This year I dedicated a category in my goals to learning. I want to find new sources of information to grow my knowledge. It is often very easy to seek out the same sources of information and stick with what you know.
So instead of just sharing some links to read this year, I am also goiny to share podcasts I have been listening to and videos I have been watching. You can read past editions here.
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Reading – 10 Days to a Less Defiant Child
While I think the title of this post 10 Days to a Less Defiant Child makes a massive claim, I do love the simplicity of this succinct article and the tips they give are so spot on.
I have printed the tips and stuck them on my inspiration board. I know they work, because when I am on my parenting “A game” I behave in this way. When I am tired or stressed, I slip up on these things and they have a huge impact on how I interact with the kids.
Watching – The pace of modern life versus our cavewoman biochemistry: Dr Libby Weaver at TEDxQueenstown
If you have read my book review of Rushing Woman’s Syndrome by Dr Libby Weaver the message of this presentation will be familiar to you.
If you haven’t read the book and wonder if it will help you, definitely watch this video. What Dr Libby Weaver has to say about how modern women live their lives is spot on and she shows a way out from the busyness.
Listening – Alain de Botton on Hack
I actually caught this episode of Triple J Hack while driving the kids around to after school activities, but you can listen to it on the Triple J Hack website here or download the podcast here.
Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969 and now lives in London. He is a writer of essayistic books that have been described as a ‘philosophy of everyday life.’ He’s written on love, travel, architecture and literature. His books have been bestsellers in 30 countries. {Source}
His latest book is The News: A User’s Manual and I was interested to listen to his thoughts on the way we consume news now. Personally in the past, I was a serious consumer of news, making sure I would regularly watch a late news bulletin, check in on the daily news websites. But over the last 18 months, I have hardly done this at all. The way and how much news I consume has changed dramatically.
Through out the interview Alain de Botton discusses many aspects of news and how he believes the news now occupies the same dominant position in modern society as religion once did in the past. It tells you its “The News” but in reality it is only “some news”. Through the book he says, he wants to encourage us to think about what we should put in our minds.
Alain de Botton points out that you can get addicted to news and once you have a smart phone it takes on a whole new level. He asks if this abundance of news is making us cleverer? Is it making us more more aware of the world we live in? Better democratic citizens of complex societies?
2 weeks ago, 300 people died in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And no one cares. The world just did not care about those 300 people. Why? Because other things that were some how more newsworthy were going on……
Are we cruel? Are we heartless? Are we racist? Is that why we don’t care? I don’t think so. In order to care about anyone you have go figure out what their life is normally like. And their disappearance or the catastrophe the disaster can start to touch you.
But places like the Congo or others are so hard to get your head around. We just don’t know about these places.
I am going to be more mindful about the news I choose to take in.
What have you been reading, watching and listening to? Feel free to share your favourites with links in the comments section on the blog.