Bedrock Reads

The Laws of Human Nature- Robert Greene

I won't lie. I came across Robert Greene having heard a few nuggets whilst doom-scrolling on my YouTube reel. I thought it would be useful to share one of his more famous pieces of work from an educational perspective.

Key Takeaway 1: we're all irrational. The struggle between rationality and irrationality is a well-documented human frailty. We need to curb the desire to act- even when it feels right. A good friend of mine often says, 'let's just keep the powder dry', and I love that phrase. Schools are hectic, chaotic places that don't naturally facilitate rational thinking: catch yourself in the act if you're about to jump in.

Key Takeaway 2: confirmation bias = finding people that will support your view or confirm your pre-existing suppositions. Conviction bias = if you have a strong feeling, then it's right. It almost feels like this is a case of 'enough said'- look at this in a school.

Key Takeaway 3: beware narcissism: I remember once in a new post, my conviction was to change everything, stamp my image on things and lead my team into a new frontier. In truth, the desire to prove myself probably caused me more work because I threw out a load of stuff that could support the same endpoint.

Key Takeaway 4: faulty human hardware: we're wired to be narcissistic, covetous and envious. It comes as part of the package as humans. We should strive to recognise our own scripts, own them and surround ourselves with people who bring out the best parts of us, however challenging that may be. Oddly enough, as a weird quirk of fate, my young boy just managed to call former colleague and friend Matt Perry from his Alexa...sorry Matt- and thank you for the heads up(!) I still remember conversations I had with Matt years ago where he challenged me with candour and kindness; I remain grateful to him for those times.

Key Takeaway 5: don't be scared to lean into difficulty: we can prevent self-sabotage by leaning into things that aren't comfortable. Think "don't hate your enemies" here. Hatred and insecurity can cloud your judgement, but the cloud can lift if you give it space and time; just try not to take yourself too seriously...(!)

Key Takeaway 6: Beware group mentality and entitlement- as a child being dragged to Southend United every week, I remember looking at fans from other football teams and wondering why there was so much animosity, but when England played, I'd think we'd all be focussed on our collective identity- maybe that just makes me a peculiar kid, but it always puzzled me. My point is that we can start to identify and pull against other groups of people- it's human nature. At Bedrock Learning , we've been working hard to facilitate collaboration across all teams to ensure we are laser focussed on simply making sure more young people get the opportunity to access a robust literacy curriculum. Working with colleagues across the organisation has forced me to move out of simply thinking in terms of my own team; however different other perspectives can be, in recent history for me, they have always ultimately ended up being helpful and constructive! Sarah Bushaway has taught me a lot this year so far.

If you're interested in hearing more about who we are and what we do, have a look at one of our Bedrock Basics sessions- they run weekly.