Sometimes doing what seems right is counterproductive. When your car skids it seems right to hit the brakes. When you’re on a plane in distress and the oxygen masks drop for everyone to put on, it seems right to place them on your kids first. Both are natural instincts that work completely counter to what…
The other night I was having a drink with two friends who, like me, had spent most of their lives away from home. One of them expressed surprise and some disgust at how he still had those old, familiar, and un-evolved reactions to people who exhibited the same small mindedness and prejudice he experienced as…
The New York Times today ran an article about the famous Encyclopaedia Britanica (EB) going out of print after 244 years. The realities of 21st century information production and consumption made the offline multi-volume editions quaint and immediately out of date. Also, Wikipedia, the eleven year old upstart in the encyclopaedia business made it necessary…
In life it seems that we’re consumed by the need to avoid making mistakes. We indoctrinate our kids in a right way of doing things, and a wrong way. Kids learn quickly that love and approval comes from getting things right, and that ridicule and separation comes from making mistakes. Mistakes as the means to show superiority The focus…
In the movie Antwone Fisher, the main character is on track to get kicked out of the Navy for belligerence and disrespect for authority when the Navy shrink (Denzel Washington) steps in. Turns out Antwone’s (Derek Luke) father was killed before he was born and his mother never claimed him. Growing up in the care…
There’s a helluva difference between the idea of a romantic relationship and the reality of it, and there’s a helluva difference between the idea of your dream job, career, business and the reality of achieving/living it. They go through similar stages. The dream relationship overview At the beginning of a romantic relationship we dream about “the one,” and the…
How many people do you know that are truly passionate about what they do? Probably not many. I know I hadn’t met anyone truly passionate about their work until I was in my late twenties, and when I did I remember being completely blown away by the very concept of being passionate about your work….