Let’s look at two former Harvard students from now and nearly two centuries ago. 176 years ago Henry Thoreau finished Harvard in 1837, one of its best-known students of his age. Let’s look at him before looking at this generation’s most prominent Harvard student. Thoreau wrote Walden, his treatise on living simply, escaping petty human affairs and gossip, appreciating nature, self-reliance, and such. He lived for two years mostly on[…] Keep reading →

I grew up in an environment that took the concept of sins for granted. People called certain behaviors wrong by labeling them as “sins.” As a kid I never considered the sources of the classification or even if they corresponded to anything other than opinion. As a result, accepting someone calling a behavior as a sin seemed as natural as them saying something was green or wet or upside-down. As[…] Keep reading →

At an outdoor concert July 4 I noticed something that, when I said it, sounded like a meaningful life lesson worth sharing here. The VIP section for some reason had fewer port-a-pods per person than the rest of the venue so they kept having long lines. Also, my friends and I were mostly staying in the tent area with the bar to stay out of the hot sun and walking[…] Keep reading →

I walked outside my building and saw one of the most complete and beautiful rainbows I’ve ever seen, over the Jefferson Market clock tower. The camera in my phone didn’t capture its full beauty, but I hope you can tell some of it. It was too big for my camera to capture it all at once. You can see it fading in the few minutes I watched it so I[…] Keep reading →

We’ve all had to deal with difficult team members. Those who have led have had to deal with difficult people reporting to us. Most of us have had to deal with difficult managers and bosses. We’ve also had to deal with difficult people in general. When someone makes our jobs and lives difficult we want to influence them to stop challenging us and start helping us, or at least getting[…] Keep reading →

I write a lot here about how counterproductive judging others or imposing your values on them is for leadership or influencing them. (Here are five posts on it, for example: Instead of calling something right, wrong, good, or bad, consider the consequences of your actions, What is morality?, On the counterproductivity of motivating people with guilt and blame — aka moralizing, Talking about “truth” or “reality” always confuses things, How[…] Keep reading →

New York City is enjoying some beautiful weather today. My building has a nice rooftop and had some friends over to enjoy the weather and view yesterday. I think people come here for the leadership thoughts… sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy the day. A few related thoughts I’ve posted before I clicked on to look at myself. A Beautiful Spring Day in My Neighborhood (with slide show!)[…] Keep reading →