Bateson for Business
Although the origins of this quote are uncertain, I find its clarity pleasing and it is a good summary of the seventh metalogue, discussing instinct: “A bird does not sing because he has an Continue Reading →
In this seventh metalogue, Gregory Bateson’s daughter asks him, “Daddy, what is an instinct?” Their conversation takes them on a journey that covers gravity, genes, chromosomes, learning to play the Continue Reading →
In this metalogue, Bateson and his daughter talk about the meanings evoked by dance. This teaches us something about what it takes to build a strong brand. But unfortunately, Bateson Continue Reading →
This metalogue talks about why we give things an outline when we draw them. It then moves on to the question of whether you can give an outline to something Continue Reading →
In this metalogue the daughter asks her father: “Daddy, how much do you know?” Bateson estimates that must have about a pound (450g) of ‘knowledge’. They realise this isn’t a Continue Reading →
In this metalogue about innovation, Gregory Bateson talks about the need to break apart conventional thinking, yet also holding on to some deeper rules of the ‘conversation’ in order to avoid going mad. Continue Reading →
This third metalogue begins with the question, “Daddy, are these conversations serious? … Or are they a sort of game that you play with me?” It is an opportunity for Continue Reading →
In the second metalogue (“Why do Frenchmen?”), Gregory Bateson tells us about how information can be communicated with gestures instead of words, and how that is a different sort of information from what we use words Continue Reading →
In this metalogue the daughter asks her father: “Daddy, why do Frenchmen wave their arms about?” They discuss how we manage to communicate so much without words, and what we are Continue Reading →
In this first, simple, metalogue (written in 1948) Gregory Bateson imagines a conversation between a daughter and her father. “Why,” the daughter wants to know, “do things get in a muddle?” Continue Reading →