Yellow
A complex world
In 2022 it is more obvious than ever how complex the world is. This complexity prevents us from simply engineering a more bountiful and beautiful future. Much of what is interesting or valuable happens obliquely, in ways we cannot predict or explain. The command and control that we hanker after is unattainable: dubbed by our friend Chris Kutarna 'the managerial fantasy'. Moreover, the pursuit of this idea is no longer enlightening - it is fruitless, even punishing. It creates distress on the individual, organisational and planetary scales. Yet we are trapped. We are steeped in a way of thinking and acting that runs so deep, and has been so successful, that our instinctive, almost our only response, is to try harder.
Where is the space?
It is hard to find a space to make different sense of things. Where might we do that? How? With whom? Existing institutions and organisations are built for the way things have been - so they are caught in existing ways of thinking and acting. However willing they are, the kinds of changes needed are unlikely to begin with them.
A creative response
Yellow is a creative response to this challenge. It is a carefully curated space, designed for people to think; together. A space to explore, discover, question and challenge. A space of 'not-knowing', as well as 'knowing'. Of unlearning as well as learning. A space which is empty in one sense and full in another. If we are to prosper in a world which is beyond our control, such spaces are vital. Sometimes it isn't the answers that you need to find. It is the questions. And a place to explore them.
https://yellowlearning.notion.site/A-complementary-space-ce964d740e5a401daf1c767519ab380c
Until 2024, Yellow was primarily an online cohort-based experience. Today, Yellow is focused on physical, in-person events.