Category Knowledge for Change
Communication between communities: are we speaking the same language?
Let’s say I’ve just had a great idea! Even better, let’s say I have done a load of research and now I have some facts and evidence that are really useful. Doing this research has increased my knowledge and now I would like to give that knowledge to you so that you can do your things […]
when ideas don’t create ripples
Ideas spreading are often compared to the ripples when a stone is thrown into a still pond. But not all ponds are water, and not all things you can throw are stones. The pool can be thick, embracing mud and your idea can sink without trace. Your idea can be a feather and make not […]
Heinz von Foerster Autopoiesis
26-minute video. Super reflections on what information is, what happens when we observe something, what a living system is. Cybernetics. Information is generated by the one who looks at things. It is not a commodity that you can pass on.
why do we think what we think?
Ideas. As I was saying yesterday, what we accept as fact or evidence depends on the appreciative system we are working in. Ideas come and go. Quite a few writers have given this a lot of thought. Bateson is one: How do ideas interact? Is there some sort of natural selection which determines the survival […]
The slipperiness of evidence, knowledge and facts
Evidence, knowledge and facts. They seem so reassuringly solid. And yet we look back in time and can see that yesterday’s facts and knowledge with time start looking more and more like opinions and then are superseded. Think about a healthy diet. In Under My Skin, Doris Lessing’s autobiography, she describes eating at her neighbour’s: […]
the spaces between the fingers
Gregory Bateson challenged his audience to look at their hand and describe what they could see. They described the fingers, the thumb, palm, the back, hairs on knuckles. “But”, he said, “the most important thing is the spaces between them, the relationships between them which allows them to do all the things they do”. I […]
Becoming Better 