Hey beautiful people,
In case you missed it, I am back in the journalling game. You can expect to see more of my journal entries here. I wrote yesterday’s entry at Collective Journalling, where lots of crackling in the air happens.
For 2023, The Stoa continues to be the rabbit hole of rabbit holes of all things that help us navigate and create the world. We have exciting events for the week ahead…
Goal-Crafting Foundations: Dreaming Big w/ Malcolm Ocean. January 9th @ 5:00 PM ET, 2023. RSVP here.
Malcolm Ocean is a psychoactive human being. I love this guy. I took his 5-hour Goal-Crafting Intensive yesterday. Goal literacy goes a long way in our complex times; most people teach it poorly and I left the CGI workshop being impressed and satisfied. I now have a brand-spanking new goal system for 2023. I invited Malcolm and the GCI team to The Stoa for a mini-workshop on how to be sophisticated with our dream-to-goal pipelines. Malcolm’s first session at The Stoa can be seen here.
Bespoke Applied Science: Applying the Scientist's Skillset for Wisdom w/ Sebastian Marshall. December 28th, January 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th. RSVP here. 90 mins.
Sebastian’s Philosopher-in-Residence series at The Stoa continues. We decided on retitling this series because “Industrial Philosophy” was misleading and did not do justice to what Sebastian is addressing in the series: bespoke applied science. A very important skill to meet reality in our complex times. In the previous session (see above) we reviewed Peter Norvig's excellent paper, Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation.
The next session will cover the following…
A light theoretical basis — looking at how some of the various great philosophers of antiquity approached their work, to set the stage for the upcoming week.
How to do effective analysis.
How to identify the most relevant and salient points around whatever is happening.
How to synthesize.
Some useful secondary skills around this — ideation, rigor, falsifiability, careful usage of language, etc.
You can watch Sebastian’s previous session at The Stoa here.
The Stoa After Socrates. Every Sunday @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 90 mins.
John Vervaeke’s new series After Socrates will be released tomorrow on his YouTube channel. A series of lectures building on a theoretical argument with recommendations on how to practice the Socratic way of life. The Stoa will host an After Socrates afterparty in The Stoa’s wisdom gym every Sunday at 12 pm eastern time. We will be engaging together in dialogos and experimenting with the practices John recommends.
Before John’s Awakening from the Meaning Crisis series was released and before The Stoa was born, John and I investigated conversational practices here in Toronto: Circling, Empathy Circles, Insight Dialogues, etc. You can watch our pre-Stoa conversation about our investigations here:
It is so good to see how John’s work has evolved since this conversation, and how conversation itself will evolve thanks to John’s work. I am very excited that The Stoa will be hosting this series. John’s first session at The Stoa can be seen here, where he declared he was ready to “steal the culture,” inspiring Aikiria the Don to create this song...
Coming soon:
System Sensing: A Practice Space to Enliven the Senses w/ Luea Ritter and Nancy Zamierowski. January 25th, February 1st, and 8th. 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 120 mins.
Luea and Nancy, two of my favorite collective transitioners, are returning to The Stoa later in January to discuss another important skill needed during our complex times: system sensing.
What is systems sensing?
Systems sensing is a broad term for somatic approaches that engage with the deep, often hidden, wisdom of a system. In working with the felt senses, systems sensing can be understood as including a visceral aptitude, involving intuition and emotions, that draws on innate human capacities for being in relation with, listening deeply to, and momentarily embodying the elements of a system. Drawing on Otto Scharmer’s articulation of sensing as “thinking and feeling together,” we describe systems sensing as embodied dialogue with social fields.
You can read more about systems sensing here and watch their previous session at The Stoa here.
Wisdom gym sessions:
Collective Journaling. Monday to Friday. @ 8:00 AM ET. Patreon event. 90 mins.
Collective Presencing. Every Tuesday @ 2:00 AM ET. RSVP here. 90 mins.
Collective Presencing. Every Other Friday @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 90 mins.
Stoic Breath. Every Sunday @ 10:00 AM ET. RSVP here. 60 mins.
The Stoa After Socrates. Every Sunday @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 90 mins.
***