Feb 16, 2021You Don’t Have to Do it AloneYou Don’t Have to Do it Alone This is a reprint from Talentism’s weekly newsletter, The Sensemaker. If you like this and want more — sign up for Talentism’s weekly newsletter here: https://talentism.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f2343ed5d41d3476f4912ce6e&id=b3ec4e3402 When I have bad days (an unfortunately more frequent occurrence during COVID-19), the causes may be different…Leadership9 min read
Oct 7, 2020Confusion and Clarity in the Era of Exponential InformationConfusion and Clarity in the Era of Exponential Information If you like this and want more — sign up for Talentism’s weekly newsletter here: https://talentism.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f2343ed5d41d3476f4912ce6e&id=b3ec4e3402 While it’s a nearly unbearable cliche to talk about how we live in an “information age,” I believe success as a leader or manager requires…Big Data10 min read
Aug 28, 2019The Defining 21st Century Conflict: Place v Movement (part 1)One of the highlights of my time in Italy so far has been taking my wife’s grandmother to the cemetery for the morning. She went around carefully cleaning the family tombs and engaging in lengthy, albeit one sided conversations with their occupants, asking them to pray for this person, help…Death2 min read
Apr 14, 2019Storyblind: Civil Rights v the Cold WarOne of the quirks of how we think that makes it difficult for us to navigate a changing world is a tendency to get “story blind.” There’s much more going on in the world than our overmatched brains could ever hope to make sense of. We need stories to organize…Politics3 min read
Dec 21, 2018How to grow (in two sentences)The line between emotions and rational thinking is far blurrier than most believe. The goals and blind spots of our supposedly rational thinking are deeply rooted in our emotional commitments (and their physiological impact), and our emotions are shaped in turn by the stories we tell ourselves. When the emotional satisfaction we derive from seeing what’s true becomes greater than the pain of letting go of our prior conceptions of ourselves and our circumstances, we supercharge our ability to grow, and thus thrive.Self Improvement1 min read
Dec 21, 2018Complex v Complicated Problems (and how to deal with each)Yuval Noah Harari recently wrote an article about the likely speed of change over the next 50 years, and how utterly unprepared our educational, political and occupational institutions are to handle it. …Future4 min read
Dec 21, 2018Breadcrumbs for the OverwhelmedFor the people in my world struggling with purposelessness / existential fear / general overwhelm: It can be better. Better consists of following those half-glimpsed threads of what you actually love, every day. That you cannot now see the pattern they make woven together in the end is actually a gift, as much as it feels like the problem.1 min read
Dec 21, 2018Dealing with the vol of the volHad a good conversation tonight with three brilliant friends that ended with what I think was its foundational topic, a shared, visceral sense of deep uncertainty about the future. A sense of high stakes, in a genuine gambling sense, that things can go a lot of different ways. …Uncertainty4 min read
Dec 21, 2018Reflections on the unfulfilled instincts of a little dogBastian (my little dog) has this adorable / sad behavior pattern where he’ll go and get his favorite toy (it was his very first) and then walk around the house with it, crying. You can try to play with him, throw another toy, it doesn’t matter, he’s going to be…Poetry2 min read
Jul 4, 2018Reflections on the American ExperimentThe American idea has been both so successful and so broadly propagandized that it can be hard to see it as it actually is. If you were to tell someone, in the 1700s, that a ragtag group of bickering, mostly starving colonists, organized into a patchwork of states, would make…Politics2 min read