Beyond (Data) Contracts: A Response to Benn Stancil
September 23, 2022 § Leave a comment
This essay by Benn Stancil provoked me so deeply my intended “comment” evolved into a full-fledged blog post:
Fine, let’s talk about data contracts
Benn’s “rant” feels profound on so many levels, especially if I can assume he’s captured the zeitgeist of our industry as accurately as he usually does.
« Read the rest of this entry »Story: Molly’s Life Thesis
June 9, 2022 § 1 Comment
Khommunity Enrichment Malls as the Pre-Future of School
As she walked up the corridor on her Last Day, Molly kept telling herself she shouldn’t be here.
No, whispered a cynical voice in her head. You shouldn’t even be alive.
Molly
« Read the rest of this entry »Pitch: Data is a Feature, not a Product
May 12, 2022 § 1 Comment
Communal Decision-Making Platforms and the End of the Modern Data Stack
Session Proposal for Coalesce 2022
TL:DR Businesses may start by developing a technical solution, but only succeed by integrating around a human problem. The same is true of the Modern Data Stack.
« Read the rest of this entry »Being Human: A Curriculum
September 21, 2021 § Leave a comment
Reframing spirituality as the culturally-neutral, teachable practice of becoming more human, as expressed in:
- 3 Capabilities
- 4 Attributes per Capability
- Prerequisite
- Task
- Technique
- Mindset
- 12 Learning Outcomes
Inspired by the Minerva Baccalaureate, especially their focus on Content over Context.
« Read the rest of this entry »Third Millennium Values
March 18, 2016 § Leave a comment
I deeply appreciate and respect the new focus and push for 21st-century learning outcomes. I just don’t think they go far enough.
Here are the four core character traits that I believe are foundational to creating those outcomes, as well as healthier individuals, communities, and society.
How to Fund Growth
July 2, 2015 § Leave a comment
Most organizations’ financial structures are designed for predictability rather than explosive growth.
To change that, we must:
Invest Constructively in Passion
Specifically:
1. Align Incentives
- Learn what people deeply want.
- Articulate how they can pursue that by contributing to the organization’s mission
2. Unleash Talent
- Learn where people are the happiest and most productive.
- Build support systems that allow them to maximize flow.
3. Virtualize Infrastructure
- Learn which essential tasks nobody is able to do efficiently and awesomely.
- Sell those to a business that sees the opportunity.
TBC 4: The Process for Products
February 20, 2015 § 3 Comments
In this series I have been building a case that Transforming the Bay with Christ (TBC) should consider reframing itself as a startup building a platform for governance. In this, our final installment, I will discuss the process necessary to build such a product.
One of the key insights about entrepreneurship in the last decade is that a startup is not just a small version of a established business. Rather, a startup is an organization formed to search for a business model, rather than execute one.
In particular, this implies that startups should be designed to maximize learning by exploiting surprises. This is the exact opposite of a traditional business, which attempts to increase predictability by avoiding surprises.
To get the optimal structure, we need to be clear on:
- Which things we need to learn (the problem)
- How we are going to learn them (the process)
- Who will own the learning (the people)
- What will prove we have learned the right lessons (the product)
Triversity: How Preschool + Entrepreneurship Will Disrupt University
September 22, 2013 § Leave a comment
So far, 2013 is largely living up to the hype as a “tipping point” for education reform. Conversations around disruption, blending, and mastery are becoming mainstream. At long last, it seems like every aspect of the educational is being reexamined and redesigned by someone. There is more opportunities for funding and innovation than ever before. Not all these experiments will work, but we as a society are arguably questioning and learning more about education in the last couple years than we have in the past century.
Yet there is one aspect of the educational experience where even the most adventurous reformers (with a few exceptions) tread cautiously: the assumption that attending college is a (if not the) primary goal of K-12 education. « Read the rest of this entry »
Can Startup Thinking Solve the Innovator’s Dilemma?
July 11, 2012 § Leave a comment
When I discussed theories about how and whether Apple has solved the Innovator’s Dilemma, I neglected to mention my favorite theory:
Institutionalizing Startup Thinking (IST)
Apple has solved the Innovator’s Dilemma by institutionalizing startup thinking.
iHack, therefore iBlog 