This series of events was produced out of necessity. Like the saying goes: "necessity is the mother of invention". Ultimately, the idea to do this, grew out of my consulting and advisory, where I would share with friends, family and professional associates, useful ideas, when they sought my help. Often many of the issues I'd hear about confidentially, we're somewhat common (had similar themes) and so I'd offer that they'd join me with another person who'd also benefit from what I would educate them about, after they'd consulted with me privately. This continued to happen where I'd say, "Hey, lets get so and so in the meeting with us then I can tell you both, what might assist you both". This kept happening and the meetings began to grow. Then it became unmanageable, with word of mouth spreading and loved ones wanting to see me or calling me for support and insight - around the clock, from around the world.
Mr. Nathan Singe the proprietor of Snailfish bookshop and myself developed our friendship around a mutual love for learning, good books and great ideas, and it occurred to me- to meet the need, let's organise a regular 'get-together', after hours, for friends and acquaintances, where I can share some of these mind-blowing ideas I learn about in my research, which I share with you! And the rest as they say is history, Nathan was super keen and most kind and generous to host what is now called 'Jardin des Idées' at his adorably cosy pre-loved bookshop on Greville Street, in the fabulously trendy, inner-city suburb of Prahran, in Melbourne, Australia. The event is designed to be a coherent yet impromptu occasion, jam-packed with transformative and useful ideas with practical applications in your life.
Each of the monthly events covers a specific theme from my broad and deep research interests, offering a veritable buffet of thrillingly fascinating concepts, connected in unusual ways, where parallels are drawn, and insights are profound - at least for me. And of course, If you know me well, I can't contain my enthusiasm with those things I'm learning and that work for me, so I share that with you-in the spirit of goodwill.
Jardin des Idées was named so because I brainstormed the analogy of cultivating thoughts in others, and letting others make use of them, and those ideas growing to help them, while they're evolving. Planting those 'thought seeds' and letting them grow, cultivating that rich soil of knowledge and watering it with wisdom, that's the basic idea; tending to the 'idea garden' in your mind. Naturally that subtle humour, never taking myself too seriously, I had to come up with a reasonably hipster acceptable name for the event, and the French language married with a comically crude association with philosophers and adequately pretentious snobbishness was appropriately fitting for the location and the content.
The theme of the first event is what I call; 'Relational Systems'. It's a free-flowing, freestyle talk on a typology of concepts, mental models and heuristics, all to do with human relationships and social activity in the context of -loosely- systems theory. It's a specifically curated and synthesised set of ideas presented for their uncanny cleverness, elegant design and practically powerful potential and efficacy. As a Technical Philosopher, I design decision making systems, so naturally, I continue to deep dive into human social and political (people relations) studies (amongst others) in viewing these things systematically. Whats fascinating is -contrary to conventional assumptions- the appreciation I have for social, political, economic and relational human activity is infinitely greater, the more I learn about the cause and effect, the mechanics and dynamic flows and processes of these behavioural phenomena in individuals and groups. And I think you will too ;)
In Melbourne, Australia and want to attend the events? Join the next one here: Attend FREE Event (Eventbrite)