We think as we write

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Ryan Holiday provides a good argument against using AI or ghostwriters in his book Wisdom Takes Work.

We think as we write. Indeed, we cannot finish a sentence until we have carried the thought all the way through. We ponder opposing ideas as we pause between keystroke, the pen becomes our third eye. It doesn't even need to be prose - a drawing can help, a diagram lets you see the problem in a new way. 

On the page we see the pattern. Transcribing the passage or a quote, we get to feel real genius and insight pass through our mind and our fingers, processing each word, weighing and understanding the wisdom.

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know (Lao Tzu)

Ryan Holiday's book Ego is the Enemy has some brilliant passages that have provoked a lot of reflection for me and my practice as a teacher.

In the chapter Always Stay a Student, he makes the point that as we succeed in our chosen career, we continually find ourselves in new situations. 

When I started teaching in 1983, I had to learn how to teach. At the start, I knew nothing. Holiday quotes physicist John Wheeler, who said, "as our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance".

In other words, each advancement in teaching that improved my practice also brought with it new situations and challenges that I had never come across before. So, my ignorance grew. I knew less, even as I progressed with my teaching.

The thing is, this never stops! I am still coming across stuff in 2026 that I am completely ignorant about. Like the uses for AI.

The more I learn about it, the less I know and so on ad infinitum.

The temptation is to pretend I know, when really I don't. Again though, the thing is - this applies to everyone!

The list of things I don't know about at Iona College, and the world of teenage girls is vast. 

• I don't know about the music they like.
• I haven't read the books they are reading.
• As an Anglican, I don't know anything about   Presbyterianism.
• I have little idea about who does what at school outside of   my role in the English department.
• I don't know the nuances of teenage girl language.
• I don't know the nuances of teenage girls.

I could go on and on but you get the gist. I'm ignorant of a lot of things.

The risk is of thinking I am set and secure, when in reality understanding and mastery is a fluid, continued process (Holiday).

So, hence the chapter title - Always Stay a Student!

Do you know the enemy? (Green Day)

Ryan Holiday's Ego is the Enemy forms part of my reading for the study break.

I love his work because he writes about things that make me reflect on my life as a teacher and as a leader, and life in general.

To be or to do? Which way will you go? That was a question posed by American military strategist and teacher, John Boyd.

Ryan indicates that it is a crucial question. At its heart is a question around purpose.

What is your purpose? What are you on Earth to do?

To be, or to do?

Thanks to that purpose question, the answer is obvious.

During my career (now in its 43rd year) my purpose has been reasonably consistent during those years - to do.

But, yes, there have been times when I may have chased promotion, salary and titles like Principal (Stratford High School) or District Principal (OneSchool Global).

When I applied for the Stratford job, I was desperate to return to NZ from England for family reasons. When I applied for the District Principal job, I was keen to challenge myself by helping my colleagues. 

In the end I stepped away from those kinds of high-status positions because I wanted to accomplish something else or prove something to myself.

For instance, it was an easy decision to return to classroom teaching in 2024, because that's my purpose. 

Easy because I knew what I had to do and what was important to me. To quote Joni Mitchell, "No regrets, coyote".

Late last year, that thinking (to do) meant moving to a different school as an English teacher because I wanted to improve my teaching. I still have a lot to learn about this job.

Recently at Iona College we had Browse Week. Teachers were asked to visit a couple of teachers informally during the week and observe the class and teacher for a few minutes. While there the idea was to note a couple of takeaways.

I visited three classes and instantly found things I could do to improve my own practice. That's exactly what I need.

So say goodbye - it's independence day (Bruce Springsteen)

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This post is for my departing Year 13 students as they head off into their final study break on Friday and then, after external exams, onwards into the rest of their lives away from school.

According to Ryan Holiday we have two tasks in life: to be a good person and to pursue the occupation that you love. Joseph Campbell puts that second one very succinctly - 'follow your bliss'.

They're right. Everything else is a waste of energy and a squandering of your potential.

As teenagers, you're still in the learning to be a good person process. Your teenage years are a time for testing things out. Your next ten years are when you need to figure out both of those tasks for real.

Ryan's advice is worth keeping in mind as you go forth:

• Say no to distractions
• Say no to destructive emotions
• Say no to outside pressure.

I wish you all good luck as you go about figuring out how to live.

DYD DYB DYB

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Do Your Best is a phrase I have heard many times. As a youngster I was a cub scout in Royal Oak, Auckland. Famously the scout motto is DYB DYB DYB.

But more importantly, it was a phrase my dad used all the time. He never said, "Try you best". Instead, it was, "Just do your best". That is enough.

So, I grew up with that phrase and it helped form my approach to life (the universe and everything). 

As Ryan Holiday says (in Discipline Is Destiny) why wouldn't you do your best?

As in:

Why are you holding back?

Why are you half-assing this?

Why are you so afraid to try?

Why don't you think this matters?

What could you be capable of if you really committed?

When I ask my students to set goals, I always combine it with a question about their commitment level - if it's not at the highest - then they need a different goal.

Whatever job I've had I've always aimed to do my best. I would take it particularly hard, if my commitment level was ever questioned, because 'anything less is to cheat the gift' (Ryan Holiday):

The gift of your potential

The gift of the opportunity

The gift of the craft you've been introduced to

The gift of the responsibility entrusted to you

The gift of the instruction and time of others

The gift of life itself.

Now he rides a comet's flame and won't be coming back again (Neutral Milk Hotel)

This passage from Discipline Is Destiny (Ryan Holiday) deserves repeating. And if you any kind of leader, it's something to keep in mind:

The history of Rome - indeed, the history of humankind - is almost universally the story of people who were made worse by power. From Nero to Napoleon, Tiberius to Trump, power doesn't just corrupt, it reveals. It places unimaginable stress on a person and subjects them to unbelievable temptations. It breaks even the strongest.

The rarest of the rare (Ryan Holiday)

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In the last post I focused on the 'just show up' directive.

In this sequel, the message is - that's the first step (showing up); the next step is finding something to focus on getting better at each day.

Ryan Holiday: Think about it: Most people don't even show up. Of the people who do, most don't really push themselves. So to show up and be disciplined about daily improvement? You are the rarest of the rare.

I've been lucky (I've lived a charmed life, remember). Teaching is absolutely that thing I found to focus on.

Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you. As a teacher you'd better figure out what to do to be better on to avoid more of those ugly days or else you won't last long (you need all that you can get of those days when you eat the bear).

Just show up!

I know that I've used Ryan Holiday's Discipline Is Destiny for a few posts on this blog (and Wozza's Place), but this book hits bull's-eyes for so many things.

This list of instructions is well worth pinning to a wall in my classroom. It will work for me and my students!

Show up...

...when you're tired

...when you don't have to

...even if you have an excuse

...even if you're busy

...even if you won't get recognised for it

...even if it's been kicking your ass lately.

It's tough to do. Showing up. But because it's hard - most people don't. It's why many NZ kids who want to grow up to be an All Black, never make it. 

Many of my students tell me they want to be professional league players in Australia. 

They'll need to show up. Every day.

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work (Gustave Flaubert)

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I helped our school's very patient, calm and biddable caretaker to re-position a teacher's desk the other morning (I'm first to school remember). We chatted as we did so, and I remarked how I got out of the habit of using a teacher's desk back in my Woodford House days.

Conferencing with students means moving around the classroom and not sitting at a teacher's desk, plus these desks in Tier (the building I teach in) are huuuuge.

At OneSchool Global the thrust was very much away from teacher desks (they were removed with extreme prejudice by order of the Regional Principals).

Ryan Holiday has no such problem with desks existing, as he suggests - the laptop desktop has largely surplanted an old style desk - he just advocates them being cleaned up. Ordered.

I have always made sure my desk is free of papers and clutter at the end of every day - that continues to the present day, with my teacher's standing desk and my huuuge teacher desk that is in the corner of my classroom.

The last word goes to Ryan: Clean up your desk, make your bed. Get your things in order.

Everything we do matters

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I'm enjoying Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is The Way.

This bit resonated with me having reverted back to being a classroom teacher after being a Principal, and recently finding myself making a cup of tea for a senior manager (he said it was a great cuppa):

Everything we do matters - whether it's making smoothies while you save up money or studying for the bar - even after you already achieved the success you sought. Everything is a chance to do and be your best. Only self-absorbed assholes think they are too good for whatever their current station requires.

It's hard to make sentences too short (Seth Godin)

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As usual, I'm reading two books at once. One is a non-fiction book by Ryan Holiday, the other is a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. I love them both but for different reasons.

Generally, Ryan uses shorter sentences than Penelope. She's a brilliant writer who packs a lot of brilliance into her sentences - so much so that I savor the words a lot more, whereas I savor the message more from Ryan.

Here's what I mean:

Ryan - Outward appearances are deceptive. What's within them, beneath them, is what matters.

Penelope - She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation.

See what I mean? Both are examples of great short (ish) sentences, but different.

Seth Godin says:

The most direct way to improve your writing is to make your sentences shorter.

I was reading a magazine article yesterday and was rapidly losing interest. The topic appealed to me, but I couldn’t keep reading. Then I noticed that halfway through the first column, I was still on the same sentence.

We have trouble keeping that long a string in our heads at once.

You can make sentences too long.

But it’s hard to make them too short.

Everyone's got a something they will never sell (Herbs)

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Recently, after finding out I gave up a Principal job to teach him and others English at Hastings Boys', a student said - Eeeehh!!! Sir - why did you do that, to start again at the bottom???

It really was a loud and long EEEHHHHH too.

I guess it does look like that to a student, and from a certain view he's not wrong - I was an English teacher from 1983 to 1989 - the first years of my career. In 1990 I gained a leadership position in an English department and haven't been a full time English teacher for 30 years.  

It could have been a shock being back full time in the classroom but actually it wasn't. It's taken me back to what is vital and important.

I have told many of my former colleagues how much I'm loving the change. I mean it, maan.

As Ryan Holiday says in his book Right Thing, Right Now:

This is a journey that we all must go on too, not just avoiding selfishness and cynicism as we age but making sure we are not hardened by our profession or our circumstances. If time and experience don't make you more generous, less threatened by others and their needs, more openhearted, what kind of life is that? Because it sounds more like a prison, like some kind of curse that an enemy would swear on someone in a tragic play, like the cost of selling your soul.

Last term, I helped a student improve a piece of writing for his writing folio. After he'd finished it, I graded it an Excellence. The honesty of his writing really had a powerful affect on me (the reader).

He will never know how fulfilling that was for me. I never want to lose that feeling.