The New Yorker published a piece, “The Fairness Trap,” echoing the issues I wrote on yesterday in the context of the U.S. foreclosure and Greek economic crises. In both cases, people’s desire to punish people conflicted with clearly better economic solutions, according to the author. He talks about fairness, basically the same concept as justice — reacting to emotions like outrage, indignation, and self-righteousness over agreeing on criteria to evaluate[…] Keep reading →

I’m going to present an over-simplified case related to issues many of us face in much smaller contexts. The goal is to learn from simple hypothetical cases to build experience for more complex, real-life cases. Normally I separate my North Korea posts from leadership ones, but they overlap here, along with my being in China now. One of the greater challenges the world faces is how to bring some kind[…] Keep reading →

Savvy readers will notice the conference mentioned in the title covers two big topics of this blog — leadership and art. I’ve twice spoken at Leaders in Software and Art events, helped host another, and attended many others (a video of my work is currently on the LISA site’s front page). The organizer, Isabel Draves, has been building the events, consistently assembling artists and technologists to speak, network, and share[…] Keep reading →

Here are my Columbia Business School application essays, to complete the series on getting into business school in 23 days. I edited them slightly, mainly to take out personal details. In the optional essay 5, I can see I was blatantly name-dropping Columbia Business School Professors and my experience at the school. I think I could have used more subtlety. My graduate school stipend — what I lived on in[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I posted about the process I stumbled into for getting into an Ivy League business school in 23 days. How to read this post Today I’ll talk about the credentials that made it possible. But please recognize, the point of these posts is not merely to show you how to get into business school, but to show you that you can combine whatever you have in your past into[…] Keep reading →

On December 10, 2004 I decided to apply to business school. I had written no essays, taken no GMAT, reviewed no school’s web site or application process, and asked no one for a recommendation. On January 2, 2005, 23 days later, I began orientation at Columbia Business School (ranked #5 by Forbes, Economist, and Financial Times). I got my MBA the following May, less than eighteen months from deciding to[…] Keep reading →

I wanted to comment on a quote in yesterday’s post about becoming a superstar that illustrates an aspect important for the aspiring star — you. And, again, superstardom can mean breakout success in any area — starting a company, making CEO, being a superstar boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse, etc. A musician I quoted yesterday commented that American Idol’s shooting-the-moon style isn’t really about music. It’s about all the bad aspects[…] Keep reading →