Articles

by Ken Low and Alison Hagan At a recent Friday community call Ken shared his thoughts on the truckers’ Freedom Convoy. Alison Hagan captured his reflections to share with the wider Human Venture community in this article and on the portal (available to alumni). The Freedom Convoy of the Canadian truckers’ story was compelling; it was about the ongoing struggle

I am not a journalist. I am not a politician. I am not a historian. Nor am I an academic in geopolitics. I am just a citizen of the world, like you, scrolling the news and wondering ‘what on earth is going on?.’ There’s a feeling that crisis after crisis are piling one on top of the other. It is

The Human Venture publishes a list of books and other resources annually. The list includes books that were either drawn on through the year to support our ongoing explorations and programming or were acquired in recognition that they filled a gap and could be useful in the future. The Human Venture community has read (or re-read) all of the books

This is part four of a six part series on ethics for the Human Venture blog. Ethics is the study of right and wrong conduct. Why should we bother to conduct ourselves in the right manner? Fundamentally, right conduct can be grounded in the existential reality of suffering. We would like to avoid suffering, because we know what it is

The holiday season is so meaningful because we get to spend time with people we enjoy, we get to eat good food, and we get to feast on a diet of transcendent level experiences, images, stories and emotions. These experiences can be anything, like listening to a Christmas carol, or looking out your window and seeing the crescent moon and

In June 2021, the Human Venture Associates participated in a reflection exercise using questions adapted by Laura Kennett and Mark Hopkins from the Presencing Institute and which they had used as part of their work as Fellows at the Energy Futures Lab. The exercise was meant to help us take a moment to assess our current context, what challenges we

There is not much that I can think of that tests and changes you more as a human than parenting. To me it is the ultimate adaptive challenge, needing the adaptive capacities of a Zen master. As soon as you think you have something ‘mastered’ or at least partly figured out, the environment and/or the child dynamically shifts, new challenges

This is Part 3 of a series on responsible strategy. Here’s Part 1 on Responsible Analytics and Part 2 on Grand Strategy. How can we help the communities we are a part of act in ways that are wiser, less ignorant, and less likely to be destructive? This question is close to the center of what I currently think ‘responsible

On memory and ground penetrating radar: Ken’s reflections on the remains of Indigenous children found The recent discovery of the remains of Indigenous children at a number of residential school sites has reverberated through communities across Canada and around the world this summer. Ken and members of the Human Venture community discussed their learning and reflections during the regular Friday

This is Part 2 of a series. Part 1: Pursuing Responsible Analytics. What is strategy? Strategy is derived from the Greek word “strategos” – the skill of a general. In a military context, a general is trying to achieve a goal while being surrounded by the fog of war (ignorance). Not only is the general trying to select a promising