During my time as a (poor) philosophy student, I found myself briefly fascinated by the ideas circulating in Europe at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries. Upon closer reflection, the development of that Europe has striking parallels with the current trajectory of emerging countries. In both contexts, social and industrial changes occur at such a rapid pace that they are hard to grasp for ordinary people, who have only a single lifetime to attempt to name and understand the transformations reshaping their surroundings. Émile Durkheim called this phenomenon “anomie,” the inability to conceptualize or mentally structure the profound societal changes taking place.
Amid this whirlwind of social, intellectual and artistic movements emerged an avant-garde style that has influenced the way I conceive the texts that will populate this space: pointillism.
The fundamental principle of pointillism lies in creating art through small, uniform, and seemingly disconnected brushstrokes that, together, form a unified whole. When viewed from the proper distance, the artwork comes to life and gains meaning.
My Learning as a Canvas
For me, learning has not been a steady, orderly flow of useful information. Instead, my lessons have arrived in the form of unexpected flashes, sparked by experiences and bits of knowledge I often didn’t even realize I had absorbed.
Each of these flashes, over time, has found its place, like a brief, individual brushstroke. An idea, a concept, a relationship between ideas and concepts. Gradually, as each stroke is set in place, a picture begins to emerge, giving meaning to what once seemed chaotic or formless.
However, there is a crucial difference between pointillism and life. In painting, the artist deliberately creates each brushstroke, deciding where to place it to construct something specific. In life, brushstrokes appear suddenly, born of our daily reality, and it is up to us, as interpreters, to find their meaning and connect them with the other strokes on our canvas. The artist creates; we interpret. So, the pointilism is like in reverse mode.
What Comes Next?
Now I want to offer my brushstrokes to those who have a canvas ready.
Some may have a blank canvas, eager to receive new strokes and create a masterpiece from scratch. Others may already have a crowded canvas, where some strokes might not match their palette or require erasing prior marks to make space. And there will be those whose painting is already drawn, seeking only to validate or challenge the tone, shape or color of their existing strokes. The key is to always leave room on the canvas — to never consider it complete.
Whatever the case, I value it all equally.
A Reflection for Coaches
For coaches, the process of building a comprehensive vision of their sport, competition and training is always provisional. It has no endpoint in terms of quantity or quality, as believing otherwise would signify stagnation.
Thus, these brief brushstrokes are merely an invitation to reflect, interpret, and keep painting. In the end, true art lies not in the perfection of the finished piece but in the act of giving meaning to every stroke that appears on our lives.
The next brushstroke will explore coaches, knowledge and mastery.
