Hi everyone –
Thanks for being so patient and sticking around during my two-week pause. I used it to replenish my energy and reflect on new perspectives for the newsletter. Now it feels sooooo good to be back!
One question I often get is how I come up with topics for Onward. So I thought I would give you a behind-the-scenes tour and explain where and how I find ideas. Since being on the lookout for topics was one of my main tasks in the last two weeks, it seems like a good time to answer this now. So buckle up and enjoy the ride!
Among the joyful things I did since sending my last post was to immerse myself in books. I finally got around to reading Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, which has been on my list for quite some time. Bel Canto, published in 2001, is Patchett’s fourth novel and was quite successful. It is based on a true story of a hostage crisis in Lima, Peru, and deals with the “human factor” between terrorists and hostages, a topic I am very interested in. I loved how Patchett pulls this off by interweaving opera as a centralizing theme throughout the story (“bel canto” literally means "beautiful singing”). It is such a surprising combination of topics!
What I ended up thinking about most, though, was not the two main protagonists, an opera star who is one of the hostages and spellbinds everybody with her arias, and the Japanese business mogul and opera enthusiast whose birthday party provides the opportunity for the hostage-taking but the 17-year-old terrorist Carmen. Despite her being very shy, she is all about discovery and learning: she befriends the opera star, explores the mansion in which the hostage situation takes place, and asks Gen, the business mogul’s translator, to teach her English, later falling in love with him. These experiences allow her to be much more assertive along the way. Her character touches on two aspects I find interesting: the courage sometimes required to grasp an opportunity for exploring and experimenting and, maybe even more important, the effects of learning on self-esteem. So you will probably hear more about Carmen in future posts.Reading about Gen, the business mogul’s translator who speaks several languages also reminded me of my interest in hyperpolyglots. In 2018, I read a fascinating story in the New Yorker about people proficient in a multitude of languages that I’ve dug out now. It features a doctoral candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen who is in command of 22 languages. I will definitely look into this.
Then I read a report about how Hilaree Nelson, a top ski mountaineer, died during a descent from the Himalayan summit of Manaslu in Nepal on Sep 26. Nelson, who was 49, made dozens of first descents from peaks around the world and was named “the most accomplished female ski pioneer of her generation.” However, what caught my attention in the NYT report was what Nelson said in a previous interview about what drives her: “I’ve always had this crazy fear, my whole life, of having every day be the same. And if I dig really deep, that’s my motivation, to get outside, to train, to be in my sport, and to forever continue learning.” This made me wonder what role fear of boredom plays in my own learning projects (which of course are not nearly as mind-boggling as skiing down from the top of an almost 30,000-foot mountain… just in case you wondered). And more generally: What are the primary human motivations to learn, and which are the most effective?
One project I had on my to-do list for the last two weeks was coming up with a new design for Onward’s About page. I thought of an image that illustrated various aspects of learning. So I started googling and noticed that the phrase “Six Facets of Understanding” came up all the time. When I looked into it, I learned that this is a concept mainly used in education that helps teachers to evaluate and assess student understanding. It includes: explaining, interpreting, applying, having perspective, empathizing, and having self-knowledge. So the teacher should ask: Can the student explain a topic; can the student apply the topic etc.? As a journalist, this hits home for me. When I experience writer’s block, it usually means that I haven’t really understood the topic I want to write about, so I can’t explain, apply, interpret or use it in another way … and my screen remains empty. An interesting question: How could one use the concept of “six facets of understanding” in everyday life? Something to pursue further…
As a skier and Yogi, I sometimes wonder how long I will be able to pursue these activities. I probably won’t be able to hit the slopes in my 70s or do a headstand when I am 80 … or will I? An interview with a 73-year-old ariel artist got me wondering if my expectations were correct. Barbara Hague took her first flying trapeze lesson when she was 66 and is still going strong, as she explains in Oldster magazine. Age limits to learning and performing tasks are a topic worth exploring. Becoming a mathematician when you are retired? Learning a musical instrument as a septuagenarian? Making scientific discoveries in your 80s? Possible, likely, desirable? How does nature limit us, what roles do societal and individual expectations play, and how do these things interact?
Next week, I will dig into another topic I stumbled upon during the last two weeks: the many benefits of writing by hand, for learning, processing emotions, and many other things. Don’t miss it!
In case you haven’t noticed: I’ve redesigned Onward’s homepage. And there is also a new About page. Let me know how you like it all!
See you next week!
Logo & Banner Design by Judy Higgins