Writing
Essays on why capable people stay stuck, and how change works.
I write on Substack about the patterns that tend to survive effort and insight, and what shifts them. Subscribing is free.
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Three essays to begin with.
- Why Most Efforts to Heal Prevent ChangeIf you’ve been working hard on yourself and staying stuck, it isn’t because you’re not trying hard enough.
- You’re Not a Machine. So Stop Trying to Fix Yourself Like One.A living system changes when it feels safe enough to, not when it’s forced: the case for being a gardener, not a mechanic.
- Why Do We Halt, When We Want to Move Forwards?Why a long-postponed project can freeze you on the spot, and a simple loop for finding the next step.
By theme
Read by theme.
Getting unstuck
- Why Structure Can Feel Like a PrisonWhy a plan you made yourself can still feel imposed from above, and how to change where it sits.
- The Planning ParadoxWhen sitting down to plan turns into doubting the whole direction.
- Is the Edge a Thought?What the tight edge of a stretch may be protecting, and why easing it works better than forcing.
For practitioners
- The Shape of Change, in three partsWhere change can happen, why seeing a pattern is not the same as changing it, and what a group carries.Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3
- The Architecture of TransformationWorking on how you process reality, not what you’re processing.
- The Cartographer of MethodsA story about why a written-down method doesn’t carry the skill of the person who made it.
The self as a process
- You Can’t Pick Up a WhirlpoolWhat “no self” can mean in everyday life: personality as a pattern of relating, not a thing stored inside.
- Introducing Generative ConstructivismThe philosophy under the work: self and behaviour, frame and reality, shaping each other.
In my words
…The brain can create a closed loop very, very quickly. And think that understanding something is the same as the thing itself.Anand Rao
Begin
Reading is one way in. A conversation is another.
If an essay has described something familiar, we can talk about what has been stuck and whether this work suits you.
You’ll get a personal reply, usually within a couple of days.