The Structure of Chance

What is Flook? We like to think of it as experiential learning in a card deck. It’s an invitation to grow and explore without curriculum and assessments. And, in a sense, it’s a game for encountering and exploring possibilities in the context of life and relationships. We structured Flook on the basis of three principles that we believe are foundational to transformative learning and personal growth:

Aleatory principle

The principle of chance. This is what you might call the fortune-cookie or Black Jack logic of using the deck. Although users will need greater or lesser degrees of control over this (foreknowledge of activities, for example), the moment of “the draw” is fun and interesting. If the to-do list and the fixed schedule tend to eliminate both chance and empowerment from the experience of the doer, Flook puts chance and empowerment together, and centers them in the experience of possibility. 

Generative principle

Because learning is empowerment, creativity is key. The activities that we include in the deck are a point of reference and departure for generating new activities, re-casting personal routines, finding the outside of conventional ways of being in the world. The 7 activity categories include Creativity, and all the activities include enough quirkiness to stir and expand the creative impulse in other areas of life. 

Relational principle

The way we structure our learning (and the way we structure our lives) shapes our relationships. Flook enacts a relationship between the creator and the user of the deck. The deck is a channel of communication. Playing with a deck with my child (or my student, friend, or spouse) allows me to discover more about what they want. I get to see how they react to certain tasks (“I got a movie card!” Or, “I know exactly which character from a book I’m going to draw.”), how much time they spend on a task, and how they seek to shape the meaning of a card. Flook is more dialogical and collaborative than the relationship implicit in establishing and policing a schedule for a kid or a student.