Unlearning

14 thoughts on “Unlearning”

  1. Welcome back, Luis and so great to read your thoughts after long. Keep blogging my friend, and looking forward to learning, unlearning and relearning through conversations here.

    1. Hi Tannay, many many thanks for dropping by and for the lovely re-welcome to the Internet Blogosphere. I very much appreciate it. I, too, look forward to further interactions and conversations, over here in the blogosphere, as well as on the different media tools. Look forward to unlearning and relearning together wherever the conversation(s) may take us 😃👍

  2. Hey Luis,

    I recognise the drive to return to conversations, but perhaps missing from your description is the need for a slower conversation with myself.

    This for me has been one of the main drivers to revitalise my blog, also practising even slower “thinking out loud” via a binge of fedwikis…

    Mike Caulfield’s “Garden and Stream” metaphor feels very relevant…

    https://hapgood.us/2015/10/17/the-garden-and-the-stream-a-technopastoral/

    1. Hi Julian,

      Thanks a bunch for dropping by and for the lovely feedback! While reading through your blog comment I couldn’t help thinking that rather that missing the sense of ‘slower conversation with myself’, it’s implicit in the whole act of blogging. And in 2020.

      Reason why I’m saying that is because back in the day when I got things started with my blog here it’d take me about 15 to 20 minutes to write up something. Fast forward to today and it usually takes me a couple of days before I’m ready to share something meaningful enough of further conversations.

      I guess we’ve become a lot more pensive and reflective in terms of what we write in spaces where the pace slows down a bit vs. the rampant snacking around that happens in media tools. I guess that’s what blogging does to us all. It slows us accordingly to have those much more paced and engaging conversations, regardless of where we would end up.

      In fact, #SlowSocial is a thing. It’s been going on for a while already and I think it came out from a need to want to slow ourselves down and reflect a whole lot more than whatever we may have done in the recent past. Refreshing to no end.

      Thanks a bunch for sharing the wonderful link to Mike’s stunning write-up! I have just finished up reading through it and it reminded me of a good friend of mine, Marshall Kirkpatrick, who, over the years, has been a huge fan of wikis to achieve exactly the same thing that Mike advocates for: the Garden. 

      I don’t know what you think, but I suspect we are all going to start questioning plenty of what we do with our online presence on different media tools and see whether it’s worth it staying there or diversifying a little bit.

      I know, for myself, in nearly 20 years of blogging, that I have lived on both ends of the spectrum where I was blogging (only) and loved it, and where I was just using media tools (and I felt incomplete somehow). Perhaps that’s the reason why this year I decided to come back to blogging before diving back again into that Stream of the media tools. Somehow I seem to have a preference for the Garden more than the Stream itself and so far I’m having a blast!

      It will be rather interesting and intriguing to see how long it will last … I think that’s going to depend on yours truly to decide how long I should tend the garden. So far, for a good while, I can tell you that!

      Thanks much, once more, for the wonderful feedback!

      1. I think the slow aspect is important. I blogged a little while ago about two-speed sensemaking, but in practice I think things work at even more levels:

        Twitter
        “working in the open” quick posts
        blogging
        Wiki

        … and that’s just the public ones

        1. Hi Julian,

          Thanks a bunch, once more, for dropping by and for the continued conversation. I am not too sure what happened with the URL you just shared above, but it seems to be borked somehow. I think you refer to this blog post you wrote a little while ago, right?

          That’s an excellent reflection and quite appropriate to our conversations over here. Many thanks for sharing it along! While reading through the article and digging further on the visuals there, I just couldn’t help thinking about how far context defines that pace for sense-making, whether it’s a quick one with a rather fast decision making process, or whether it’s a context that forces us to think some more on how we are going to make sense of it all.

          I suspect with all of the different media tools out there we have decided to default on the fast pace sense-making and share across whatever comes to mind, not being fully aware of the potential consequences of that mindless act to respond, no matter what! If only we could slow down and think twice in that process, right? I suspect that vast majority of that useless dribble would disappear altogether!

          If only we would resist the urge to respond right away for everything and figure out how context defines our interactions, I suspect media tools would still be social media. Remember the good old times from a bit over a decade or so? Those were the good old times before the masses decided to bastardise their initial purpose and the companies behind them realised it was the perfect opportunity to cash out on that fast speed sense-making, usually, dictated by both our rage and fears.

          1. Hi Luis

            Yes I broke the link and you found the right one 🙂

            These exchanges prompted me to start thinking about how these sorts of conversations rely on complex connections of ideas with other ideas, between people, and over time.

            However reading your last comment more thoroughly I realise I missed a factor that you have expressed, and that’s the importance of context (which in many cases is driven by the tool or platform) and how a given context facilitates different modes of thinking.

            Following that thought, I then wonder how many of us who are returning to blogging are driven by recovering a mode of interaction that has been swamped by noise for at least a decade, or how many of us are in the first place trying to rediscover a relationship with our own ideas and are writing ourselves into existence?

            1. Hi Julian,

              I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head with your comments shared above around the value of these reflections in long form interactions through our blogging urges. I have been cleaning up RSS newsfeeds while continuing to keep up with different media tools and it’s rather interesting to observe how plenty of the folks who started blogging and then move to media tools have now decided to return back to blogging as their place for long form reflection. An extension of their brain.

              While, those who got started with media tools continue to use them for much shorter bursts of broadcasting messages. It’s interesting to see how none of those who would fall into this group are thinking about blogging for that long form reflective space as if blogging is just ‘too much effort’, when, in reality, it isn’t. It’s just a matter of priorities.

              Yes, context defines plenty of these interactions and conversations, but I’m also thinking that throughout those three years I wasn’t blogging over here I kept feeling like something was missing. That own space for self-reflection, and extension of one’s brain, at a much slower pace and, most importantly, an space where you have the ability of extending one’s thoughts and ideas through linking to other people’s work.

              I have been told many times that one of the things folks like the most about my own blogging is the different links I shared per post bringing other interesting points on to the table for further discussion. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to resume my blogging mojo again, as I have bumped into lots of stuff over time that I myself would want to reflect upon and share it with others for them to dive in as they may see fit, as you yourself are doing.

              That’s, frankly, what makes blogging worth while the effort altogether and I am really happy people are finally shaking off their snacking around in media tools and bring back the good old Web 2.0 we all once loved and cherished.

               

              I’m just hoping we are going for a revival of the social tools we once loved for what they were really good at: conversations! 

              Have you read this brilliant article by Doc Searls on this very same topic about what are some of the ills afflicting ourselves nowadays and how we can break free from them bringing back that Web 2.0 spirit? It’s a long read, for sure, but it’s just superb!

              Hopeful and exciting altogether!

              1. Fantastic piece by Doc.

                My favourite quote has to be

                When you tell me something I don’t know, you don’t just deliver a sum of information to me. You form me. As a walking sum of all I know, I am changed by that. This means we are all authors of each other. In that sense, the word authority belongs to the right we give others to author us: to form us.

                1. Gosh, indeed, that’s just a superb quote, Julian! I have got many other favourite quotes from his article, but it won’t do them justice to share them as a comment. Even more so when I am writing a blog post on it sharing some of my favourite reflections upon reading it through multiple times already.

                  However, from that quote I just loved how he went back into the origins and etymology of the word ‘information’ to give us context on the kind of impact the Internet has upon us all.

                  It reminded me as well as to why I no longer use social media for all of these media tools, because we seem to have lost the original sense of the word Social: partner / partnership (Lat. socius).

                  Eventually, if you put together information and social media under those connotations you’d agree with me it’s the perfect ground to bring the very best of what Web 2.0 originally tried to do over 15 years ago! Oh my! How fast has time flown away upon us!

                  Can we please go back to the good old days where information right next to Web 2.0, in this context, just made perfect sense? 

            2. Oooh, by the way, upon reading your blog post referencing this conversation, the metaphor between the Garden vs. Stream is just superb, for sure! Many thanks for cross-linking, Julian!

              There is also one other metaphor I couldn’t help thinking about as well that describes pretty much where we are. I have been using it myself for a while now and it’s with regards to food: enjoying a full meal vs. snacking around.

              We all enjoy having a snack every now and then, while we wait for the time for the full meal. That’s essentially the same thing for media tools (where we snack) versus the full meal (blogs and wikis). Some times we ought to have such snacks to then realise how much more we enjoy a great full meal.

              The thing though is that we seem to rely far too much on those snacks vs. working our way towards the full meal. And that’s perhaps the balance we need to strike for, once again, to keep amplyfing the deeper side of conversations, while we still might enjoy the odd snack here and there … Don’t you think?

  3. Hi Luis,

    I almost wonder if “people being too busy” could really be “people being too distracted.” I’m for sure guilty of that. At the same time, I’m impressed by how meaningfully you can engage people. At least, you’re leading by example in the space of caring.

    In any case, when you say “caring” it is really striking a chord for me because that is what it is all about. You cared to write this and you’re caring to respond individually to each of these posts. I’m working to do more of this in how I approach my work. If someone posts a problem on the community I am a steward of (did you see how I did that 😉 – I make sure that even if I don’t know the answer I mention someone else who might. And I have also been leaving short comments on posts that I read, trying to add some value and contribute.

    There is a time management struggle, but I think part of it–and perhaps I’m witnessing it in the way you work–is that on social media we can overthink our responses and not be as real and genuine as we could be. So, I’m working to care more and overthink less…and we’ll see where that goes!

    1. Hi Justin, thanks a bunch for dropping by and for the wonderful feedback! I very much appreciate it 🙏😃

      I think you bring in a very good point with regards to ‘people being too distracted’. That’s probably the case for a good number of folks, specially, with the myriad of tools and interactions they need to keep up with and make sense of. Not an easy task when you’re constantly being interrupted or distracted.

      The thing though is that back in 2006 I wrote a blog post where I shared the following quote:

      We create our own distractions and just need to learn to manage them

      and I guess that 14 years later it still rings true. We pretty much create those distractions, but at the same time we still need to learn how to manage them effectively 😅

      RE: Caring, that’s the thing, Justin! And I saw what you did there with community stewardship 😉. The thing that most folks don’t seem to understand is that caring is a two-way street. Pretty much like loyalty. if you care for people you regularly hang out with, eventually, they would care back for you. That’s what networks do. That’s what adding value is all about. You care for the networks you nurture and sustain. Not just do your own thing. Only when we start caring do we realise the true power and potential of the networks and communities under which we operate on a daily basis.

      I just wish folks would understand that not just with their words, but also with their actions. That’s also one other important aspect around caring: if you do, walk the talk, please, lead by example, not just do the fancy talk and move on to your next thing. I am afraid things just don’t work like that.

      Your last paragraph is a golden gem on its own, because, in reality, without saying it out loud, you have pretty much made the case that folks just need to be themselves: authentic and honest and stop pretenting to be who they are not. Times have changed and we notice when the mask(s) is up!

      Many thanks, once more, for the fantastic and look forward to more conversations over time!

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