Academia has some serious problems. I give a lot of talks to graduate students on what they can do after graduate school, though the following applies to undergraduates too. Many of them are worried about finding jobs. I grab their attention every time with this question: When I was getting my PhD in physics, I thought the only fields I could go into were academia to become a professor, industry[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I saw yet another of countless articles showing how the U.S. government’s strategy on drugs promotes drug use, crime, government spending that decreases quality of life, etc. You’ve read the article in many formats before. This one’s headline was “Federal Drug Sentencing Laws Bring High Cost, Low Return: Penalty increases enacted in 1980s and 1990s have not reduced drug use or recidivism.” Sound familiar? You probably responded, “Yeah, in[…] Keep reading →

“I’m offended by what you say!” “I’m outraged” People say things like this all the time. People who say things like that write a lot of opinion pieces in the media. I think they’re trying to communicate: “You did something wrong and I have the right to change you.” That’s not what they’re saying, despite their intent. They’re telling you their emotional state. That’s all. To the extent people prefer[…] Keep reading →

Two quotes misunderstand and undervalue people, I contend: “You should get in touch with your masculine side.” “You should get in touch with your feminine side.” People say the first to women mainly, sometimes men, to imply they should learn to act more like mainstream views of men, like learning to fix things around the house, not sweating small things, and enjoying things like pizza and beer. People say the[…] Keep reading →

The college course catalog fascinated me—hundreds of courses in dozens of subjects from amazing teachers. I wanted to take them all! Choosing four or five course from them was wonderful torture. Choosing which to take wasn’t nearly as hard as choosing which not to. I used to think, “I’ll take these two courses … which will set me up for this major … which will set me up for this[…] Keep reading →

If you believe you’ll never make CEO, start a company, lose weight, or any other goal, no matter how much you change your behavior to achieve it, your belief will undermine that behavior. If you’re lucky, you may stumble into an experience that changes your beliefs, which may sustain your behavior, but I wouldn’t count on it. In general, if you change behavior but not the belief that motivated the[…] Keep reading →

When programmers work, the objects they work with tend to be computers. When plumbers work, they tend to work with pipes. Carpenters work with wood. Leaders work with people. People are the objects of leaders’ work. Their tools are conversations—their equivalents of keyboards, wrenches, and saws. Most professions require thought, planning, and writing those plans out—programmers, plumbers, and carpenters included. After they finish planning and writing their plans, they act[…] Keep reading →