CURIOUS AF

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Learning Leadership

What makes a person a great leader? (Lede/ TL;DR/ Spoiler: Learning makes a great leader.) There was a time when leadership was thought to be the result of innate personal traits. In 1840, Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle gave a series of lectures on heroism in which he proposed that human history is defined by “great men” with qualities that empowered them to transcend society and lead others. Open-Source Learning is yours. Free.Get the white paper here Apart from being a sexist artifact ...

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If It's Too Hot, Remodel the Kitchen

You’ve probably heard the old saying: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” That idea was popularized by Harry S. Truman, who may have gotten it from a general or a judge. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect a president, general, or judge to say. It’s a challenge. A dare to rise to the occasion. Toughen up. To many people, that’s what it means to be an American. A man. An adult. Open-Source Learning is yours. Free.Get the white paper hereIt’s easy to see why the saying has en...

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Happy Interdependence Day

Last week I spoke to my local chapter of Rotary. I love Rotarians. Consistently over the decades, whenever and wherever I’ve met them, whatever they do for a living, however young or old they are or whatever they look like, Rotarians are some of the most good-natured, civic-minded people around. (Or at least they act that way, which is good enough for me.) As I always do, I asked my audience: “What makes you curious? What do you really want to learn?” Over the years, I’ve gotten used to recei...

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Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story

A few days ago, organizers estimated that about five million Americans gathered in the public spaces of > 2000 cities and towns for the No Kings/Dictators/Tyrants protests. In conversations this week with colleagues and clients from Argentina to Israel, Canada, Hong Kong, and even a suburb of Los Angeles, I mentioned the protests – and everyone was interested in hearing more because they hadn’t seen it covered in the media. Open-Source Learning is yours. Free. Get the white paper here People t..

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AI is Velcro. And Kleenex. And an Escalator. And a Zipper.

In 1941, Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral took his dog for a walk. At some point, de Mestral became fascinated with the burrs that stuck to his dog’s fur. Nature is cool. The burrs had adapted to hitch a ride. De Mestral was more concerned with the “how” than the “why” of the situation, and he examined the burrs under a microscope. He studied the burrs for the next FOURTEEN YEARS before he was able to duplicate their tiny hook and loop design and introduce it to the world. De Mestral combine...

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Through the Looking Glass Blurrily

(Sorry for taking last week off. Someone exploded a car bomb nearby that shook my house and my psyche, and I responded by driving two hours away to run a half-marathon I hadn’t trained for. Today I’m making good on the technology note I promised a couple weeks ago, and including some other stuff I’d jotted down, as well as some newer stuff from the last few days, so this week’s edition is kind of a two-for-one Frankennewsletter that is stuffed with very non-AI, human goodness. Don’t thank me ...

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You're As Awesome As You Think

In last week’s newsletter, I mentioned that I would write more about tools and Technological Fitness. I’ll make good on that next week. This week we need to get spiritual. Are you down with that? Because whenever I present the five fitnesses of Open-Source Learning, I feel like I should slow down around Spiritual Fitness. I get worried that I should explain more, provide more context, and even offer preemptive reassurance so that my audience doesn’t immediately jump from the word “spiritual” ...

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What’s It Worth to You?

Nothing shifts my perspective quite like travel. I’m writing this on my phone from downtown Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, where among other wonders (dedicated bicycle lanes, poutine, friend and colleague Adam Haigler) I am surrounded by lilacs and tulips. More about the flowers in a moment. In Satire VI, the Roman poet Juvenal (the same writer who gave us, “Who watches the watchmen?”) describes a woman worthy of marriage as rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima c...

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The Art of Learning

Last week, the White House published a Fact Sheet about an executive order “incorporating AI into education.” Teaching is dead. Long live the art of learning. I can deliver a lesson plan as effectively as anyone on Earth. I’ve been honored to work with a number of amazing educators who can make the same claim. But today’s learners need more than scripted, standardized content, and they most definitely need more than digital tools. Curriculum and instruction initiatives come and go every few y...

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Mistakes Were Rationalized

I love my brother-in-law. He’s a family man with a dry sense of humor. A practical guy who knows how to have a good time. A successful businessman and a savvy investor whose observations about the market economy often get me thinking. Last night we practiced Open-Source Learning’s Civic Fitness. Meaning, in this case, that I stood in his kitchen and howled at him. “What do you mean your MAGA broker didn’t see the market drop coming? You paid a financial professional to algorithmically brainwa...

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On Being a Werewolf in London

What’s the difference between who you are and what you do? Can you become someone new by doing something new? I ask because I’m reconsidering the extent to which our actions define us. Many people believe in a static, universal sense of self, but we also often describe our identities in terms of our professions and avocations. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I admire people who establish their identities through practice. After all, doing something today (or not) informs what we have to s...

CURIOUS AF

CURIOUS AF

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David Preston

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