If you’re here for leadership, especially personal leadership, you’re going to hear about one of the most important things that you can do to improve. What Joel and I talked about, this is how you develop skills that people think that you can’t learn. Things like integrity, discipline, resilience and it’s going to come from a place where most people don’t expect to hear the stuff. Cold showers. Cold showers[…] Keep reading →

David Biello is one of the few people I’ve met who understands the environmental issues and he’s not complaining, he’s not talking doom and gloom, but he takes a simple but responsible perspective. Not to say that the solutions are simple. He’s very sober about that. He wrote a book called, this is how I met him, he wrote a book called The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicists, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on others, here is my take on today’s post, “Must a Quaker School Care for Its Neighbors?” A wealthy private school that espouses Quaker values is buying property contiguous to its main campus. On that land is a hospice center and home for Medicaid recipients;[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicist, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on others, here is a take on today’s post, “D-List Doppelgänger.” I share a highly uncommon name with a very minor celebrity who hasn’t worked much in decades. A fan, mistaking me for the celebrity, sent me a note offering praise for his fine work[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series on responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicist, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on them, here is a take on an earlier post,”Is It Wrong to Divulge a Secret to Protect Someone’s Honor?” I’m an expat living in a country where H.I.V./AIDS is a severe taboo. My friend, also an expat, was diagnosed with H.I.V. while living here. She[…] Keep reading →

Pick any great historical figure. We often regard them as unparalleled geniuses the likes of which we may never see again. On the other hand, they were human beings like us. They performed in some areas well beyond average. What if their abilities or traits weren’t once ever but once in a generation? It’s interesting to see what you conclude, as I’ll show. Then we’d expect to see others of[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Who hasn’t had to deal with an annoying coworker? Or boss? Or family member? … someone you couldn’t get away from and had to treat respectfully,[…] Keep reading →