In my previous blog I looked at how effective you can be as a teacher when working in groups. It was part of my introduction to a free online seminar that you can join here on building a successful practice.

Previously I asked: Is group teaching even ethical given the importance of “experience” in our learning model?

This question could be applied today to the idea of giving lessons on Skype. However, group teaching is my focus, so more about that…

“Mad Major” John Boyd, quoted above*, is an undeclared American hero. 

Personally I am not a fan - war is not a arena that engages my respect – and I am not fool enough to ignore valuable insights into human behaviour from whence ever they arise.

Boyd declared this idea to his phenomenally successful American fighter pilots, and the idea is also a central premise within Alexander’s evolutionary theory. It’s all carefully laid out in by F.M. in his laboriously written first section of CCCI, but it’s way more interesting to consider Boyd’s take on the subject.

Ending two years of Roundtable Masterminds with Perry Marshall in Chicago.

It’s 4.49am, wide awake, bag packed – having just posted this to Facebook:

I hate sitting near a loud talker in a café when I am alone, don’t you?

I get distracted by listening to any stranger going “blah, blah, blah” about “whatever”.

This week, I came across just that kind of person in the Poinciana Café in Mullumbimby, and then an amazing thing happened…

"Your own body is a phantom, one that your brain has constructed purely for convenience."
V. S. Ramachandran

I recently underwent full anaesthetic for an operation, and the aftermath was weeks of regressive behaviour which had me wondering what the hell was going on…

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction is a known phenomenon whereby higher cognitive function is slow to return, often taking weeks before full functionality is restored.

Was that what was happening to me?

I was requested to write a blog about discipline i.e. using time effectively.

The two words in that previous phrase - "time" and "effectiveness" are two of three concepts essential to getting to that place of "discipline".

Discipline itself is almost a dirty word, because it implies you need to be doing something other than what you are doing. i.e. you must "discipline" your Self to do this, instead of doing that. Right?

This is the text of a letter I wrote recently to a friend who wondered why I seem to actively offend so many people in the AT world with my position on Tablework. This is what I wrote back...

***

Dear Friend (who shall remain anonymous),

The tablework/constructive rest thing is an important component of my whole sales and marketing thrust - the idea is to do what the students wants, not what you prescribe.

The way my life has created itself leaves me more apart from my two daughters than physically present. My relationship to this reality has been a challenge. When I arrive back in Japan from a visit to them in Australia, I usually awaken the first day in my apartment with a vague sense of loss and longing. At first I didn't identify it clearly, then…

"OH. I miss my daughters."

Then I remembered a principle my teacher taught me: whenever I am feeling lonely, it is based on a mind that has drifted from the present to imaginary circumstances.

As T. S. Elliot put it: