learn

on making mistakes (in public, no less)

elicit-illicit-red1

This morning a reader wrote to alert me, very gently and carefully, to a glaring typo in yesterday’s post on self-publishing. I wrote “elicit” when I meant “illicit”. Yikes! It got me thinking about making mistakes, (in public, no less) like this one made last night, when I was writing the post late, blind after a long day, moving too fast…

Oh well. Having spent years as a perfectionist, these days I’m opting for less perfection, for trying to get to the point, get things out there, improvise, try stuff, make mistakes. (But then, this is not surgery or flying an airplane.) And when I make mistakes: own up, learn from them, correct them… and try to write enough ahead to give the work to a copy editor (a friend)…

The reader who corrected me this morning also wrote that she loved ‘the improvised life’ despite its typos, and told this story about how it has influenced her thinking: read more…

02.23.10 | comments (2) | in learn, paths + processes, principles |

dangerous things an adult should do

fear

stuant63/Flickr/CC

Writing the post about Gever Tulley’s Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do) made us wonder about dangerous things adults SHOULD do in order to explore and learn about the world, figure out what’s what and live fully, just like Tulley thinks kids should do. And that made us think about the very notion of DANGER because, once you become an adult, dangers and fears become a really quirky personal thing: What seems dangerous and challenging to one adult might seem like a piece-of-cake to another, way beyond the obvious challenges like sky-diving or climbing Everest. It can seem dangerous to travel to a foreign country, write something, paint something, not wear make-up, live alone, go camping, learn to swim, buy a house, improvise a dish, love…

And that brings us to the idea of REAL danger versus perceived danger, and the IDEAS that stop us from doing something we want to do.

So we’ve come to think that a good thing for an adult to learn is to gently put aside a fear here and there – not try to get rid of it, but do what we fear anyway, or even just take a step toward doing something we fear. And gradually step-by-step we find ourself not being so daunted, or even feeling pretty liberated, or doing something amazing. And, just like kids, in the doing, we learn…

(This is one those one idea-leading-to-another posts that asks more questions than it answers…it is what some folks call “an inquiry”, an idea we’re mulling and exploring. We invite you to comment and add your 2-cents..)

photo via Creative Commons License

Related post: 5(0) Dangerous Things Your Kids (and You) Should Do

01.26.10 | comments (4) | in learn, paths + processes, projects + play, why not? |

5(0) dangerous things your kids (and you) should do

50-dangerous-things

Gever Tulley, founder of Tinkering School for Kids,  has published Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), a book we’ve been waiting for, not just to give to the kids we know, but us adults as well, because the same idea applies: By exploring the world (maybe doing things we never got to do as kids) we learn and get ideas and new develop parts of ourselves.  I want to:

throw a spear…
…make a bomb in a bag…
…spend an hour blindfolded…
…construct my own flying machine…
…melt glass…

Tulley isn’t cavalierly sending your kids (or you) into danger. He gives detailed instruction and explanations about the why’s and how’s things work, as well as possible dangers. He figures, wisely, if your kid really understands how something works, she will be more able to navigate its challenges herself, use it creatively AND stay safer.

About a year ago, Tulley gave a taste of his book-to-be in a TED talk called “Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do”. It’s full of wisdom about learning, creativity and danger safety. Here’s the video, and the transcript, along with a page from the new book:

read more…

01.25.10 | comments (3) | in gifts, how-to, kids, learn, projects + play, resources, resources books + zines |

haiti in mind (kindergarten)

haitikindergarten

A friend emailed this cell-phone photo of a kindergarten room. HLP HATE is not a strange coded statement about “hate” as it might seem at first glance, but a child’s spelling of “HELP HAITI”: a thoughtful attempt to help, in whatever way possible …pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters…

These little kids are envisioning…

…the world beyond themselves…

…they are imagining…

…how to help…

With thanks to Sally Swift!

01.25.10 | comments | in community, kids, learn, projects + play, share |

oddly brilliant gifts + following your own odd brilliance

flash-paper

In an attempt to figure out what I might like for Christmas, my sister Susy sent me a list of fun, oddly brilliant gift ideas I would never have thought of:

-cable tv subscriptions for premium channels
-night vision binoculars or goggles
-flash paper to make sparks fly from your hands
-devices to measure volume, area, distance in rooms
-an assortment of thrift store oddity books (ventriloquism, etc.)
-a Flip 60-minute mini camera w/usb
-a cheese-stick sized recorder that transfers voice files to your computer
-a telescope to view the stars from your apartment
-a voice synthesizer that makes you sound like a man on the phone

I’d like any one of these gifts (though am curiously compelled by the flash paper).

Susy is an incredibly imaginative person. A few years ago, she re-invented herself. read more…

12.17.09 | comments (4) | in gifts, learn, paths + processes, people |

learning about color (a daily practice)

David Burdeny

David Burdeny

Do you ever feel like you just can’t figure out what colors go with what?  Being great at color is clearly a special gift, but we mortals can learn to find our way with a little help. Consciously looking at wonderful combinations of color is a way of training the eye: a practice. And an easy way to start practicing is to visit  Studio Horn, color master Eve Ashcraft’s quirky personal blog about “Design, Art, Absurdity, Obscurity, Good Shopping, Farming, Wild Life, Urban Life, Domesticated Animals, Humans, Color, Architecture, Photography, Ideas and Happiness”.

Ashcraft, who has consulted about color for Martha Stewart, Architectural Digest and Benjamin Moore Paints, to name a few, has a regular post theme called “Today’s Color Palette“. read more…

12.08.09 | comments (1) | in inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, learn, reimagine, resources, sightings, walls + windows |

origami’s cosmic potential

On December 8th, PBS’s Independent Lens will air Between the Folds, a film that chronicles ten fine artists and theoretical scientists who have forged unconventional lives – often abandoning careers – practicing the unlikely medium of origami. They use paper-folding to explore new ideas about science, mathematics and creativity. Judging from the trailer, the film is about a great deal more than this simple description and worth marking on your calendar. Writes Director, Vanessa Gould:

“At its heart, Between the Folds is a film about potential. The potential of an uncut paper square. The potential of a wild scientific idea. The potential to see things differently... read more…

11.09.09 | comments | in art, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, learn, paths + processes, people, projects + play |

tool for improvising: embrace mistakes

defer-judgment-orange

Today, I found a comment at the end of my post about deferring judgment. It read:

“Is it too judgmental to note that in the U.S. “judgment” is the preferred spelling?”

OMG!!! The sign I had spent forever trying to make was spelled wrong (“judgment” is spelled correctly elsewhere in the post). It is NOT too judgmental to alert me to errors, as I rely on several friends to do; I am typ0-prone. But, there is a story behind the mistake, and as with many mistakes, some redemption. read more…

10.29.09 | comments (3) | in learn, paths + processes, principles |

tinkering schools for kids and adults

Gever Tully started a Tinkering School for kids, an exploratory curriculum designed to teach kids how to build the things they think of. By exploratory he means setting kids loose in a shop full of tools and materials (with supervision) and encouragement to “fool around”.  In his wonderful TED talk, Tully describes the “deep internal realization” kids have from the experience, which happen to be the same ones you get (at any age) from improvising:

“that you can figure things out as you fool around”…
…nothing turns out as planned – ever…
…all projects go awry…
…success is in the doing (failures are celebrated and analyzed; problems become puzzles)…”

As I watched Tulley’s talk, I thought: I want to go there! I want a tinkering school for grownups! read more…

10.13.09 | comments (6) | in how-to, kids, learn, principles, projects + play, resources, tools |

creating your (urban) homestead

urban-homestead-book2

I am a farmer trapped in a city-person’s body, torn between love of urban and yearning to grow vegetables, keep bees, preserve food. I know there are a lot of us around.

Why should it be either/or? Although I’ve been figuring out country ways in my small city apartment for years, a new book has opened my eyes to possibilities I never thought of, and gives the wherewithal to do them. read more…

07.10.09 | comments (3) | in food, garden, how-to, inside, learn, outside, resources, resources books + zines, strategies |

sewing advice for beginners

sewing-artists-cards

I have a lot of sewing projects I’d like to do – making pillow covers our of sari fabric, aprons out of gorgeous linen, for example -  but didn’t know where to begin. So I asked my friend Lydia, who is the absolute best and most gifted textile person I know.  (She’s masterminding some projects that I’ll be posting, with patterns and pictures for d-i-y. ) Here’s Lydia’s advice for beginners: read more…

05.23.09 | comments | in how-to, learn, resources books + zines, solutions, tools |

a kids’ drawing program for adults

Bob Staake, creator of the charming children’s book Donut Chef and dozens of New Yorker cartoons, draws with a mouse using an ancient version of Photoshop. This video speaks volumes about the virtues, and humanity, of computer-generated art, and how fluid the process can be, once you loosen your head up (which this video will do). It instantly had me yearning for an accessible, fun drawing program. read more…

02.02.09 | comments | in kids, learn, media, projects + play, tools, why not? |

 
 
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