What Actors Know, Self-With-Others & Other Writings
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How do we learn?
How do we learn? Can anything really useful be taught? We’re constantly invited to consume ‘new’ knowledge, information or insights – often at a price, often with the threat that, if we don’t, we’ll get ‘left behind’. Is this real learning though? Most of what can be taught is information: surface-level knowledge. Information is useful:…
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We weren’t made to conform.
It’s soul-destroying, trying to fit in somewhere not made for you. Usually you just have to chop off parts of yourself. You learn to keep silent when you know you should speak. You work obscene hours when you yearn for time in nature. You acquire skills in areas that bore or sicken you, because you’re…
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Are you using AI? Or is AI using you?
Excited about AI?Its owners are certainly pretty excited about you. You’re being trained and entrapped. Like a little dog that loves the treats he’s fed, not noticing he’s being trained to dress in a tutu and dance in a circus. Like an unhappy child accepting free drugs at the gates of her school, ignoring the…
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Boundaries
Today has mostly been about enforcing boundaries. It’s the time of year when mice come into the house. Who can blame them? It’s wet outside. The temperature’s dropping. Food is getting scarce. A (relatively) warm house with crumbs dropped here and there is a lot more attractive than a pile of old leaves in the…
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To conform or to rebel (or both)?
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Mouse in the House
Furry teachers of compassion It’s mouse-in-the-house time of year again. Technically (having caught two of the buggers today), it’s mice-in-the-hice time of year. I love mice. They’re beautiful creatures: sweet, funny, resourceful. There’s some in the compost bin in my garden. I take out food scraps and hear them cheer. What I throw away makes…
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The ‘Privilege’ of Boarding School
A process of healing With my colleague Sorrel Pindar, I’ve been putting together a programme for Boarding School Survivors. You can find out more about it here. We explore strategies for moving beyond a sense of disconnection, isolation and anxiety. Sorrel and I both trace these feelings back to having been sent to Boarding School…
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3 Questions For Effective Collaboration
There’s two concepts in Systems Theory that are really useful if you want to build effective teams and collaborations. A ‘system’ is a network of relationships created when different elements work together. A forest is a system — various trees, plants, fungi, insects, animals, birds, minerals and much more interconnect to create the system we…
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Naked In Front of the Villlage
How Improvising saved my ass. Some years ago I toured a solo show. It was called ‘Echo Chamber’. At that time, I taught all over the world, and was often asked to perform ‘Echo Chamber’ alongside teaching gigs. It was a hard-hitting piece: full of violence, nudity and some pretty dark material. It was tough…
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Under capitalism, it does not matter if I die
3 transformative ideas to put people back into the centre of politics. About five months ago I realised my heart was playing up again. It’s happened before. A few years ago I had a heart attack. Back then, I was on the waiting list for a scan. The scan hadn’t happened because I’d left it…