How being clumsy made me a better teacher

And how my experience can help you. Yep, this would be me. I’ve always been a little clumsy. It’s why I’ve never ever been great at sports — any sport. Not that I was outrightly terrible, mind you: I did achieve passable competence at football and table tennis (with a lot of practice, but who’s asking?). Wondering what I …

Why I hate instructions

And why you should too—unless something changes I hate instructions. I mean, I don’t really hate instructions, but I am suspicious of them. And I might hate the way people write them. Because let’s be honest, most instructions are written for people who really don’t need instructions. Real life example: I recently messed up a …

What I learned about learning from a year in northern Nigeria

And a major reason children learn faster than adults I spent my national youth service year in northern Nigeria and managed to pick up quite a bit of Hausa, the lingua franca in that part of the country. And by “a bit,” I mean, I started off needing an interpreter to communicate with my patients, and …

When you’re too unique to learn

The problem of over-emphasising “being special” In both my mental health work and my volunteer mentoring of teenagers, there’s a way of thinking I’ve come to recognise as deadly when someone latches on to it. It is said in many way, with different words, and varying body language, but it’s hard to miss, and it all …

Why do otherwise smart, successful people suck as leaders?

And how can YOU avoid their fate? “My people won’t follow me! They don’t do the tasks I assign them, they don’t take initiative on new issues! I often end up doing things myself, and it’s frustrating! I’m too stressed to babysit adults!” When you call, does anyone answer? This SOS came through during a conversation with …

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