Most Sundays I comment on The New York Times’ Sunday Magazine column The Ethicist. This week looks like they have a special issue without it. Normally I comment on one from their archives, but today I’m so caught up in a couple videos I watched, and I believe I have a fair number of educators who question the system, that I’d love to learn if people can give me background[…] Keep reading →

Have you put everything you had into something? Have you tried as hard as you possibly could? Have you run until you dropped? Skied as fast as you possibly could, risking injury? Decided to lift a weight you couldn’t conceive of lifting and done it? Have you run sprints in the rain, alone? Have you put your name and reputation on the line for all time? Have you said no[…] Keep reading →

Any performance-based skill development follows a similar pattern. I’ll describe it for playing guitar, but it follows for leading, acting, sports, any other musical instrument, singing, etc. The instrument: First you have to learn the instrument. If you don’t know its parts and how it’s assembled, you can’t do anything with it. Your skill: Next you have to learn how to move your fingers. You can’t play music until you[…] Keep reading →

The more I work with leaders and leadership, the more I distinguish between The skills to lead and The authority to coerce people to comply The more I look at concentrations of authority—mainly titled positions in corporations and government—the more I see people interested in the second who aren’t interested in the first. I used to think the main purpose of the Constitution was to describe how to run the[…] Keep reading →

I’m not sure how to resolve this, or if anyone can. Some people enjoy fighting, even war. The more freedom you give people, the more freedom they have to promote fighting, which seems to decrease peace. Some say things like “Your freedom ends where mine begins,” suggesting that laws regulate behavior that affects others. Still, belligerent people can democratically influence the law to allow more fighting. And wars involve people[…] Keep reading →

I first noticed it in the last semester of business school when most students were complaining about having to choose between job offers. All the offers more than met their standards. Dwelling in their decisions instead of choosing and living their lives made them miserable instead of enjoying themselves. What made them miserable wasn’t that they had multiple offers—that is, the problem didn’t come from outside. The problem was their[…] Keep reading →

Why do I talk about my daily habits so much? I was talking to a friend yesterday about them. She told me she didn’t get to exercise as much as she’d like, especially in busy times, and asked how I found time to exercise and write every day. I asked how she got anything done without a daily routine. A daily routine gives you and your day structure. Losing that[…] Keep reading →

Following up yesterday’s post’s exercise for how to speak authentically, I wanted to give a couple more examples illustrating mastery of speaking authentically. People who speak authentically can say things others can’t, meaning they have more freedom. We respect them not for their technical mastery of some craft but that they speak without that. A great master today is Charles Barkley, whom I wrote about the other day. He’s famous[…] Keep reading →

You have opinions about race, sex, homosexuality, class, politics, and other controversial topics. You probably only talk about them with people closest to you. Most of us won’t touch them with a ten-foot pole, knowing how one public statement can destroy a life. We believe we don’t have that freedom. If you don’t believe you have it, you can’t do it. How about talking about them to the media for[…] Keep reading →