I finished a book the other day I’d been meaning to read for at least a decade — Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, released in 1962. I posted a summary below. I also understood it influenced thought a lot. I had to speak to a few people who were adults when it came out to understand its impact at the time, which they assured me was colossal — a common-sense[…] Keep reading →

When someone gets animated others often describe them as emotional: “John is acting so emotional” “Jane got so emotional when Ryan said …” and things like that. I’d like to suggest an alternative perspective I think you’ll find more precise and useful: Everybody feels emotions all the time. What’s the difference? When someone sits quietly reading, they aren’t acting or feeling unemotional. I suggest the are feeling and acting on[…] Keep reading →

Two days ago a guy named Satya Narayan Goenka died. Who was Goenka and why should I care? First, I’ll mention how I found out about him. I had no experience with meditation when a longtime friend I hadn’t seen in a while suggested I try it. The idea made no sense to me because meditation made no sense to me. I didn’t know or care about it to that[…] Keep reading →

A couple years ago I wrote two posts on the emotional state where you get so lost in an activity you lose track of time, focused with all your attention. Hours pass without your noticing while minutes may seem like hours as you focus intently. We like this state. A researcher named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied it and named the state “flow.” He wrote a book on it that improved my[…] Keep reading →

You don’t have emotional intelligence, you were born with it, or you developed it. If you developed it you started sometime, like I did. If you don’t have it, you can start too. Here’s my start. I don’t pretend I’m the world master of emotional intelligence, but I’ve come a long way and I know anyone else can. I hope sharing the story motivates others. Context Before business school I[…] Keep reading →

Here’s an exercise to see your values from a new perspective. I used to do it all the time until I learned my lesson from it, which I’ll write at the bottom. Answer the question “how would you improve the world if you could have a magical wish come true?” and follow through to see if the change would, in fact, improve your life. To clarify, I mean a supernatural[…] Keep reading →

I wrote before about “Business school’s first major lesson: how to resolve ethical dilemmas.” Today I’ll talk about another important lesson I learned in business school, also within the first couple weeks, also applying in many places in life I would not have expected from a vocational school. Context First I have to note my mindset before starting business school. I considered the most relevant parts of my life that[…] Keep reading →