I've some firsthand experience with Jesuit education and can confirm that was the most learning-positive environment I have ever been in it was the best school I attended, easil, in terms of pushing me to develop but also giving you room to range & grow towards your own interests.
What I am currently working on / trying to move forward is a way to link ADHD people in communities to hold each other accountable / collectively work on goals. For me, I struggle to do anything alone that I don't 'want' to do, but add another person doing it with me / holding me accountable, and that supercharges my throughput.
Which is to say - I think a key piece of this, where it scales to as many people as possible, is finding ways to make the framework adaptive to the needs of individual learners. Those lucky enough to be fully self-driven with no need for external aid - well, y'all won the lottery.
For me, the most interesting problem is hacking a solution to those of us who /want/ to learn, but have to fight our own brains every step of the way.
A Friend and religious historian pointed me to Christ's Churches Purely Reformed, which is an academic study of how Calvanism scaled its own culture. I was originally looking at it through a lens of spiritual communities, but I imagine the lessons are very similar. I have yet to read it, but it's on my list.
I've been thinking a lot about what principles a curriculum designer/teacher should use, and this is heavily influenced with the question of culture and norms.
Haven’t read the Asterisk post yet, but what are your thoughts on individuals building these small learning cultures and scaling them through a more grassroots-esque approach? Any ideas on where we can start (building them)?
I'm just getting started on this thread of thought. Most of the small learning cultures I've intentionally joined, rather than built, by reaching out to people already working on it and trying to build a virtual milleu. But I'm open to thinking about this together if you're interested. It's something that feels ripe for opportunity.
I've been doing some of this with other people where I live, and we're having a bit of a rocky start - my hypothesis as to why is we havent really built in accountability mechanisms or mechanisms to help empower each other to get things done.
Step one, I think, is forming bonds with the people in a learning culture - as once you care about how they see you, that empowers them to help push you in the direction you want to go, but struggle to move alone.
Then step two is people 1) Setting both goals and /deadlines/ and then 2) holding each other accountable to the work. 'I don't want my friends disappointed' is, to me at least, a powerful motivator, and I bet each of us has motivators like that and it's a matter of figuring out what they are, and how to leverage that to get shit done.
What you said about "model[ling] culture as a property of a social graph" made me think about Dave Snowden and his technique for mapping cultures through narrative. You can read about his methods through these links, although I warn you that I haven't found a resource that explains his methods in a satisfying amount of detail:
I thought a lot about this question when I was at MIT Media Lab running the Scratch online community in its early days. A learning community has affordances that curricula cannot hope to offer - notably, the ability to respond to questions or notice misunderstandings in a "just in time" context rich way. It's possible that AI can also provide useful responses that could serve similar purposes, some of the time. But I'm concerned that an answer from an AI is one less opportunity to build a relationship with someone who has similar shared interests. The relationship might be more important than the sought after information. You've written beautifully about the newsletter as a complex search query for finding interesting people. What is lost when we get answers in the form of information, when what was really wanted was a relationship? This is something my friend Ben and I might be exploring in future posts on our own newsletter, at theremake.org.
Thank you for that essay. I like where you end the piece, pondering whether there is a self-destructive dogmatism that's inherently built into these examples of effective learning cultures. Are you familiar with the sci fi novels "Terra Ignota" by Ada Palmer? (https://www.adapalmer.com/series/terra-ignota/). One of the central premises of this world that Ada Palmer builds is that most of humanity has organized itself into globe-spanning "hives", essentially voluntary nations defined not by borders but by shared ideals. Upon reaching adulthood, a person is allowed to chose their hive, and then must abide by that hive's code unless they are kicked out or convert to another system.
I bring this up because it points to another possible equilibrium point that maybe society can aspire to (educationally and/or politically). Instead of aspiring to a liberal system that accommodates all beliefs equally within the same code of conduct, we aspire to a pluralism of cultures, where cultures are explicit and must compete with one another in order to survive. Each culture can be dogmatic, and individuals must abide by that dogmatism to be members, but if and when the cost of that dogmatism outweighs the benefits they can 'shop' for a system that better fits their values. This places a selection pressure on all the cultures such that they can adapt to changing contexts and values.
Hi Henrik, I am Niharika. I am commenting for the first time on this blog and am very excited because of that. The reasons for my excitement are many. I have been practicing free-associative journaling for the past few years, and it has deeply transformed my ability to think laterally, find perspectives, and experiment with inherited and internalized knowledge about myself and the world. It began with my interest in the British Psychoanalyst, Marion Milner (you might know about her and I am sure you must have been interested and it will be interesting to know in what ways and how much value you found in her- many of her ideas overlap with yours). To say the least, I have been amazed by how much I did not know myself. Today, as I sit and write I marvel at the delicacy of a blank page and think to myself, here we go, we are about to discover something we had never thought of before! My thoughts, ideas, emotions, and all the unresolved instinctual drives have found a wonderfully concentrated sublimation in writing. I saw that mirrored in your writing the first time I read it and was absolutely delighted! I felt like I was meeting a version of myself in you and Johanna (who I know through you and I trust that your voice does some justice to how she is but I am absolutely intrigued and amazed and feel like I want more and want to see you guys in real! Haha!). I am interested in children and very interested in Montessori and have my own ideas- one of which is how the prepared environment is structured to encourage "active introspection through doing" to take from one of your earlier pieces and how therefore, Montessori is also a healing space that encourages sublimation through attention outside of oneself and knowing oneself through experimentation and doing and not passive contemplation (something so intrinsic to its humble beginnings among children who presented unique challenges with socialization due to early adverse experiences- and the potential traumatic self-absorption that results from there is sublimated through attention to things more interesting and important). The "close feedback loop with reality" idea is very relevant to Montessori, which is why I feel like I would practice it as more of a three-way conversation between the environment, the adult, and the child. That the adult is unchangeable would be a fallacy and the prefix "prepared" gives a finality to it, which is very different from the real experience of curating it. I am soon to train as a Montessori educator and want to laterally adopt more and more vocabularies from other contexts to open up meanings and associations of what it might truly stand for in my personal practice as an educator. Yes, Montessori was a devout catholic and it shows in her writing which also makes me think of this method of imparting education as an extension of faith and hope as retroactive practices- things that you discover through action and doing and not necessarily contemplation. As I see it, she is imagining faithful subjects above everything else, who discover faith retroactively in doing, rather than sitting and contemplating about God, which, in a different way, actually reminds me of Protestants! I am also interested in how her writings were their own kinds of "origin texts" in turbulent times. I take delight in her transparent turbulence that comes through as she writes about the child and imagines it anew! I have a lot of thoughts but lest I use this as my journal (haha!) just some thoughts about the broad themes of "culture" and how you imagine this word here- I am from India and think a lot through the screen of politics and colonialism. I know that the way you use "culture" here is crucial and very useful for me to elucidate something about what has been happening in India over the last 200-250 years. Thank you for always putting your thoughts into writing. I hope I too will be able to support your blog financially at some point but until then you have all my love for doing this. I am encouraged and supported emotionally every time I receive a notification from you in my inbox in ways I cannot elucidate very simply in this space. I will consider myself lucky if we are ever able to interact more personally.
«…one way to elucidate the relationship between virtues on the one hand and a morality of laws on the other is to consider what would be involved in any age in founding a community to achieve a common project, to bring about some good recognized as their shared good by all those engaging in the project.»
The quote is from Alasdair MacIntyres After Virtue, a work I think at least in parts is congruous with your thinking on these issues of (re)shaping education so as to balance our culture and form of society with values and virtues, etc.
Are there specific people, books or other resources that have been important to your own thinking that you would recommend in this space?
This area is currently where my own work and thinking is moving towards, education and virtues/values as the most “fundamental” and most long-term approach we can take to the metacrisis.
Henrik- Your February article and this one folds into the writing and conversations in our community of Gifted Professionals and Communicators. Thank you! For sure, you want to go deeper into the Gifted Through the Lifespan Substack articles by Deborah Ruf, Ph.D. and maybe preorder her latest book, coming out soon Losing Our Minds: Too Many Gifted People Left Behind. The school system and all that you write about gets plenty of coverage in her research and work for the past 40 years.
have you heard of Progress Studies? This work feels like it fits pretty squarely under that umbrella of thinking https://rootsofprogress.org/ It's a silicon valley humanities movement to spur technological progress
I read the Asterisk post, lots of food for thought! great read.
Perhaps early identification of strengths and talents as well as encouragement in these areas might be beneficial… At a young age I was told by a teacher whom I liked that I had a vivid imagination. However, it was never encouraged.
I've some firsthand experience with Jesuit education and can confirm that was the most learning-positive environment I have ever been in it was the best school I attended, easil, in terms of pushing me to develop but also giving you room to range & grow towards your own interests.
What I am currently working on / trying to move forward is a way to link ADHD people in communities to hold each other accountable / collectively work on goals. For me, I struggle to do anything alone that I don't 'want' to do, but add another person doing it with me / holding me accountable, and that supercharges my throughput.
Which is to say - I think a key piece of this, where it scales to as many people as possible, is finding ways to make the framework adaptive to the needs of individual learners. Those lucky enough to be fully self-driven with no need for external aid - well, y'all won the lottery.
For me, the most interesting problem is hacking a solution to those of us who /want/ to learn, but have to fight our own brains every step of the way.
A Friend and religious historian pointed me to Christ's Churches Purely Reformed, which is an academic study of how Calvanism scaled its own culture. I was originally looking at it through a lens of spiritual communities, but I imagine the lessons are very similar. I have yet to read it, but it's on my list.
I've been thinking a lot about what principles a curriculum designer/teacher should use, and this is heavily influenced with the question of culture and norms.
Haven’t read the Asterisk post yet, but what are your thoughts on individuals building these small learning cultures and scaling them through a more grassroots-esque approach? Any ideas on where we can start (building them)?
I think that is a part of it, yes. I might collect my thoughts on that at some point.
I agree with this idea of a more grassroots-esque approach. It's one of the things I've been thinking about for a while in my own home.
What have you tried?
I'm just getting started on this thread of thought. Most of the small learning cultures I've intentionally joined, rather than built, by reaching out to people already working on it and trying to build a virtual milleu. But I'm open to thinking about this together if you're interested. It's something that feels ripe for opportunity.
I would love to!
I've been doing some of this with other people where I live, and we're having a bit of a rocky start - my hypothesis as to why is we havent really built in accountability mechanisms or mechanisms to help empower each other to get things done.
Step one, I think, is forming bonds with the people in a learning culture - as once you care about how they see you, that empowers them to help push you in the direction you want to go, but struggle to move alone.
Then step two is people 1) Setting both goals and /deadlines/ and then 2) holding each other accountable to the work. 'I don't want my friends disappointed' is, to me at least, a powerful motivator, and I bet each of us has motivators like that and it's a matter of figuring out what they are, and how to leverage that to get shit done.
What you said about "model[ling] culture as a property of a social graph" made me think about Dave Snowden and his technique for mapping cultures through narrative. You can read about his methods through these links, although I warn you that I haven't found a resource that explains his methods in a satisfying amount of detail:
[Patterns of change & conflict 3 of 3](https://thecynefin.co/patterns-of-change-conflict-3-of-3/)
[Narrative research](https://narrate.typepad.com/100816-narrative-research_snowden-final.pdf)
I would also recommend checking out Toby Shorin's concept of [Moral Ecosystems](https://subpixel.space/entries/moral-ecosystems) if you are not already familiar.
I thought a lot about this question when I was at MIT Media Lab running the Scratch online community in its early days. A learning community has affordances that curricula cannot hope to offer - notably, the ability to respond to questions or notice misunderstandings in a "just in time" context rich way. It's possible that AI can also provide useful responses that could serve similar purposes, some of the time. But I'm concerned that an answer from an AI is one less opportunity to build a relationship with someone who has similar shared interests. The relationship might be more important than the sought after information. You've written beautifully about the newsletter as a complex search query for finding interesting people. What is lost when we get answers in the form of information, when what was really wanted was a relationship? This is something my friend Ben and I might be exploring in future posts on our own newsletter, at theremake.org.
Thank you for that essay. I like where you end the piece, pondering whether there is a self-destructive dogmatism that's inherently built into these examples of effective learning cultures. Are you familiar with the sci fi novels "Terra Ignota" by Ada Palmer? (https://www.adapalmer.com/series/terra-ignota/). One of the central premises of this world that Ada Palmer builds is that most of humanity has organized itself into globe-spanning "hives", essentially voluntary nations defined not by borders but by shared ideals. Upon reaching adulthood, a person is allowed to chose their hive, and then must abide by that hive's code unless they are kicked out or convert to another system.
I bring this up because it points to another possible equilibrium point that maybe society can aspire to (educationally and/or politically). Instead of aspiring to a liberal system that accommodates all beliefs equally within the same code of conduct, we aspire to a pluralism of cultures, where cultures are explicit and must compete with one another in order to survive. Each culture can be dogmatic, and individuals must abide by that dogmatism to be members, but if and when the cost of that dogmatism outweighs the benefits they can 'shop' for a system that better fits their values. This places a selection pressure on all the cultures such that they can adapt to changing contexts and values.
Hi Henrik, I am Niharika. I am commenting for the first time on this blog and am very excited because of that. The reasons for my excitement are many. I have been practicing free-associative journaling for the past few years, and it has deeply transformed my ability to think laterally, find perspectives, and experiment with inherited and internalized knowledge about myself and the world. It began with my interest in the British Psychoanalyst, Marion Milner (you might know about her and I am sure you must have been interested and it will be interesting to know in what ways and how much value you found in her- many of her ideas overlap with yours). To say the least, I have been amazed by how much I did not know myself. Today, as I sit and write I marvel at the delicacy of a blank page and think to myself, here we go, we are about to discover something we had never thought of before! My thoughts, ideas, emotions, and all the unresolved instinctual drives have found a wonderfully concentrated sublimation in writing. I saw that mirrored in your writing the first time I read it and was absolutely delighted! I felt like I was meeting a version of myself in you and Johanna (who I know through you and I trust that your voice does some justice to how she is but I am absolutely intrigued and amazed and feel like I want more and want to see you guys in real! Haha!). I am interested in children and very interested in Montessori and have my own ideas- one of which is how the prepared environment is structured to encourage "active introspection through doing" to take from one of your earlier pieces and how therefore, Montessori is also a healing space that encourages sublimation through attention outside of oneself and knowing oneself through experimentation and doing and not passive contemplation (something so intrinsic to its humble beginnings among children who presented unique challenges with socialization due to early adverse experiences- and the potential traumatic self-absorption that results from there is sublimated through attention to things more interesting and important). The "close feedback loop with reality" idea is very relevant to Montessori, which is why I feel like I would practice it as more of a three-way conversation between the environment, the adult, and the child. That the adult is unchangeable would be a fallacy and the prefix "prepared" gives a finality to it, which is very different from the real experience of curating it. I am soon to train as a Montessori educator and want to laterally adopt more and more vocabularies from other contexts to open up meanings and associations of what it might truly stand for in my personal practice as an educator. Yes, Montessori was a devout catholic and it shows in her writing which also makes me think of this method of imparting education as an extension of faith and hope as retroactive practices- things that you discover through action and doing and not necessarily contemplation. As I see it, she is imagining faithful subjects above everything else, who discover faith retroactively in doing, rather than sitting and contemplating about God, which, in a different way, actually reminds me of Protestants! I am also interested in how her writings were their own kinds of "origin texts" in turbulent times. I take delight in her transparent turbulence that comes through as she writes about the child and imagines it anew! I have a lot of thoughts but lest I use this as my journal (haha!) just some thoughts about the broad themes of "culture" and how you imagine this word here- I am from India and think a lot through the screen of politics and colonialism. I know that the way you use "culture" here is crucial and very useful for me to elucidate something about what has been happening in India over the last 200-250 years. Thank you for always putting your thoughts into writing. I hope I too will be able to support your blog financially at some point but until then you have all my love for doing this. I am encouraged and supported emotionally every time I receive a notification from you in my inbox in ways I cannot elucidate very simply in this space. I will consider myself lucky if we are ever able to interact more personally.
Thank you, and good luck with Montessori training!
«…one way to elucidate the relationship between virtues on the one hand and a morality of laws on the other is to consider what would be involved in any age in founding a community to achieve a common project, to bring about some good recognized as their shared good by all those engaging in the project.»
The quote is from Alasdair MacIntyres After Virtue, a work I think at least in parts is congruous with your thinking on these issues of (re)shaping education so as to balance our culture and form of society with values and virtues, etc.
Are there specific people, books or other resources that have been important to your own thinking that you would recommend in this space?
This area is currently where my own work and thinking is moving towards, education and virtues/values as the most “fundamental” and most long-term approach we can take to the metacrisis.
Henrik- Your February article and this one folds into the writing and conversations in our community of Gifted Professionals and Communicators. Thank you! For sure, you want to go deeper into the Gifted Through the Lifespan Substack articles by Deborah Ruf, Ph.D. and maybe preorder her latest book, coming out soon Losing Our Minds: Too Many Gifted People Left Behind. The school system and all that you write about gets plenty of coverage in her research and work for the past 40 years.
have you heard of Progress Studies? This work feels like it fits pretty squarely under that umbrella of thinking https://rootsofprogress.org/ It's a silicon valley humanities movement to spur technological progress
I read the Asterisk post, lots of food for thought! great read.
Yes, I do have some overlap with various people working on progress studies!
I completely agree on your bottleneck theory
What mostly holds people back is that they don't know why to learn, not that they lack resources about how to learn
Perhaps early identification of strengths and talents as well as encouragement in these areas might be beneficial… At a young age I was told by a teacher whom I liked that I had a vivid imagination. However, it was never encouraged.