Here is a mental exercise I like and find effective in learning to empathize and understand people better. It costs nothing and requires no preparation, but it can be personally challenging, but it develops you as a person. The exercise is to see how diverse behavior in others you can explain without relying on saying someone else has different motivations than you do. The more you can explain their behavior,[…] Keep reading →

I’ll build on yesterday’s post on changing your perspective to make it easier to change your perspective with a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while. Airports around the world are full of an ad campaign that provide another great exercise in enabling changing your perspective. Flexibility in changing your perspective is one of the most important tools in changing your world, creating freedom for yourself, and in[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I posted on making four-year-olds sing that they love something, accepting it was probably a tempest in a teacup. I also noted similar incidents may contribute to reinforcing what seems to me telling children what to think and feel. The incident reminded me of Woodie Guthrie‘s writing “This Land Is Your Land” as a response to hearing “God Bless America” over and over in the late 30s, implying these[…] Keep reading →

At my niece’s kindergarten graduation Friday the entire graduating class of four-and-five-year-olds sang a song with a chorus “I love America.” The song was light-hearted and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. As a thoughtful person, I couldn’t help think about what having a whole class sing the song meant. I enjoy playing with ideas and what better time to ponder education than at a graduation? I’ll be the first to[…] Keep reading →

People confuse someone else’s values being different from their own with being worse than their own. If other people’s values were worse, then statements like the following two would portend the end of society. The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no[…] Keep reading →

Thanks to all who attended this weekend’s leadership and personal development seminar through Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York and Parsons the New School of Design. Thanks also to those who made it possible.

This post on doing things you love even if you’re not good at it prompted discussion — or at least people asking me about doing things that feel scary or are hard. For most people, the challenges are internal. Most people aren’t risking health and safety doing something like climbing Everest — they’re thinking of trying out for that senior position, singing karaoke, going to a gym for the first[…] Keep reading →