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 nourish your curiosity.
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Hey friends,
Grokkists don't fit neatly into professional boxes or career categories.
Most of us are teeming with different interests and enthusiasms and have a tendency to become multidimensional misfits who walk around in constant fear of being asked "so what do you do?"
We might think of ourselves as 'generalists', but that always sounds a bit bland to me. It also tends to focus on the value of the things we do, rather than the relationship between the things and how they connect with each other.
I believe our value to others and our source of meaning for ourselves is in the connections between all the things.
That's why I like to talk about The Red Thread that runs through it all.
The red thread idea started off as an idle musing a few years ago but through my adventures starting Grokkist my reflections have been steadily deepening and extending as I find myself assembling a whole body of thought that draws on psychology, spirituality, sociological philosophy and political theory.
I've updated my post on The Red Thread with where my thinking is at, and I'm running another cohort of my Find Your Red Thread course starting next month – I'd love to see some of you there!
Also, in this edition I'm delighted to share our very first member-contributed piece to the Grokkist Press, in which Peter Gilderdale traces out the subtle but important differences between 'critical thinking' and 'careful thinking' and the implications of this for both how we do education and interact with others in general.
Grok on!
- Danu
This edition at a glance:
- Press:
- Critical Thinking or Careful Thinking? (Peter Gilderdale)
- The Red Thread (Danu Poyner)
- Network:
- Featured Events: Rethinking our Philosophies in the Metacrisis and Ecosophy Café
- Snackables:
- What's your biggest regret?
- Wishcycling and the industrial sublime
- The collapse of the 9–5 job
- History of the 🚫 symbol
- Downloadable colour-blindness simulator
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From the Grokkist Press
Articles, videos, podcasts and other creations
Critical Thinking or Careful Thinking?
by Peter Gilderdale (13 min read)
Is it possible that our prized tool for dissecting truth—critical thinking—might actually be sharpening divides rather than bridging them? Peter Gilderdale confronts a paradox at the heart of a cherished intellectual tradition: are we merely critiquing, or are we truly considering?
The Red Thread
by Danu Poyner (11 min read)
For those of us who don't fit neatly into life's boxes, it can be a confusing journey as we waft around unsure how to express who we are and what we do. How can we make sense of our squiggly stories and integrate our multidimensional selves?
From the Grokkist Network
Events and updates from our community
Community updates and highlights
Highlights from the Grokkist Network
- We posted a Guide to our Live Events that breaks down the different kinds of events we offer and who they are open to.
- Our Religion and Ritual themed café was a delightful affair. Around 20 grokkists gathered to thoughtfully and peacefully exchange experiences and perspectives on religion and spirituality, which included various flavours of Christianity such as ex-and-current LDS, Quakers and Roman Catholics, Buddhism, Islam, and atheists and agnostics of differing degrees of intensity.
- Full members can now access the recording from our recent Time, Flow and Focus workshop as part of our Further Together Forum.
Grokkable Courses
Find Your Red Thread
by Danu Poyner (5 week course starting 10 April)
Welcome to the Find Your Red Thread Course, where we gather to celebrate our squiggly stories, while making sense of them and ourselves.
Each workshop session is thoughtfully designed to address fundamental questions, guiding you to grasp your red thread and 'speak from the spool'. Topics include:
- What's your story?
- What do you want to be known for?
- How do you name your most sincere practice?
- What future are you stretching towards?
We'll also have plenty of thoughtful discussion and fun optional activities along the way, all of which will help guide your reflection as you build towards creating your own Red Thread visualisation.
Featured events and meetups
🟢 Free and open to all
🟣 Open to Full Members only (Grokling, Indie Grokker, Groksmith)
🟠 Free for Full Members. Suggested cover charge for free/non-members.
We are a global community – featured events listed below are shown in the host's timezone. For all other dates, add +1 day for Aus/NZ.
Ecosophy Café
🗓️ Thur 28 Mar | 1–3pm ET (view in your timezone)
Hosted by Jasmine Samra
🟢 Free and open to all
Bring your ecosophical "hot takes": ideas from left field that are uncommon, controversial, or simply odd about the nature of Nature and our relationship to it. Go ahead, advocate for the devil. Toss some fuel on the fire. Workshop that edgy-yet-sage position you hope will finally earn the admiration of that cutie from the community garden. Come with an open heart and perhaps walk away with a new perspective.
Rethinking our Philosophies in the Metacrisis | Lunch and Learn
🗓️ Fri 5 Apr | 6–7pm CET (view in your timezone)
Hosted by Jessica Böhme
🟠 Free for Full Members (USD$10 suggested cover charge for free/non-members)
In the face of the metacrisis, an umbrella term encompassing climate breakdown, ecological devastation, and widening inequality, our civilization finds itself adrift. Our prevailing philosophies of disconnection, which portray us as separate from each other and at odds with nature, no longer hold sway.
Yet another world is possible.
At our upcoming Lunch and Learn, we'll explore how philosophies have shaped our world and consider alternative frameworks that can not only make our own lives more enjoyable and interesting but also help us to realign with the more-than-human world. We’ll draw on various disciplines, such as ecology, indigenous philosophies, systems science, and neuroscience as well as on everyday life.
Other Upcoming Events
- 27 Mar | 🟢 Elderhood - the Last Act | Lunch and Learn
- 9 Apr | 🟢 Red Thread Café
- 18 Apr | 🟣 Balancing Commitments | Further Together Forum
- 23 Apr | 🟢 Grok Café
🍬 Snackables
Assorted awesome links to nurture your curiosity
#1 - What's your biggest regret?
A 2.5 min video compilation of people talking about their biggest regrets, accompanied by animation. Nothing in here will surprise you, but timeless truths remain fresh even when they are not surprising. Created by animation student Amanda Duckworth for a class project.
#2 - Wishcycling and the industrial sublime
Georgie Newson
"When we throw something into a recycling bin without being confident we should – ‘wishcycling’, the industry calls it – we are perhaps imagining (if we bother to imagine at all) that the dirty work will be taken care of down the line by some technological wizardry." Here is a visit to a recycling facility in London - "a good place to go for a glimpse into the 21C industrial sublime."
Thoughtful essay on the complexities of recycling and waste management, juxtaposing a visit to a South London recycling centre against the backdrop of recent global initiatives like COP28's 'Voluntary Recycling Credit' scheme. The author critiques the reliance on such schemes and the paradox of green libertarianism, emphasizing the physical and technological intricacies of recycling processes alongside the societal and environmental challenges.
#3 - The collapse of the 9–5 job
"Companies are doing mass layoff while complaining about not being able to find enough employees, some workers are min-maxing the system by working multiple full-time jobs at the same time, while others need to work hours of unpaid overtime at just one job… This is not to mention that the gig economy is consuming entire sectors of the workforce…"
12-min video essay from the How Money Works channel exploring the history of the 9–5 job since its creation in the 1800's by American labour unions and why it is no longer serving either workers OR companies.
#4 - History of the 🚫 symbol
Website
One for the design and communication enthusiasts – deep dive into the history and significance of the red circle-slash symbol, a ubiquitous sign of prohibition and negation. "When road systems were built out ... the U.S. built a system that more or less assumed you could read English, with signs covered in English words. Europe, meanwhile" with at least 24 official languages, "relied on symbols." Everything from Bad Religion, to Ghostbusters, to the minutiae of a 1931 League of Nations Convention Concerning the Unification of Road Signs in Geneva meeting. The Ghostbusters slash, by the way, "is not up to ISO specs".
#5 - Downloadable colour-blindness simulator
Sim Daltonism is an open-source app for visualising colours as they are perceived with various types of colour blindness. "Point your camera at something and let Sim Daltonism show you what it looks like to a colour blind person. Use it to improve visual designs by making them more accessible, to understand better strange colour choices on a child’s drawing, or simply to get a better understanding of the world from the perspective of a colour blind person." Available for iOS and Mac.
A parting thought...
“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known.” ― Chuck Palahniuk
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