Monthly Archives: November 2016

If You Don’t Live in the Past, You Never Get Old

on November 30, 2016 in Inc.com

My Inc.com article today, “If You Don’t Live in the Past, You Never Get Old,” began If You Don’t Live in the Past, You Never Get Old If you look backward, you see what you lost. If you look forward, you see opportunity. I recommend looking forward. Mainstream American culture loves youth. It led me for most of my 45 years to expect life to get worse. Instead it’s gotten[…] Keep reading →

Another physicist who transformed a field: W. Edwards Deming

on November 29, 2016 in Education

As a physicist who left and is looking to transform a field (teaching social and emotional skills, which I generally call leadership), I like noticing other physicists who left and ended up transforming fields. The first one to come to mind for me are Erwin Schrödinger, of Schrödinger’s Cat fame, who came up with one of the first equations at the root of quantum physics. Later in life he wrote[…] Keep reading →

Imagine a world with more empathy: Why I write and teach

on November 28, 2016 in Awareness, Perception

My books and courses teach empathy. I used to think of empathy as an intangible, nebulous, even weird concept I couldn’t really understand. Now I view it as a skill anyone can learn as well as they can learn to ride a bike or throw a baseball. Improving your empathy skills improves your ability to lead, all your relationships, and your moods. As a teacher, it’s incredible to see people[…] Keep reading →

Non-judgmental Ethics Sunday: Should Parents Be Expected to Donate to a Public School?

on November 27, 2016 in Ethicist, Nonjudgment, Relationships

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “Should Parents Be Expected to Donate to a Public School?” Our granddaughter is in kindergarten at a highly ranked elementary school: Test scores average in the top 1 percent of the schools in the state. Only 1.2 percent of the students are on a free or low-cost lunch.[…] Keep reading →

Quora Saturday: African leaders, study habits, judging girlfriends, good writers, and anime addiction

on November 26, 2016 in Quora

Continuing my Saturday series on posting my answers to questions from Quora, here are my next questions answered: Why are most African leaders mediocre? How do I develop a habit of studying in noise? How can I leave my girlfriend? I don’t love her anymore but I am afraid that she will hurt herself, she is a really weak girl. Are you a good writer? How do I stop watching[…] Keep reading →

A mistake that made it into my book

on November 25, 2016 in Education, Leadership

As promised in yesterday’s post, “Writing a book is work!,” today I’ll share a problem I found after the deadline to go to press. Actually, I said I’d share more than one, so I’ll follow up with more in later posts. What got in This one is my term ASEEP, an acronym I created to describe fields that are active, social, emotional, expressive, and performance-based, which includes acting, playing musical[…] Keep reading →

Writing a book is work!

on November 24, 2016 in Leadership

I can’t believe how much time and how many steps go into writing a book: Ten or twenty years to develop the ideas enough to have the nerve to put yourself out there to try it Six months to a year to write a book proposal, itself 45 pages Months of talking to editors to solicit bids Months to negotiate a contract Months to write the book Editing Editing More[…] Keep reading →

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