I was told a long time ago that 'modeling your classical music performance on recordings can ruin your artistic integrity because it distracts you from finding your own interpretation'. Only now have I considered how this can parallel in improvised music, where playing 'like the recording' leads me to be detached from my current needs and capacity. It's more honest to understand a song from the recording, but without using it as an excuse to skip over dealing with current challenges, which might mean performing it in a way that bears little resemblance to the original, and this can be constructive.

How to Stand Up for Yourself

[When someone asks 'why' after you respond to their request with 'no, you can say "it's not what's best for me right now", "it's outside my focus right now", "I need to make another choice".]

How to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence

[When you feel the tightening up and defensiveness that comes with someone trying to 'prove' or 'persuade' their perspective, consider focusing on what question to ask so that you can learn something.]

[Feeling triggered is a prompt to understand what provoked it.]

Does AI benefit the world?

[We did this three-session activity three times during the year: first for cars, then the internet, then generative AI.]

[Global impact doesn't lend itself to simple numerical representations, as what the numbers represent may not be evenly distributed.]

[Generative models are often discussed in terms of potential impact decades from now, so to start by measuring something that has already existed for decades helps ground discussion in less theoretical terms.]

[If we network homogeneously, our surrounding opinions will tend to conform similarly.]

Peanut butter soya cucumber salad

Ingredients

• 1 cucumber, sliced
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 splash of soya
• msg
• chilli crunch
• rice wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• sesame seeds
• sesame oil

Method

• Put everything in a container, then close and shake well to mix.

I was taught something, so now i know it, right?

[Nothing can be taught, there is only learning.]

[Having read about a topic or participated in a workshop does not mean knowing it, which is painfully obvious in the trades.]