July 2015 - Ben Erlandson

Preparing for Launch: Winter South 02014

My book Winter South 02014 was published in March, and apparently an email from the marketing team slipped through the cracks, so we are just now getting around to forming a press release to launch my book into the stratosphere.

I took some time to fill out a formulaic series of “interview” questions for the Lulu marketing team (their “Press Release Questionnaire”), and as I continued down the list, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the questions felt quite absurd. As such, I’ve decided to publish the questions — and my actual answers — here on my blog. Just for fun. Continue reading Preparing for Launch: Winter South 02014

Hybrid Learning: Get Soaked

On Sunday, July 5, we went for a hike in one of my favorite places on this planet (Stone Mountain State Park) on a section of what is becoming one of my favorite trails, the MST. One of the many reasons I love Stone Mountain is that it is such a photogenic rock:

But on this day, we skirted around the rock and headed for the base of the escarpment, just past Widows Creek.

I’ve used Strava for quite some time to track my bicycling efforts, and recently I’ve discovered that it is also pretty good for tracking hikes. So, I thought I’d track my Sunday “stroll” up the escarpment. Results below, and here.

With my father, I had done the hike before in reverse, one way — from the Blue Ridge Parkway down to the Stone Mountain backpackers’ parking lot. On the 5th I wanted to go up and back, hoping to turn around at the ruins of an old mountain shack. Continue reading Hybrid Learning: Get Soaked

Learning Systems Design

As a way to get back into the swing of things with my blog, I thought I’d write a quick post on what I’ve been thinking about most lately as I’ve taken my new position as CTO of McKinsey Social Initiative: learning systems design.

Of course, I’ve been thinking about learning systems design for many years, but our goals for where we’d like to be with the Generation Initiative by 2020 have given me a new pragmatic perspective on the topic. I want to keep this post (and most future posts) brief, so let me quickly explain my own framework for learning systems design. Continue reading Learning Systems Design