choices..
talking about the game teaching us to think more global/systemic/complex.. coupled w earlier fb post today (via michel) on people who can think in complex terms.. talking about how amazing they are.. and also how they are usually adhd, unable to socialize normally.. which reminded me of higashida autism law.. and maté not yet scrambled law.. and (to me) that the natural (i don’t think we’re made to have a normal) way to think is in systems.. and we’ve just hammered that out of us.. i think that’s what naoki is saying and gabor.. that we weren’t made to think in patterned/specialized/linear/visible/whatever ways.. so the amazing thing is that so many of us think that thinking in complex terms .. and not being about to socialize like we’re supposed to.. et al.. is the normal (i’d say natural) thing
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maria montessori – 1870.. first focused on psychiatry.. later developed interest in ed that led her to question the prevailing methods of teaching children w intellectual/developmental disabilities.. now more than 25 000 montessori schools around the world
ha.. like my huge paragraph above.. the ones that need the help are the ones labeling others intellectual/development disabled.. et al.. dis\order ness
maria: ‘the child is the spiritual builder of mankind, and obstacles to his free development are the stones in the wall by which the soul of man has become imprisoned.. if what we really want is a new world, then ed must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities..’
rather.. we need to let go of trying to develop/ed people.. any form of m\a\p are the stones in the wall by which all our souls are imprisoned..
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maria: ‘order and precision we found, were the keys to spontaneous work in the school.. ‘
yeah.. i don’t think we get what order and precision are doing to us.. even montessori ness.. they’re red flags we’re not legit trusting any of us.. let alone children
spontaneous ness.. yes.. but won’t get it legit if still seeking order, observing, measuring, .. et al
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maria: ‘the montessori teacher is constantly looking for a child who is not yet there..’
yeah.. that.. exactly.. huge red flag.. let go..
maria: ‘(on 2nd stage) before concentration occurs, the teacher may do more or less what she thinks best; she can interfere w the children’s activities as much as she deems necessary
yeah.. that.. exactly.. let go
there is never nothing going on
maria: ‘(on 3rd stage) when the child begins to show interest, the teach must not interrupt because this interest corresponds w natural laws’
how are they natural .. if they only happen after prodding from last line (above)? – a raised eyebrow is a killer .. let alone guiding someone (verbally or whatever) when they appear to be doing nothing or the wrong things.. until they appear to be doing the right thing
maria: ‘so great principle which brings *success to the teacher is this: as soon as concentration has begun, **act as if the child does not exist..duty of teacher is only to present new things ***when she knows that a child has exhausted all the possibilities of those he was using before.. to serve the children is to feel one is serving the spirit of man, ****a spirit which has to free itself
2nd time reading book my skin is crawling
oh my..
*why?
**we called this usefully preoccupied .. but two major differences.. 1\ never act like the child doesn’t exist.. always there if called upon 2\ do this from the get go.. not just when you/teacher/parent/(whatever entitled label) think some concentration on something has begun.. there is never nothing going on
***rather.. assume that never happens aka: trust people/children/(whatever diminutive/dehumanizing label)
****why even say this after the words before?.. oi
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maria: ‘our mind *as it is would not be able to do what the child’s mind does.. to develop a language from nothing needs a diff type of mentality.. **this the child has.. his intelligence is not same as ours.. it may be said that we acquire knowledge by using our minds; but the child absorbs knowledge directly in to his psychic life.. a kind of mental chemistry goes on w/in him.. we, by contrast, are recipients. impressions pour into us and we store them in our minds; but we ourselves remain apart from them, just as a vase keeps separate from the water it contains.. instead the child undergoes a transformation.. impressions do not merely enter his mind they form it.. they incarnate themselves in him..
**maté not yet scrambled law – why would we want to mess with that.. we need to stop messing with that..
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maria: ‘how splendid would it be, if we could, by standing ready, by treating the child intelligently, w understanding of his viral needs, prolong the period in which he has this capacity to absorb.. what a service we should render mankind if we could help the human being to acquire knowledge w/o fatigue; if people could find themselves replete w info w/o knowing how they came by it – as if it were magic..
yes splendid.. and more important.. we can do that.. so let’s.. ie: cure ios city.. imagine if we (would even detox the rest of us simul\taneously).. not really about the info.. about fittingness
maria: ‘only nature, which has established certain laws and determined the needs of the human being in course of development, can dictate the *ed method to be followed; for this is settled by its aim – to satisfy the needs and laws of life
let go of thinking life if about *ed.. intellect ness.. laws.. or following anything
maria: ‘the harmony of nature on the earth’s surface is produced by the efforts of countless human beings, each of which has its own duties.. there are the forms of behavior that we observe, and it follows that such behavior serves purposes far beyond the mere ministering of each to is own vital needs
not about duties.. or behavior.. it’s about the dance.. the ongoing aliveness the dance..
ie: (the dance) – in undisturbed ecosystems ..the average individual, species, or population, left to its own devices, behaves in ways that serve and stabilize the whole..’ –Dana Meadows
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maria: ‘the will does not lead to disorder and violence. these are signs of emotional disturbance and suffering.. under proper conditions, the will is a force which impels activities beneficial to life.. nature imposes on the child the task of growing up, and his will leads him to make progress and to develop his powers
it doesn’t lead to violence.. as in harming others.. but we have the whole order/disorder thing messed up (wrong).. we need to let go of that.. life is not about growing up..making progress.. developing powers.. whatever/wherever we got that – am assuming has to go along with our obsession for order.. which is really just our obsession for control
maria: ‘so all is ready; we have only to build.. the various contribution form science are like stones from the quarry already squared for placing in the building.. all we have to do is find people ready to put them together and so erect the new structure which civilization so badly needs.. ‘
maybe on the science.. maybe not.. if so.. it’s only because we need a means to detox the whales we (and our science, intellect ness) have created..
but yeah.. let’s put a new structure together.. one that can detox us back/to us.. aka: help us to let go of the hard won order of our deadly civilization ness
the concept of an ed centered upon the care of the living being alter all previous ideas.. resting no longer on a curriculum or a timetable, ed must conform to the facts of human life..
the concept of an ed is killing us .. let go
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bucky: ‘to change something build a new model that makes the existing one obsolete’
and today.. not in 50-1000 yrs.. ie: cure ios city
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meredith mcnamara: ‘whatever sparks natural curiosity.. that’s what you should do’
ie: imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch in 8b souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to connect/coord us.. sans any form of m\a\p ie: ‘6 indepth units a year, 3 curriculuar thems,e tal’
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ippel: ‘to build thriving world, we must design the template of a living school, and create a prototype so that another can do the same’
ie: as infra as template of a living system.. let go of thinking school.. descriptions on 337 are great.. like in the city.. as the day ness.. but because still thinking ‘school’.. ‘learning space’.. we sabotage our curiosity
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system structures are the tangible dimensions of our orgs that embody and give form to our id, allow for meaningful info to freely travel, and provide space and time for relationships to flourish.. they are the visible and often temp forms we create to ensure our work gets done
so many red flags here: tangible; id; meaningful; info; visible; ensure; work; gets done
this is exactly why we haven’t yet gotten to global equity: everyone getting a go .. everyday
if equity is everyone getting a go every day.. redefining public education becomes revolution of everyday life.. aka: global equity
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find/follow seed & spark:
site: https://seedandspark.live/
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may 5 – zoom w peter senge
via sam chaltain‘s seed & spark:
TONIGHT, it’s Peter Senge, with all his accrued wisdom about systems thinking, helping us explore how best to free ourselves from the systems that hold us (and our common public world) prisoner.
link to talk: https://elevate.explo.org/seedandspark/
notes/quotes from talk:
46 present at beginning
sam and homa tavangar (growing up global, big questions institute) hosting – yr long expedition using nature as model (present that i know of.. bobbi macdonald, daniel kinzer
bobbi macdonald & city neighbors
bobbi intro’ing musicians for tonight.. always start w music.. bob darlington w band translator – song – difficult age
55 here now
sam: on peter’s fifth discipline (book).. am starting off w diff question.. than how can we free ourselves from systems.. i’m curious at this moment in time.. what are the central questions/riddles you find yourself sitting w most actively on a day to day basis
peter: two levels come to mind 1\ how do we end the confusion as a people.. how are we going to live together on this planet 2\ on change being intimate and local change yet w problems larger than that locality.. so for last 12-15 yrs.. and now basically all my time/energy goes into people working w primary/secondary ed.. always local.. what is the meaning of.. to change the prevailing system of ed..
homa: i’m also interested in k-12 ed and where it’s going.. an idea i’ve been fixated on during pandemic comes from arundhati toy.. the pandemic as a portal.. gateway between what we knew and an opp to let go.. what will we carry w us thru the portal.. how has the pandemic spurred change
peter: not sure about that last question.. but no doubt school’s are at a crossroads..
daniel in chat:: “Letting go”. How is “system(s) change” more about letting go of multiple elements that haven’t served, or no longer serve us well, and how might we “strip down” education to it’s most fundamental systemic elements with a sharp eye on relationships between those elements?
ie: cure ios city..
imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness.. we might just get to a more antifragile, healthy, thriving world.. the ecosystem we keep longing for..
what the world needs most is the energy of 8b alive people
peter: on programs outside of school.. and then to once in lifetime to reimagine schools.. do we really have to go back.. i find no institution more fatalistic/pessimistic.. in fact phrase ‘school reform’ .. who gets excited about ‘reform’.. i think the notion that there is a unique moment now.. because going back for a lot of people is really not an option.. so in that pandemic has been important.. from what i can see.. nobody is happy w their schools.. and yet.. we have a tremendous investment in them staying the way they are.. in that sense.. yeah.. real portal
sam: probably a little of both.. some revert.. some change.. dan kinzer back from wayfinding voyage has interesting question
dan: this idea of letting go.. i’m curious how is systems change.. ed if you want.. how is it more about letting go.. seems innovation is always additive.. what would that look like if stripped to most fundamental elements..
again ie: cure ios city
peter: leads to obvious question.. why.. because there’s a lot of fear associated w letting go.. in dealing w this fear.. umberto: what do we want to conserve.. if we’re not sure about that .. we try to conserve everything
ie: 2 conversations.. as infra
bobbi in chat: we need to find the bias toward well being. That way we conserve that which regenerates and transforms and let go of what doesn’t bring us life.
ie: maté basic needs
peter: on cultivating appreciation of letting go
aziz let go law et al
66 here now
homa: where would you suggest to focus
peter: energy for change comes from 2 sources: 1\ something we really love 2\ telling the truth about what is.. it’s the gap of those two that’s the energy for change.. *painful to tell the truth about what is
fittingness et al..
*and a distraction.. ie: whalespeak.. let go
peter: each of us can ask.. what do we care about the most.. and how do we localize it now.. what are the aspects of current reality we need to pay attention to.. ie: that we get hijacked by it..
peter: real key to leadership is simply that.. why ed is so meaningful because we have an innate caring for well being of children.. doesn’t need to be taught.. that’s a portal for tapping into capacity for real vision
q: role of sense making in your work.. how do you tune your senses
peter: creative tension.. what is current reality? is a sense making question.. we all see bits/pieces.. always room to question what we’re missing.. portal into collective nature into types of perception needed for change.. if you just start w the assumption that we’re all imperfect in our perception.. need each other.. we start to see/feel reality of others
peter on umberto: love is the act of allowing another to be a legit other
peter: in moment of sight sensory overload.. good to close eyes.. cultivating sensory awareness is important.. w/o that really can’t be present
not yet scrambled ness
sam: only way to describe sky w one’s eyes closed is thru poetry.. and nature bringing in the one ness of all things.. last two janine – biomimicry and adrienne as activist.. not to go big but go deep.. so want to ask about question of scale..
peter: obviously a core question.. language is really important.. that’s what we have to work with.. ie: how do we scale this? a big mistake.. nature doesn’t scale it grows
so let’s let go of language as control/enclosure.. and try to org via idiosyncratic jargon
daniel in chat (in response to peter saying we’re social): We’re social BEFORE we are invidividual! Yesss!
hmm.. brown belonging law et al.. simultaneous.. but today.. none of us are us because of the social ness..
peter: idea who’s time has come could be the deal w getting to scale..
homa: i keep thinking about scale and speed.. ie: slowing down to appreciate and notice.. rather than the faster the better..
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adrienne maree brown – 1 hr video – [https://explo.wistia.com/medias/mzkq0aid6l]
7 min – video song by resistance revival chorus – everybody deserves to be free
12 min – live zoom song – jessi olson et al .. part of resistance revival chorus
beautiful
14 min – 2nd live song.. this joy.. on brining joy to resistance
18 min – sam: intro of adrienne.. key principle of living system is idea of emergence.. first to help us understand emergence was adrienne.. book: emergent strategy..
20 min – adrienne starts.. the ladies in resistance revival chorus hosting.. asking questions..
best flow of zoom i’ve seen.. nice guys.. ever to sam.. everyone take off mute and make noise
22 min – adrienne: convo w bev copland’s song.. let us dance.. transform self to transform world.. already seeded in us.. for yrs had great anal of how messed up everyone was.. but then changed to.. where do those systems live me.. a lot of work i’ve been up to.. however big the work is.. it’s that deep w/in us we need to go.. we are already big.. just need to fully occupy and work with the landscape you were given.. we don’t realize how big our silence can be when we don’t intervene on harm.. i’m amazed at how many people benefit from the love story.. i’m really into small massive songs.. ie: nation song hard to sing.. indicative of a lot
small is {ginormous} beautiful
jessi: the interference archive.. songs of protests.. sung to tune of.. easy to sing
29 min – adrienne: i believe for each one of us there’s a diff scale of which we’re comfortable.. ie: intro/extra verts.. on scale ness.. when i first started doing the movement.. i thought the systems are massive so only way to fight them was massive.. then recognizing.. system upheld on people not playing part in it .. on following orders.. rather than playing part.. what would change if focus on changing self rather than massive scale change..
‘in undisturbed ecosystems ..the average individual, species, or population, left to its own devices, behaves in ways that serve and stabilize the whole..’ –Dana Meadows
31 min – adrienne: massive only works if each one willing to be deeply deeply brave..
brown belonging law et al
33 min – adrienne: find the scale on which you can work.. every human.. our lineage give us our instruction on how to be here.. do that well
begs a means to und our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature
36 min – a: on stillness.. early in the am.. also in any moment.. also a stillness in the rhythm.. we can see so much more if we can take a breath.. also.. don’t romanticize the stillness.. also /.. i’m a swimmer.. in the water.. there is so much stillness in deep water
cold (naked) swim ness
42 min – a: i’m trying to listen for the songs that want to flow thru me.. w my babies.. we’re singing everything.. why talk..
44 min – a: on octavia.. and le quinn.. i make notes in margins about anti capitalism and anarchism et al.. making/seeing everything as political.. helps keep you out of echo chambers.. imagination allows us to have a diff conversation
50 min – a: if listening to body.. it communicates to you all the time.. the answers to all those questions (how to know when to take a break).. so i check in w my body all the time.. then to realize ie: this is not a week where i will get much done.. also..i only work w people who are feeling.. people who don’t push thru moments you need to be still/feeling.. capitalism teaches us we can’t stop.. anti capitalist to me is where your whole body gets to be there.. on relationships.. clinging is not care.. can’t love something and also need to control it.. same w my body.. can’t control it.. my body knows that when i need comfort.. i don’t need food.. i need a bath.. so just keep asking.. is there anything i need right now.. then give it to yourself.. then start building a relationship of trust w self..
when body says no et al
57 min – a: i find my sense of freedom very gratifying.. i’m one of the freest black women to ever live.. i better not take that for granted.. doesn’t mean i’m totally free.. because can’t be free if not all free..
none of us are free ness
huge to..
1:00 – if you listen to your clear bell.. this might be our last day
again.. a means to undo our hierarchical listening.. to get us all back/to fittingness
1:02 – (on accountability).. i wasn’t accountability .. but what i’m seeing is punishment/shaming/harassment.. this.. your bad and i’m good.. this binary.. this idea that we’re all interconnected helps me w that accountability.. i’m really in to the concept of consequences.. ie: meriam cabos.. we do this till we free us.. it’s all transform justice stories.. and fumbling towards repair.. not going to go from punitive system to trans form justice system.. we have a massive system that dehumanizes.. well funded 250 yr system.. when saying want to abolish those..really saying are you willing to buy into accountability.. another book.. undrowned.. learning from dolphins on how to be.. then octavia butler on leaders being accountable or not.. can you hold people when they hurt or do you just dispose of them.. .
accountable ness as red flag
thurman interconnectedness law: when you understand interconnectedness it makes you more afraid of hating than of dying – Robert Thurman
1:10 – a:
if you’re imagining a system beyond what we have.. you have to look at how you treat people that cause you harm.. assume good intentions but attend to impact.. i’m not a monster. but there’s something i need to be accountable for.. something i need consequences for.. get comfortable being uncomfortable.. if we are going to change society.. you’re going to have to relinquish some of the things that make you comfortable..
huge
devijver assume good law et al
embracing uncertainty.. aziz let go law.. taleb antifragile law.. carhart-harris entropy law.. et al
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jun 24 2021 – how can we become less certain
Beau Lotto’s, by way of his provocative book, Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently.
An iconoclastic neuroscientist who heads up what he calls the Lab of Misfits, Lotto’s central message is that our brains have evolved to make useful predictions about the world — an evolution we should start seeking to actively resist.. a way to become more curious (and less certain)
notes/quotes from talk:
sam: b’s words scattered throughout seed and spark
b: my work is all about how the brain deals w uncertainty and how we can thrive because of it.. ie: how can we use sound to expand (not change) our perceptions.. music/sound is a way to physical ize that process.. we’re going to be asking.. what is beauty.. part of my interest is to get people to stop focusing so much on internal.. and focusing more on external.. maybe a bit of a nihilistic view.. ie: it’s wonderful to meditate.. but to be in service of other people.. more helpful to trauma et al.. we can have almost too much looking inward.. often our best way to alleviate trauma is to be sound bars for others.. i say to my kids.. i’m not your boat.. not going to take you to the other side.. because you like swimming.. but i will be your soundboard
sam: unpack idea in deviate.. that there is an objective reality.. but we are incapable of perceiving it.. everything we see/experience is thru our past
sea world ness
b: perception underpins everything that it is to be you.. how many of you think you see the world actually..
sam: i would have raised my hand before i read your book
b: i think we think we see the world actually.. but.. we never do.. not useful to see it.. ie: if we all saw it the same.. so.. all seeing now.. meaningless..
b: meaning is something we construct historically.. things don’t come w meaning.. every time you open your eyes you’re seeing the meaning.. most are inherited.. but you behave as if they’re yours.. wisdom is to apply diff behaviors/ways-of-seeing in diff contexts.. can be scary.. have to let go of what we thought to be true.. and we hate uncertainty.. i hate it
sam: so why born w brain we have.. w bi-hemispheric brain
b: has a lot to do w why we’re bi symmetrical.. 1\ requires less genetic info.. copy one to the other 2\ offers balance.. our brain is our body.. 3\ w/in hemispheres.. we can get specializations.. ie: hands.. eyes.. but none make sense on their own..
thurman interconnectedness law
b: 90% of cells inside you are not yours.. in terms of mass.. 90% are bacteria inside you.. over course of 7 yrs.. all atoms/molecules diff.. so literally/physically diff than 7 yrs ago
shed ness
b: specialization work in coop.. unless broken apart
sam: dan siegel: an integrated brain is in fact mental health.. is it? a sign of well being.. the world is as unintegrated as it could possibly be.. how do we free ourselves from that
gabor on addiction/trauma/needs
ie: a nother way
begs a means to undo our hierarchical listening
b: i don’t know.. but 1\ we are connected.. we aren’t integrated.. when you become more interconnected it increases uncertainty.. covid made the implicit explicit.. could see connections w people on other side of world.. scared people.. my life isn’t my own.. well.. it never has been.. one solution is to cut your connections.. seems like better.. but now .. other is to maintain diversity and find common principles
maté basic needs 2018 – let’s see that as common principles.. deep enough to org around for all of us
sam: makes me think of suzanne simard memoir: finding the mother tree.. 3rd gen logger.. noticed it wasn’t working like way loggers wanted.. replanting trees weren’t healthy.. she was first to realize myselian network underground for tree communication.. et al..
b: i don’t think we’re all that diff.. we often look for differences.. but the underlying principles that guide us guide nature.. an embedded hierarchy.. molecules to cells etc.. all systems function this way.. what might make us unique are the diff levels we then integrate.. w/in our brains.. across meanings.. then we can access them simultaneously.. but underlying principles still same.. the org may be diff.. all living systems deal w meanings.. ie: what’s the behavioral value of this info that has no inherent value
sam: what brain is always doing is looking for best way to not die..
b: it’s not dying that matters.. that’s what we’ve evolved to do is not die
? only rule in be you house.. but disservice to death/waste et al
b: irony and sci and bio.. is we strip away the very things that make things important.. how do we study a system that have all the interactions? but as soon as you do that it changes the way you think.. we don’t even teach children systems thinking
maybe we quite trying to study/teach them ie: maté not yet scrambled law et al
sam: to what extent does language/insights of quantum mechanics relate to your work
b: q m does.. but i’m not a mathematician.. stat mechanics.. what qm in my very naive neuro sci perspective.. is that it’s highlighting interactions.. most of my work/thinking.. is in complex systems.. adaptive systems..
what if life is not about adapting
b: combine naive (great questions) w expert (great answers).. great combo
b: i would say kids are conscious between 0-3.. we are creating a school in budapest.. so ed is fascination for me..
we gotta let go of supposed to’s of school/work ness..
b: asking his kid.. why crying.. his eye movement went away from high contrast toys.. stopped crying.. desire to look away was there.. but mech to not look back was not there.. i also thing they come into world w awe/wonder .. not confusion
not yet scrambled ness..
b: they make sense by stepping forward in adventure..
sam: i agree.. that awe makes us step forward.. but also struck by .. trauma making you step back
b: what is trauma vs pain.. can have painful experience but doesn’t mean trauma.. the meaning i attach to the pain is the trauma.. ie: trauma says.. i deserve it et al.. very difficult for us to sit w not knowing.. so we attach meaning.. brain can change the meaning of what happened. to you.. and that changes history you will use in future.. for your behavior.. this is what all therapies are trying to do.. change the meaning..
b: so much of who you are happens as consequence between 0-2.. ie: those in prison didn’t have play in early years.. the further a child can stray from mom and dad.. more secure they will feel.. more likely to investigate uncertainty.. those not touched.. immune system collapses.. brain cells start dying.. can die.. so.. maslove’s heirarchy.. but i think he’s not right.. we need touch.. what’s the basis of suicide.. have all the resources.. but still die..
yeah.. that.. so.. let’s org around legit needs ie: a nother way
ani: every living system set up to be self gen.. so why saying brain set up to not die.. what’s diff between brain w neg thought to not die and life which is regen
bravo
b: i don’t have the answer.. but.. what gets selected out is what dies.. in all life systems.. if don’t need to do something you don’t do it.. so a living system has to conserve energy.. spending energy is a bad idea during evolution.. constantly finding balance between conservation and adaptability.. if i was a system that was trying to max life.. i would want to code it.. but we don’t do it that way.. what we’re constantly doing is making sure we don’t die.. doesn’t mean we can make choices and not just to not die.. if just not wanting to die.. avoid uncertainty..
whalespeak.. for purpose be to not die
b: ones that remain are better than others at not dying.. ie: in skateboard park 75% of the time they fail.. becoming really good at failure.. they’re not trying to succeed.. knowing when to fall out of a trick so they don’t fall.. so pushing out boundaries of failure..
ani: i’m not sure your ie goes deep enough into self making
b: transition zones are where we get most diversity of life.. as a consequence.. most diversity in life forms that are adapted to that.. but because of a lot of diversity.. perpetuates more diversity.. so yes.. do have to re create.. but have to reach ages of re creation.. for humans.. about age 13.. has to make it to the point of re production.. that’s about not dying
b: (doesn’t know a question to ask the group.. ) given all those specialities.. please reach out.. a question for you.. i’ll ask one impossible to answer.. we all agree.. everything based on assumptions.. we trust (so much) but not consciously aware of it.. would you agree that your assumptions/biases in past were wrong and they’ve changed?.. would you all agree you’re not omniscient.. would you all agree… have assumptions now that will be wrong in future.. i want you to tell me.. which of your current assumptions/biases now are wrong.. i don’t know.. but surely i’m full of them.. that is the exploration of self honesty
b: asked unkel k.. what defines a good person.. and he said.. the pursuit of self honesty.. and the *best person to reveal you to you is usually not you.. it’s usually someone else..
fittingness ness
*not sure i agree
i think not being able to hear our own heart is part of our illness..
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be you. 