Weeknotes 29.04.22
I’ve written a long post this week, so this week’s notes are mostly just stuff I’ve listened to /seen /read. With some additional learning points at the end.
- Tim Ferris talks to Jerry Colonna about sabbaticals. I didn’t love this — there is an assumption of imbalance underlying the conversation, which seems to presume that ‘work’ lives will necessarily take you regularly to the point of burn out — but there were some useful tips. In particular:
- Don’t overload the time with expectations — otherwise you’re just setting up a sabbatical as something to fail at
- Don’t feel you need to cut yourself off entirely from email / work stuff. In fact, it might be healthy not to. But think very carefully about what really needs a response.
-Time off that combines time for mind and body is the most effective. Use the opportunity to get more into your body. - The Meaning of Zong at the Old Vic. We were very close to the front and I really appreciated the importance of physical co-presence in telling these kinds of stories, and in bringing all our bodies to participate in the legacy of the Transatlantic slave trade, particularly in a building built from its proceeds. The story of the Zong wasn’t new to me (although I did learn that it was a mistranscription from the Dutch, ‘zorg’ meaning ‘care’, which is almost incomprehensible). It took me back to the chapters on Georgian Britain in Black and British too. I was also very struck by how much overlap there is between the economic story of slavery in the 1700s and the fossil fuel industry today; how impossible the campaign must have seemed against so much vested interest, how (deliberately) enmeshed everyone was in the trade (including ordinary working people through debts), and how the campaign owed much of its success in the long-term to collaboration between campaigners with different skills and backgrounds (those with lived experience, and white lawyers, for example). It also prompted me to go back to the Trading Faces digital archive project, an amazing digital archive of the legacy of slavery in the performing arts in Britain, funded in 2007, the bicentenary year of the abolition of the trade. That archive is built on scraps of ephemera — a photo here, a flyer there — and it does feel like progress to see these stories taking centre-stage in mainstream institutions.
3. The Oracle (Manchester Collective with Abel Selaocoe). An astonishing live performance. But more importantly here, it was an embodiment of creative principles around: taking risks in collaboration, accepting vulnerability and discomfort, and the idea that new ideas are forged in making of new connections and that a diversity of participants is crucial to making these links. There’s also a lesson in letting go of preconceptions: I would not have believed that Vivaldi, Afro-futurism and a meditation on earth-as-mother could produce something so coherent and visionary.
4. I joined the first two days of a remote digital sprint led by MySociety. We were looking at how conditional commitment might support uptake of energy efficiency measures. Learnings for me: Miro does more than I thought it could and beautiful boards can make positive online experiences. But also — the problem definition on energy efficiency has barely changed in 10 years. Behavioural solutions can only go so far if they are not backed by a supportive policy environment. (And interesting to see who gave the 2016 presentation I’ve linked to above… ;-) )
5. Innovation frameworks for thinking beyond desirability / feasibility. I like the iceberg canvas in particular.
6. Stir to Action’s spring 2022 issue is all about attention. Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy by James Williams (ex Google Strategist turned philosopher) looks particularly interesting — especially his model for 3 layers of attention (spotlight, starlight and daylight) and how the erosion of our daylight (our ability to think about longer term goals, imagine different worlds, capacity for deep thought) is particularly pernicious and at the root of our current epistemic crisis.
One final observation: I’ve been most at ease this week thinking in motion. I’ve walked quite a bit (a stack of local newsletters to deliver), but also have had more profound conversations when I have had something simple and manual to do at the same time (mending ripped school trousers, for example). I have been thinking a lot about embodiment and physical presence: Oliver wants to know how to bring embodiment to his (online) regenerative design lab, and I’m curious about the embodiment sessions in this learning journey (with Ava Riby-Williams). But what would ‘embodiment’ actually mean for me — do I need more of it and how would I know?
