Interests

(* = retired interest)

Acroyoga

While living in New Zealand in 2019 I immersed myself in acroyoga through a local group with regular classes and “jams.” Major credit to my Spanish friend Elena, who rapidly trained me in the basics.

Elena does something fancy while I just sit there, 2019
the humble origins – flying w/ Ani, 2017

Alternative education

A few books that started my journey:

A few books that I frequently recommend:

Interesting questions about education I’ve attempted to answer:

Q: Why has dissatisfaction with public schools been the norm since their inception?

See: Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?, What Does it Mean to Be Educated?

Q: What other paths can a young person take if they hate school? And later, what options do they have for rejoining the “normal” worlds of college and career?

See: College Without High School, Stop Wasting Your Time in High School, Blake Boles on Quitting High School, Can Unschoolers Get into College?, Antonio Buehler on Competitive College Admissions for Non-Traditional Students, and Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?

Q: What if college doesn’t seem like a good fit for you (now, at least), but everyone is telling you that you must go to college in order to be successful?

See: Better Than College, Really Good Reasons to Skip College, Hail the Almighty Diploma, What Could You Do with $20,000?, Maya Landers on Postponing College (Perhaps Forever), T.K. Coleman on the Best Arguments Against College, Sean Ritchey on Learning Through Work Instead of College, William Deresiewicz On Excellent Sheep, and Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?

Q: How do unschoolers (and other highly self-directed learners) turn out as adults?

See: GrownUnschoolers.com, Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?

Q: What empirical research supports self-directed education?

See: Peter Gray on the Evidence for Self-Directed Education, Gina Riley on Self-Determination Theory, and Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?

Q: Lax homeschooling regulation allows unschooling to exist in the United States; it also allows a small number of parents to horribly abuse their children, free from oversight. What’s the proper way to address this tension?

See: Jim Dwyer on Homeschooling Philosophy, Law, and Regulation, Elizabeth Bartholet And Rachel Coleman On Homeschooling’s Potential For Abuse, and Pat Farenga on the Post-Pandemic Future of Homeschooling (Part 2) + the Harvard Homeschool Summit

Q: What options do families outside of North America have for self-directed learning?

See: Martina Geromin on Self-Directed Learning in Europe, Pat and Chandra Montgomery on Clonlara

Q: Is it possible to offer a highly self-directed environment through the public education system?

See: Gabe Cooper on Starting a Public “Unschool”, Catherine Gobron on Promoting Inclusivity in Self-Directed Learning, Kate Friedman on Promoting Self-Direction in Public Education,  Wes Beach on Building a One-Man High School, and Joel Hammon on Quitting Teaching

Q: How do you stay motivated as an unschooler / self-directed learner without teachers or parents breathing down your neck?

See: The Art of Self-Directed Learning, Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?, How to Be a Badass Teen Homeschooler, Give Kids Control, Ned Johnson on The Self-Driven Child, Nathen Lester on the Challenges of Total Freedom, Who Should Unschool and Who Shouldn’t? A Conversation with Liam Nilsen, Dev Carey on the Perils of Goal-Setting, Launchpad, and Self-Directed Learning 101

Q: How much of what we consider “parenting” is caused by purposeful parental molding, how much is a by-product of genetics, and how much is due to peer groups and culture?

See: Naomi Fisher on Whether Parents Matter, You Can’t Ruin Your Kids, and Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?

Q: How do the modern varieties of “free schools” and “self-directed learning centers” differ and overlap?

See: Agile Learning Centers, Liberated Learners, and Sudbury Schools: What’s the Difference?, Matthew Gioia on Sudbury Ideals vs. Reality, Alexander Khost on Education as a Political Act, Ken Danford on Liberated Learners, and Tomis Parker And Nancy Tilton On Agile Learning Centers

Q: How can the different players in the alternative education movement find common ground?

See: Blake Boles on the Future of Alternative Education

Argentine tango

My love affair with tango began in Buenos Aires in 2008 when my very first Unschool Adventures group took two weeks of private lessons with Alicia Pons, a world-class tango instructor and performer recommended to me by Grace Llewellyn. Following that trip I moved to Portland, Oregon, and immersed myself in the tango scene, learning mostly from Rob Hauk. (Here is a video of Alicia & Rob dancing at Rob’s studio, Tango Berretin.) I also joined Portland milongas (social tango dances) and one high-level tango festival, all of which were way over my head.

More Unschool Adventures trips gave me more excuses to learn tango—South America 2011, Argentina 2012—with more lessons from Alicia and other instructors. But the real boost came from a 2014 UA trip totally dedicated to learning tango in Buenos Aires. My group worked with a new instructor who I discovered online, Alejandro Puerta, who was an absolute gem.

In 2016 I returned to Buenos Aires solo, flying there directly from New Zealand after a 2016 UA program, and took five weeks of private lessons with Alejandro. My friend Zoe Vlastos joined me for much of this time, and I strongarmed myself (with a $500 Stickk commitment) to go out to milongas six nights a week.

Fresh from Buenos Aires, I participated in the 2016 BurningTango festival, and in 2017 I took more private lessons with Alejandro while running the UA Argentina Semester. Many of the young adults on that program worked with him too. Later that year I led a beginner’s tango project at Not Back to School Camp.

While living in Wanaka, New Zealand, in 2019, I enjoyed four lovely months of low-key social dancing at Sousa Jefferson‘s house. We even got filmed!

In The Art of Self-Directed Learning I wrote about the connection between tango and self-directed learning, including entertaining glimpses of my first lessons with Alicia; here’s the chapter.

Dancing with Karen at Not Back to School Camp, 2017
Dancing with Zoe in Buenos Aires, 2016
Performing at a retirement home in New Zealand with Sousa, 2019

Astrophysics*

I was an astrophysics major for my first two years of college at UC Berkeley. Absolutely fascinating, but not something I wanted to pursue as a Ph.D.. Then I discovered alternative education, and there was no turning back.

Attachment theory

Relationship dynamics are fascinating. Here’s a pattern I’ve often found myself in… guess which attachment style I am!

Backpacking

Lots more on the adventures page. A few important milestones:

Finding bliss on one of my first self-organized backpacking trips, Desolation Wilderness, 2002

Bike travel

Always curious but hesitant to invest the $$, my first big bike trip was cancelled by the pandemic. Then I discovered cycling touring in Europe, and I was permanently hooked.

All my tours:

Guess where

Buddhism

  • A comparative religion class in community college kindled the fire (2000).
  • Reading The Dharma Bums created a blaze. (2001)
  • Be Here Now, D.T. Suzuki, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Alan Watts stoked it (2003).
  • Much later (2014), a Tibetan Buddhism retreat at Kopan Monastery sucked some oxygen out of the room.
  • And the Vipassana retreat (2019) took it down to embers.

Cooking

Evidence #1 (2009)
Evidence #2 (2003)

Couchsurfing

See here.

Economics

A few of my influences: Russ Roberts’ podcast EconTalk, Deirdre McCloskey, Thomas Sowell, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy.

Environmentalism

A few key moments:

  • Reading Fast Food Nation, becoming vegetarian (for the next 10 years)
  • Stumbling upon Cadillac Desert (see: Water in the West, below)
  • Reading the pessimists:
    • Derrick Jensen (A Language Older Than Words)
    • Daniel Quinn (Ishmael series)
  • Reading the optimists:

Frisbee

A long-time love: inspired by my dad, developed in college, honed ever since.

Playing around in New Zealand, 2013

I even ran a Frisbee project at Not Back to School Camp.

Cross-dressing Ultimate Frisbee @ Not Back to School Camp, 2011

Fusion dance

Tango was the gateway. Then I discovered Fusion.

Fusion weekends where I’ve DJed:

  • Dark Fusion (Krakow, Poland 2022)
  • Fusionizers (Bern, Switzerland 2023)
  • Hot Night Fusion (Denver, Colorado 2023)
  • European Micro Fantasia (Berlin, Germany 2023)
  • Toulouse Fusion Weekend (Toulouse, France 2024)
  • Fusionauts (Berlin, Germany 2024)
  • Fusion & Friends (Pielenhofen, Germany 2024)
  • Monte di Fusion (Busca, Italy 2024)
  • Comfusion (Brussels, Belgium 2024)
  • Dance Blender (Vienna, Austria 2024)
  • Fusionizers (Bern, Switzerland 2025)
  • Toulouse Fusion Weekend (Toulouse, France 2025)
  • Fusion & Friends (Waltershausen, Germany 2025)
  • Creme de la Connection (Pielenhofen, Germany 2025)
  • FusionNest (Busca, Italy 2025)
  • Dark Fusion (Krakow, Poland 2025)
  • Vienna Winter Wiggle (2025)
Dancing fusion in Paris, New Year’s Eve 2017
Fusion dancing in Toulouse, New Year’s Eve 2022  (same t-shirt!) (📸 Katia Iva)
a sticker I created, which ties in nicely with the next interest

History of science

Inspired by a UC Berkeley course of the same name. Utterly fascinating. All-time favorite book: The Making of the Atomic Bomb. But there’s so much more.

Parenting

As I write in Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School (2020):

A few years ago, I told my friend Tessa, a young adult who had previously joined a few of my adventure programs, that I was writing about parenting. She laughed. “Blake, you don’t have kids. Why would anyone listen to you about parenting?” Fair question, Tessa—and perhaps one that passed through your head too, dear reader. Here’s the best answer I can offer. Despite the fact that I’m not yet a dad, I have served as a sort of temporary “crazy uncle” to hundreds of teenagers since 2003 through my work at camps and travel programs. This, I believe, has granted me a detached, birds-eye view of youth that lets me make general observations in a way that parents may struggle to do, considering the natural bias toward one’s own children. John Holt, the father of unschooling, didn’t have any kids himself, but he spent enough time around kids and listened to enough parents to give him an informed opinion on parenting. I’m no John Holt, but I do aspire to follow a similar path—at least until I have a kid of my own.

Titles I adore:

  • David Lancy’s The Anthropology of Childhood
  • Alison Gopnik’s The Gardener and the Carpenter
  • Judith Rich Harris’ The Nurture Assumption
  • Tom Hodgkinson’s The Idle Parent
  • Meghan Daum’s Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids
  • Babies (2010 documentary)
The long-term shift in parenting culture explained in one graphic. credit: David Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood

Personality

I geek out on personality psychology, both empirically validated type and… less so. Here are my types:

  • MBTI: INFP
  • Big Five
    • Agreeableness: Moderately Low
    • Conscientiousness: High
    • Extraversion: Very High
    • Neuroticism: Exceptionally Low
    • Openness to Experience: Moderately High
  • Enneagram: 7 with 8 wing

Ping pong

Inspired by dad, played all over the world.

The prize for best location goes to…

Bernard! (South Lake Tahoe, 2017)

Productivity

I try.

But really, it’s more like this.

Settlers of Catan

So much yes! I even ran a NBTSC project, Settlers of Catan: Theory and Practice.

Defeating my little sister Olivia, a fairly regular occurrence
A postcard I created in NZ: proof of my nerdy love for the game

Sugar

A lifelong “interest” (a.k.a. addiction).

Spoils of trick-or-treating at age 20, Berkeley. #shameless

I’ve tried to quit:

Slacklining

Snowboarding*

  • Middle school infatuation, high school club trips, self-funded college trips
  • CASI Snowboard instructor certification 2002
  • Heavenly marketing research dream job (a.k.a. getting paid to snowboard for an entire season)—pretty much quit after that!
Getting paid to snowboard every day at Heavenly Ski Resort, 2007-8

Swimming

In the swimming hole, NBTSC 2016, photo by Dandy

Trail running

  • Peak experiences:
    • Seven Summits in Desolation Wilderness w/ Hannah (2016)
    • Tuolumne Meadows to Mammoth on the John Muir Trail w/ Hannah (2015)
    • Routeburn & Kepler Track trail runs, New Zealand (2016)
    • Tahoe Rim Trail 55k (2016)
    • Marin Headlands trail marathon (2015)
  • All-time favorites:
    • Cold Creek to Monument Pass (South Lake Tahoe, CA)
    • Kartäuserstraße to Roßkopf (Freiburg, Germany)
    • Shut-in Trail (Asheville, NC)
  • Volunteering at Western States Endurance Run (2015/6)
One of my first epic trail runs, NZ, 2010

Travel

Yeah, yeah. Enjoy some entertaining documentation:

Tree climbing*

Hanging out with Julie in the trees, Guatemala, 2010

Water in the West

After stumbling upon the book Cadillac Desert while in college (and the associated documentary), I developed a deep curiosity and awareness of water issues in the Western USA. Here’s the backstory.

An article I wrote in 2021 after road-tripping the Southwest with water in mind: Developments on the Colorado River: A Crash-Course

Windsurfing

Learned it at Deer Crossing Camp, taught it at Deer Crossing Camp. Haven’t done much since 2010.

Windsurfing at Deer Crossing Camp, 2008.