The Blog

Certainty and confidence are over-rated and the enemies of creativity. I take some flak for asserting this, but I stand by that assertion.

Here's the deal. Creativity is about change. Creativity is about innovation. Creativity is about risk. Creativity is an act of faith driven by an impulse that t...

I can't remember which book Seth Godin references cruft, but the metaphor is compelling,

Cruft Hall is a building on the campus of Harvard University that housed the Physics Department's radar lab during World War II. As late as the early 1990s, unused technical equipment could be seen stacked in f...

"Lead someone to the truth and you will find that they can follow." - Epictetus

Lead or follow? It's actually not an either/or choice. We can do one or the other in various roles and circumstances or we can do both simultaneously. The essential thing is to do so with a clear motivation, intention, ...

“Look inward. Don’t let the true nature or value of anything elude you.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.3

Appreciate or value? Creatives really wrestle with the distinction. So do thoughtful members of their audience.

There are several ways to express appreciation for worthwhile endeavors. Clapp...

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden

You and I are wired differently and we each have unique experiences. But you and I share the capacity for reason, a creative impulse, and a social instinct. What...

“Have I done something for the common good? Then I share in the benefits. To stay centered on that. Not to give up.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.4

The bookstore has a Self-Help section, but not a Help-Others section.

Why?

Humans are inherently social and collaborative beings. There's an e...

How to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

Wicked Conversations tackle Wicked Problems and help lead to Wicked Results.

The use of "Wicked" indicates challenging, interesting, and worth it, not evil or done with malicious intent.

What’s Are Wicked Conversations For?

Wicked Conversations provides...

I listened to a podcast a few days ago during my cemetery run that featured Sam Harris and Dan Dennet arguing about free will. It was an interesting but ultimately fruitless, exchange.

Are you the master of our destiny or is your life fated?

The answer is unknowable and even if it was, knowing wou...

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.” - Viktor Frankl

Work worth doing, concepts worth pondering, talents worth cultivating. These require a desire to embrace challenges and uncertainty with curiosity and courage.

T...

Do you spend more time than is healthy focusing on outcomes that are beyond your control? I know I do! Attachment to results that are beyond your determination is not just unhealthy, it's a path to suffering.

In any moment all you really control is how you frame things and what you do next. Whateve...

A 3-Minute Read About Reframing Your Response to Fear So You Can Fly Higher in the Difference Only You Can Make!

The Predicament

What do you fear most in the work you do? Is it failure, inadequacy, irrelevance, obscurity, poverty? Perhaps it's "all the above."

Your work is fraught with challenges...

Your life, your work, your year. When you look back at each of these, you can lose sight that they are built from months, days, hours, and minutes.

But it’s in each moment that you have an opportunity to start, or try, or test.

Each juncture provides an opportunity to face obstacles, misfortunes, ...