Hearing Dr. King talk about injustice anywhere being a threat to justice anywhere, I couldn’t help but notice how he polarized people too. The content is different, but the structure sounds like the “You’re either with us or against us” I heard from a U.S. President ten years ago. It tells people they aren’t safe, no matter where they are. If you read this page regularly, you know I don’t[…] Keep reading →

I don’t celebrate all major holidays, but I celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Every year I take time to do something special for the day. Usually I do something to honor his memory and achievements or learn more history. This year I have two things. First, a friend told me that WNYC just released four in-depth interviews of him. Each is about thirty minutes, so I got to listen[…] Keep reading →

I try not to get too into television shows, but my roommates here in Shanghai are into Breaking Bad, a many-award-winning cable TV show, leading me to seeing most of season three, which they have on dvd. In the middle of watching, Lance Armstrong confessed to cheating. I couldn’t help but notice in both cases His story began with a modestly successful man getting cancer Which he overcame To a[…] Keep reading →

The other day I saw a post for a headline that caught my eye “On Scale of 0 to 500, Beijing’s Air Quality Tops ‘Crazy Bad’ at 755” because I was just in Beijing. I remember early one evening looking up in the sky and seeing a low flying airplane. Actually, I only saw its lights in the smog. I got confused looking at it because it looked close, so[…] Keep reading →

If you work at an office and eat lunch in the middle of the day, what is the relationship between working and eating for you? Do you take a break to eat? Do you eat alone or with others? Do you eat while you work? The way I think of it is to ask Are you there to work and eating is a distraction? or Is eating one of life’s[…] Keep reading →

I am helping organize a talk by my former Professor and leadership guru Michael Feiner February 19, 6-8pm in Manhattan. I’m helping organize it with the Distinguished Leaders Committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York (you don’t have to be a member to attend). Plans may change, but I think I’m going to introduce him. I’ll copy the announcement below (here is a link to the[…] Keep reading →

EDIT: this event is sold out. There is a good chance I’ll offer it again in March. Please email me if you would like to be contacted about it. Are you reading this from Shanghai or nearby? Then you probably like leadership, want to improve, and can attend my next seminar, brought to you by Columbia University’s Alumni Association in Shanghai. Columbia Alumni Association in Shanghai proudly invites you to our[…] Keep reading →

Following up yesterday’s post, when I talk to people about something they judge, like torture, the topic that motivated yesterday’s post, some of them point out that once you decide something is torture or right or wrong, you can do something about it. People like labeling things because labels mean so much. If you don’t call a behavior torture, they think, people don’t know what it means. Once you call[…] Keep reading →

I just watched Zero Dark Thirty and read a bunch of stuff about torture. People often ask about morality and ethics — is such an action right or wrong, good or bad. Asking the morality of actions and behavior doesn’t change them. I don’t see categorizing, judging, and  labeling things helping. Calling something good, bad, right, wrong, etc does no more than label them (tomorrow I’ll write more on why[…] Keep reading →