The class that I've been working to design with Cathleen Nardi, Maureen Maher, Melissa Goodwin and Strawberry Olive has finally launched this past June 2nd! Over a thousand people have signed up from all over the world and immediately we got to work.
The theme for the first week was 'curiosity'. Strawberry was our guide this past week and gave us some really interesting things to think about and explore.
There has been a lot of conversation around 'what kind of profile' are you, using the following approach:
The theme for the first week was 'curiosity'. Strawberry was our guide this past week and gave us some really interesting things to think about and explore.
There has been a lot of conversation around 'what kind of profile' are you, using the following approach:
I believe we all have and use all of these qualities. In fact, I believe we can use each of these qualities as we explore and try to discover new things. While it may seem that (?) is the preferred state of being, (.) and (!) have very critical roles to play:
(.) sets the stage for contrast - if you can start to sense that the status quo is blah. Having blah helps you know what you really want because now you can see what you don't want.
(!) can help us test limits, see where things break, where new stories need to be created.
(?) moves us to new places.
Let me give you an example... one of the provocations (activities) in the class asks us to identify the barriers to curiosity. I'll use my (?) to ask my questions about a common barrier to curiosity and then I use my (!) to stand on and test certain conclusions about my (.). Note that I use (!) somewhat superficially - to find a 'limit' and then see where it no longer might be flexible. Then I use my (?) again to imagine what might be. This bouncing around (.) statements, (!) statements and (?) statements is often what happens in my head when I'm designing something. I think it's probably frustrating for some people, particularly when it feels like I'm using (!) and running something up against the wall as if I believe in it 100%. But everything breaks, everything changes. Whatever I discover will yield more discoveries. So take what comes next with a grain of salt:
(.) Time is a barrier to being curious.
(!) But if you don’t need to be curious about everything, you don’t need a whole bunch of time.
(?) Maybe it comes down to prioritization.
(?) Does the thing matter enough to make the time?
(!) Which comes down to apathy; sounds like we need to care more in order to have more curiosity.
(!) If you don’t care, you’re not going to make time. You’ll have to make some choices.
(?) Which leads me to think that curiosity across a broad set of things would be draining and possibly without purpose or evolving meaning. Can a person be curious about everything?
(!) Which comes down to barrage of input/information; we're inundated with media and information, it's understandable that our eyes will glaze over at the sheer amount of it all.
(!) If there are too many things competing for your attention or if you’ve identified so many things that you’re interested in, you’re going to have a hard time paying attention to so many things.
(?) Unless you're able to use curiosity in a 'light' or transient way (not deep and not prolonged), that might be more sustainable. But is it fulfilling? Not for me.
(!) All of this leads me to conclude that it’s actually apathy, irrelevance and lack of imagination that are the real barriers to being curious. If you care and it has personal meaning to you, you’re going to be motivated (or inspired) to make time. If you can imagine a certain new future, you’re going to prioritize it over other things.
And (!) if you care about caring about things, you'll allow yourself the space to (?).
So if I use my imagination, here's what enabling curiosity looks like for me and how I make space for it around me (with others):
(.) sets the stage for contrast - if you can start to sense that the status quo is blah. Having blah helps you know what you really want because now you can see what you don't want.
(!) can help us test limits, see where things break, where new stories need to be created.
(?) moves us to new places.
Let me give you an example... one of the provocations (activities) in the class asks us to identify the barriers to curiosity. I'll use my (?) to ask my questions about a common barrier to curiosity and then I use my (!) to stand on and test certain conclusions about my (.). Note that I use (!) somewhat superficially - to find a 'limit' and then see where it no longer might be flexible. Then I use my (?) again to imagine what might be. This bouncing around (.) statements, (!) statements and (?) statements is often what happens in my head when I'm designing something. I think it's probably frustrating for some people, particularly when it feels like I'm using (!) and running something up against the wall as if I believe in it 100%. But everything breaks, everything changes. Whatever I discover will yield more discoveries. So take what comes next with a grain of salt:
(.) Time is a barrier to being curious.
(!) But if you don’t need to be curious about everything, you don’t need a whole bunch of time.
(?) Maybe it comes down to prioritization.
(?) Does the thing matter enough to make the time?
(!) Which comes down to apathy; sounds like we need to care more in order to have more curiosity.
(!) If you don’t care, you’re not going to make time. You’ll have to make some choices.
(?) Which leads me to think that curiosity across a broad set of things would be draining and possibly without purpose or evolving meaning. Can a person be curious about everything?
(!) Which comes down to barrage of input/information; we're inundated with media and information, it's understandable that our eyes will glaze over at the sheer amount of it all.
(!) If there are too many things competing for your attention or if you’ve identified so many things that you’re interested in, you’re going to have a hard time paying attention to so many things.
(?) Unless you're able to use curiosity in a 'light' or transient way (not deep and not prolonged), that might be more sustainable. But is it fulfilling? Not for me.
(!) All of this leads me to conclude that it’s actually apathy, irrelevance and lack of imagination that are the real barriers to being curious. If you care and it has personal meaning to you, you’re going to be motivated (or inspired) to make time. If you can imagine a certain new future, you’re going to prioritize it over other things.
And (!) if you care about caring about things, you'll allow yourself the space to (?).
So if I use my imagination, here's what enabling curiosity looks like for me and how I make space for it around me (with others):
As Strawberry points out, all of this is a personal exploration for each of us and will continue to evolve over time as we explicitly draw our attention to using our curiosity. Putting a stake in the ground gives a point of reference for further growth.
I have been so inspired and influenced by what everyone has been making in the g+ community! Looking forward to week two: Remix!
I have been so inspired and influenced by what everyone has been making in the g+ community! Looking forward to week two: Remix!