One of the concepts that is capturing my attention more lately is the relationship between identity and learning. Everyone looks to intrinsic motivation to drive new learning — but rarely do people focus on identity as the key. It’s the difference between learning to cook, and learning to be “a cook.”

The reason I am noodling this at the moment is I am working through the best way to help The Talking Farm find a scalable model to do more urban, organic farming in the local area (Evanston and Skokie, IL). I really think there is something in providing people with a motivational identity to achieve — urban organic farmer, apprentice farmer, urban foodie — that has local meaning and cache. More to come…