From Bounded Learn

How people work

Why people do what they do, in plain words, with what to try at home, at school or at work. The science and the books are there when you want them.

85: ideas
27: books
49: videos

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How we work

The ideas everything here is built on: how the brain guesses, how feelings are made, and how people learn and recover. Each comes with what to do.

The brain guesses firstFeelings are constructedBody signals, and what we do with themMore words for what you feelUncertainty costs, and avoiding it also teachesFlexibility: the right response depends on the momentThe body keeps a budgetChanging what you think and changing what you doActing is learning tooThe words we use change the childFrom first principles to practicePlay: making surprises on purpose

In practice

How to use these ideas at home and with the school: watch, try things out and describe what you see.

Before, during, after: describing a sequenceSmall experiments at homeTalking with the school without labelsHelping the child make sense of their bodyMaking change predictable

Myths

Things people often say about feelings, behaviour and labels, and what the research shows.

‘Emotions go off on their own, always the same way’‘The diagnosis explains the behaviour’‘It’s an act, he does it to get what he wants’‘Attention is a battery that runs down’‘Teaching the names of emotions is enough’‘Avoiding what is hard protects the child’‘He has sensory issues: that’s just how he is’

How minds differ

People differ in how much they trust what they expect, how fast they change their minds and how they tell their feelings from other people's. Ideas to test, never a diagnosis.

When the world seems more changeable than it isAmbiguity: not knowing how much to trustStrong expectations, quieter sensesLooser expectations, louder sensesLearning the detail, missing the patternWhere I end and you beginWhen one error changes everythingWhen acting seems not to workExploring or sticking with the knownPlanning far ahead or living closeSleep tidies the modelThe right amount of newHabits and deliberate choicesHow much the body counts, here and nowWhat we expect from other people

Acting on the world

Activities beyond home and school that let a child try things out and find they can. We say what to look for; we do not recommend particular clubs.

Walks in natureSwimmingJiu-jitsu and other martial artsSport and gymMassageEquine activitiesSailingClimbingArts and craftsBuilding thingsExploring ecologiesFinding a nicheMusic and rhythm

Principles for living

Old advice from Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius on duty, practice and what is in our hands, used as everyday habits and never as a way of hiding feelings.

What is in our handsDiscipline: practising before it is neededDuty: keeping what was agreedChoosing small discomfortsThinking ahead about what could go wrongSeeing it from one step up

The science underneath

The theories underneath, one by one: what they say, what they change and where the debate is. Written for anyone who wants to go deeper.

The free energy principleActive inference: acting in order to knowPredictive codingThe Bayesian brainPredictive processingPrecision: how much weight each signal getsInteroceptive inferenceAllostasis: the body gets ready in advanceThe theory of constructed emotion, in detailSelf-organisationAttractor statesMarkov blanketsCulture, meaning and looping effectsThe entangled brainKnowing what you know

Thinking in systems

A person lives inside other systems: the body, the family, the school, the culture. These ideas help us stop looking for one cause where there are many.

What a complex system isEmergence and the right level of explanationSmall causes, big effects (and the reverse)History mattersConstraints and possibilities for actionMany paths, same placeRepeating is not learningThe mind does not stop at the skinKnowledge is spread outThere are no solutions, only trade-offsHumility about what can be designedTrying to prove ourselves wrong

27 books to go furtherEach with what it gives you, for parents, teachers and professionals.

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