Each edition contains the latest from the Grokkist Press, a roundup of events and highlights from our community, and a care package of snackable outside links selected to nurture your curiosity.
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Hey friends,
Some of you may have noticed there was no newsletter last week – that's because I got sick in the middle of moving house and there wasn't a good moment to put something together. All better now though and all moved in!
This week I had the pleasure of giving a talk at the Association of Sustainability Practitioners called 'From Generalist to Grokkist: learning to address the world as a champion of curiosity and care'.
It was an occasion to organise and share my thoughts on why the world needs grokkists and what grokkists need in the world. You can watch the full recording here.
One of the things I talked about was the importance and the art of beautiful questions.
In our societies, most of us are terribly out of practice in asking each other beautiful questions, but each time we unforget how to, we instantly become the kind of beautiful answer everyone is always hoping will turn up to save us.
I believe beautiful questions are what happens when a thirst for understanding invites a loving encounter with the unfamiliar. Simply aiming to acquire knowledge isn't enough – we also need an ethical imagination.
To put it another way, beautiful questions require both curiosity and care.
Curiosity without care can express itself as form of poking, probing, and questioning to see what happens that lacks a loving encounter with the other.
Care without curiosity can express itself as righteous self-assurance that doesn't feel the need to ask questions or enquire further.
Curiosity and care are in any case closely intertwined, both stemming from the Latin 'cura', meaning to care, help, or treat.
Curiosity the deep sense I like to use it is best understood as a form of intellectual care. It's an active, deliberate choice to pay attention, inquire, and seek understanding. It’s about nurturing a caring engagement with the world, exploring and questioning our surroundings with keen interest.
Grokkists who insist on relating to the world with curiosity and care also love to report back on what they learn and the wisdom they generate by engaging with the world in this re-enchanted way.
By choosing how and when to unspool their worldly wisdom with others, grokkists exercise another 'c' word that also stems from 'cura' – curation, the practice of care-ful selection.
One of my major aims is to help grokkists address the world as champions of curiosity and care by naming, claiming, and communicating their unique expertise, and finding meaningful outlets and avenues to share their wisdom.
In other words, I want to help every grokkist to unlock their grok.
Update on 'Unlock Your Grok'
Last time I let you know about a new offering I've been working on which helps restless grokkists to unlock their next phase of transformation through a 1:1 guided project experience in which you end up making something that gives you an undeniable experience of discovering your deep expertise.
I'm very proud of how Unlock Your Grok is coming together and I'm excited to make it more widely available in October.
Meanwhile, here's some feedback from someone who has recently been through the process with me:
My Guided Creative Project with Danu has done something I did not expect, but which has been a huge cause for celebration! Somehow, I don’t know how, it’s brought out the Writer in me.
Danu calls it “unlatching your treasure box”. I call it Danu Magic.
For context, writing is a necessary part of the business-building aspect of running a coaching practice. It’s been languishing on my “to get my head around” list for years.
The difference is now I know I Am a Writer.
So what the project has done for me goes much further than having created one tangible expression of what has been sitting in the pipeline.
It has cleared the pipes, primed the pump, and shown me a whole new landscape I can now call my own.
I'm still looking for pre-launch testers, so reply and let me know if you're interested! I'll be offering Unlock Your Grok and its Danu Magic for a very reasonable USD$199 when it launches, but you can pre-order your seat today for just $99 if you want to be among the first to go through the experience - click here and use code UYGPREORDER at checkout for $100 off the regular price.
Grok on!
- Danu
Community Highlights
Events, creations, and updates from the global grokkist network
Learn more about the Grokkist Network ↗Upcoming Events
Grokkist Business Update: 2H 2024
🗓️ Tue 1 Oct | 12–1.30pm NZT (UTC+13) (view in your timezone)
Hosted by Danu Poyner
🟣 This is a member-only event. Not a member yet? Become a member today ↗ or RSVP to indicate your interest and we'll contact you to discuss options.
Curious about how the business side of Grokkist works? Interested to understand current priorities, upcoming opportunities, and future plans? This session is for you.
Grokkist founder Danu Poyner will give an update on how the business is going, what we've learned, and what we're focussing on next. We'll wrap up with an open discussion and Q&A.
Feel free to comment below with anything specific you want to see covered in the session.
Other Upcoming Events
- 30 Sep | 🟢 Our Hour: a space for sacred activism [weekly until 4 Nov]
- 17 Oct | 🟢 Critical Thinking or Careful Thinking - themed cafe
- 24 Oct | 🟢 Grokkist Network Office Hours
Grokkist Academy
Ecosophy course Cohort 6 now open
🗓️ 15 Oct – 12 Nov | Tuesdays 7–9pm ET (view in your timezone)
Led by Nathan Dufour Oglesby
Suggested tuition USD$220*
(*Can't afford it? Forget About the Price Tag)
Every mind houses a philosophy. Learn to express and live yours, and make your existence truly home.
Join us for the next instalment of our online ecosophy course, designed to guide you through these tumultuous times of environmental and societal change.
Everyone has a philosophy, whether they know it or not.
This course invites you to explore how your personal philosophy—your ecosophy—interacts with the larger ecological and social shifts, and discover how to articulate and act upon your values with clarity and purpose.
Together we’ll take a tour through philosophical ideas and thinkers both ancient and modern.
🍬 Snackables
Assorted awesome links to nurture your curiosity
#1 - Radical belonging in an age of othering
Joe Primo, Grateful Living
Reflections on the loneliness epidemic – are we sick from loneliness or from not belonging? We're not talking here about merely 'fitting in' – it's about being wholly yourself while also being in loving relationship with others who we also see as worthy – belonging to each other and ourselves in a "grateful orientation to life."
The paradox of belonging is much like the paradox of love. In order to put love into action and experience belonging, you also have to be at home in yourself. When you belong to yourself, you are better equipped to see, appreciate, and respect someone else’s dignity. This is because you can imagine, remember, or acknowledge the pain you’ve endured and how it has shaped your perspective and behavior — the unkind and hateful words that are only one grievance away from being spoken, the wars you might be tempted to fight if the opposition was on your stoop, the destruction you might cause if all the power was yours, the food you would steal for a child, the walls you might build if fear was your guidepost, the sicknesses that could fill your mind if you believed your fears. When you can imagine being othered then you can see the only path is understanding.
#2 - A history of Little People
Informative and entertaining exploration of how little people were treated throughout different eras in history, presented by Aubrey Smalls, a Louisiana filmmaker who has dwarfism. You'll find out why Ancient Egypt was a good time to be a little person, why Aubrey has beef with Aristotle, sex slavery in Ancient China, a noblewoman in 1400s Italy who was obsessed with building entire miniature apartments for little people for her own amusement, and of course the Freak Shows of the 1800s. As one commenter writes, "the history of dwarfism is a great example of the idea that you can be adored and wanted by your oppressors but it’s never the same as being respected as an equal."
#3 - A light-based app for deep meditation and exploring your subconscious
Lumenate is an app that uses the flashlight on the back of your phone to neurologically guide you into a state between that of deep meditation and psychedelics – something its makers refer to as 'neural entrainment.' In this state you can expect to be fully immersed in the present moment, experiencing powerful closed eye visuals and allowing you to explore your mind from a new perspective. I haven't tried it personally as yet, but it's been mentioned to me several times. If you try it out, let me know how it goes!
#4 - The worst actor in movie history – a statistical analysis
Daniel Parris
What makes someone well-known for being subpar, to the point where it dictates their cultural legacy? "It's one thing to deliver a bad performance in a mediocre film and quietly fade into obscurity, but what happens when someone is universally criticized yet continues to land leading roles? What does it mean to have a successful movie career (by many measures) while simultaneously being labeled a “bad actor”?" Stat Significant offers data-centric essays about media, and this essay analyses the worst movie stars using a detailed combination of online movie ratings, box office success, and number of Razzies won. Lots of interesting observations, corner cases, and movie trivia throughout. I won't spoil the 'winner', but it's not Steven Seagal (he's only #6).
#5 - The walrus who kept sinking boats until someone built him a floating couch
NZ Herald29 Aug, 2021 09:46 PM4 mins to read
I only recently found out about the legend of Wally the Arctic Walrus and had to share. Wally began showing up around the British Isles in 2021, a long way from home and leaving a wave of destruction in his wake by "hanging off the back of yachts and capsizing luxury motor launches." No-one is quite sure where he's from (likely Greenland or Svalbard) or how he got there (perhaps he fell asleep on an iceberg and drifted far from home or was displaced by older and more dominant males). Wally quickly became a huge hit with locals, became fully protected by law, and was eventually built a floating couch by the British Divers Marine Life Rescue so he could rest safely and ultimately power himself back to the Arctic. He was last spotted in Iceland. If you want to see Wally in action, you can watch a 7-min doco about him here.
A pair of parting thoughts...
“The axe forgets; the tree remembers” — Zimbabwean proverb
"There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in" ―Frances Hodgson Burnett
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