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“Notice more. Let go. Use everything.”

I’ve decided Future Fossils is going to double down on its commitment to helping people navigate uncharted waters by focusing explicitly on improvisation in 2023, and our first stop together on this journey is a marvelously soulful and profound discussion with my friend Robert Poynton.

Robert is many things, including an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, where he runs executive education programs that help leaders understand and work with complex change. He also runs Yellow Learning (“a regenerative space for a complex world”), which I recommend highly as the kind of group experience you actually WANT to be involved in online…and he’s a husband and father of three adult sons who helps his wife run an organic beef farm in rural Spain.

But perhaps the most salient point is that he wrote an amazing book called Do Improvise — one of the finest I’ve ever encountered on the subject — so that’s the focus of our conversation. Join us as we discuss how to tune in, surrender, and make the most of whatever life throws your way…

This conversation continues with lively and respectful interaction every single day in the members-only Future Fossils Facebook Group. Join us!

I'm also ISO moderators interested in helping steward the Discord server, which I am releasing into the wilds as a fan-operated platform in 2023.

PS — I’ve moved Future Fossils to Substack. There you will find my entire archives AND an increasingly-complete (but as yet not-entirely-migrated) repository of essays and blogs dating back to the Mesozoic. (If you prefer Substack over Patreon, I’m totally happy to take your support there, as well as or instead of…but I have not yet figured out how to handle posting subscribers-only content to both platforms.)

✨ Support The Show:

Subscribe to my work in all media on PatreonSubscribe to the podcast and monthly newsletter on SubstackBuy my original paintings or commission new work

✨ Tip Jars:

@futurefossils on Venmo$manfredmacx on CashAppmichaelgarfield on PayPalBuy my music on Bandcamp (they take 15%)

✨ Mentioned & Related Media:

Stuart Firestein on Ignorance, Failure, Uncertainty, and The Optimism of Science

MG Twitter thread re: Weird Studies and ergodic vs. nonergodic storytelling

The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Gary Hirsch (friend of Rob’s)

Margaret Heffernan on Hidden Forces Podcast: How To Navigate an Unpredictable World

Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch

Everything’s An Offer by Rob Poynton (unavailable at Bookshop.org)

Exaptation of the Guitar by MG

The Future is Exapted and Remixed by MG

Episode Music: Beta Pavonis & Delta Pavonis by MG

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 122: Austin Sawyer, Associate at Nina Capital | From Entrepreneur to Venture Capitalist: Breaking Down the Nuances