TTE 182 – Subtractive psychology, spooky weirdness and Jurassic Park

1. A quote I’m resonating with this week
The subject of free speech is one that’s incredibly important, and appears to be increasingly under threat. While Noam Chomsky is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, he’s very on-point in this statement about the importance of free speech:

“Goebbels was in favour of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favour of free speech, then you’re in favour of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favour of free speech.”

2. One of my favourite places
I’m off for a brief holiday in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for the next few days. It’s many years since I first went to Lanzarote, and the contrast is rather stark. My first impression of it was that it was like a cross between a giant’s vegetable garden (freshly dug) and Jurassic Park. It’s a volcanic island, so there are all kinds of cinder cones and old lava flows. When I first went, I thought it was ugly, but that was because it took me a while to adjust to the incredible beauty there. These days, it’s one of my favourite places in the world, and there’s so much natural beauty to luxuriate in. Highly recommended!

3. This week’s glimpse of the future
Here’s a very odd glimpse of the future, the website “This person does not exist”. Described as “a creepy look into an all-too-near future where we can’t distinguish the real from the fake.” The site shows you one thing: a photo of a seemingly real person. The photo changes each time you refresh the page. But the people in the photos are not real. They’re AI-generated fakes, produced by machine learning giant Nvidia. As you look at them, you can see little clues that let you know they’re fakes, but the impression is still of a real human face. We’ve moved from the ‘uncanny valley’ into spooky territory: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/

4. An interview I’m excited about
Subtractive Psychology at work: are formless principles too ‘woo-woo’ for a corporate lawyer?

You may recall that I conducted a 3-day Clarity 1:1 Coaching Intensive with a corporate lawyer named Andy, in front of a live audience of coaches, therapists and trainers.

A year later, I did a live follow-up interview with Andy in front of an audience, to find out how the experience changed his world and give people the chance to ask us BOTH questions.

There were some real surprises – for instance someone asked Andy whether he would have been prepared to pay full price for the intensive, knowing what he knows now (Andy paid £4,000 instead of the usual fee of £30,000, in return for letting an audience watch as he went through the entire experience).

As you can imagine, I was waiting with baited breath to hear his answer in front of an audience of over 100 people!

I’ve decided to share the whole interview with you, because it’s so aligned with the purpose my team and I are working to.

As you may know, we believe the most valuable things a person can discover are how their mind works, and who they really are. Well, this interview demonstrates why they’re so valuable– the immeasurable, practical, real-world value of learning just these two things.

These two facts (how your mind works and who you really are) are what Andy realised insightfully during his intensive, and what you’re going to hear is the difference those two discoveries have made in his work, and in his life as a whole.

In the interview he reports on the changes in:
– His sense of trust in himself and his decision-making
– His levels of relaxation
– His productivity
– His parenting and family life
– Starting his own coaching practice
– His deep-down knowing about whether he can handle anything that comes his way, including a company shakeup following the intensive, that took the team of nine senior executives (one of which was Andy) down to just two

Here are some of the questions Andy gave answers to:
– How did how you operate in the world before VS after the intensive? What changed for you?
– How did things change around your career transition and your ability to take action and be productive?
– Knowing what you know now, would you have been prepared to pay the full price (£30,000) for your intensive?
– What was the biggest new belief that you gained about yourself in those in the intensive that you felt was most transformative? (Andy’s answer to this was particularly interesting, because of the ‘subtractive’ nature of this work)
– How did you go about building your coaching practice alongside your corporate lawyer role?
– What impact has the intensive had on your relationships – for instance work colleagues, family etc?
– What do you think the difference would have been if you’d had regular coaching in hourly sessions rather than an intensive?

I was also asked some technical questions (E.g. do you ever do Intensives remotely? The answer is “yes”), as well as what I’d learned personally from the intensive, so it was great to share my insights from the session.

You can listen to the full interview on the Get Clarity podcast here

5. This week’s 3-minute miracle
I’ve shared this one before, but I love it so much I wanted to share it again. Here’s “On Some Faraway Beach” by Brian Eno: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K29t_L3CO6A