I Want to Commit to the Ethical Act of Telling New Stories | Benjamin Freud, Ph.D. | 9 Min Read

October 23, 2023

I sometimes wonder whether reading is the cause of my insomnia. Reading is often what people do to help them fall asleep, but in my case, it wakes me up. I can’t remember the last time I slept past 5:15. That feels luxurious. Getting out of bed at 4:30 feels normal—but it’s not by most standards—and even though I can’t go back to sleep, I still need that pot of coffee first thing to cope. 

I think I wake up because I feel I need to get reading before it all starts. At 4:30, the house is quiet. Everyone is asleep, including the cats. I can just sit and read, undisturbed. I have time to myself. For an introvert in a job that requires constant human interactions, sitting with myself might be more refreshing than eight hours of sleep. Sometimes, I wish I had both.

I read about all sorts of things, mostly geeky nonfiction and nerdy novels (not enough novels). Reading exposes me to ideas, but I can seldom remember who said what, or even what those ideas were specifically. Maybe sometimes I remember enough of a quote to be able to look up the…

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Benjamin Freud, Ph.D.

Benjamin Freud, Ph.D. is the co-founder of Coconut Thinking, an advisory that supports schools and learning organizations to co-create, co-develop, co-stress test, and co-implement ideas that nurture the conditions for emergent learning. Benjamin is also the Head of Upper School at Green School, Bali. He was previously the Whole School Leader of Learning and Teaching at Prem Tinsulanonda International School in Thailand. He was the Academic Coordinator at Misk Schools, one of the most prestigious and high-profile school in the kingdom. In 2018-2019, he was also the Head of Upper Primary and Middle School at Misk. Prior to this, he was Vice-Principal of the Middle School and High School at the Harbour School in Hong Kong. He holds a Ph.D. in History, an MSc in Education, an MBA, an MA in International Relations, and a BA in International Affairs. Benjamin was born and grew up in Paris, France. He moved to the U.S. when he was 15 and spent 11 years there in different cities before living in the U.K., Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and now Bali, Indonesia. He started his career in consulting for Internet start-ups in Silicon Valley in the late 1990s, working with people whose ambitions were no less than to change the world. This experience had a profound effect on Benjamin's outlook on education, innovation, and entrepreneurship.