What I make of where I have been.

What a reflection is here

Each one takes a period, a year of study or a change of role, and asks what it was about. That is rarely what it seemed to be about at the time. The test for writing one is whether the lesson would have been useful to me before I learnt it. Most stretches fail that test, and they are not here.

The notes on the work side are written from experience without disclosing it. A reflection is the opposite. The experience is the point, and it is mine. That is why these sit with the pursuits rather than the work: they are about a person, not a practice.

Some began as a talk to colleagues while the year was still recent. Those keep their shape, one file that presents as a deck and reads as an article, so what is here is what the room saw. Others were only ever written.

Why I write them

Because the lesson does not keep. A year of being a beginner again taught me a good deal, and within months most of it had smoothed back into what I already believed. Writing it down while the disorientation is still available is the only way I have found to hold on to the part that was new.

The pursuits page says that most of what I believe about designed experience I first learnt at a table, losing. That is true. It is also a flattering way to put it. This is where the losing gets described.