Amazon link David Epstein interview that compelled me to buy the book What is excellence? Stulberg’s position is that excellence is not merely excelling at an activity, but a biological imperative. As he writes in the introduction: We have an innate drive for progress and growth. It’s why we feel so alive when we channel […]
Category: selfdesign
Relaxing into the unconscious mind
I learned a startling fact 30 years ago when I was reading The User Illusion, by Tor Norretranders, that consciousness is limited to processing about 20 bits/second (here’s my summary from that 1995 read). And yet we perceive about 12 million bits/second from our senses (10 million from our vision alone). How could we possibly […]
Align your learning with your body
My main insight from 2025 was about how my body enabled (and sometimes limited) my learning and growth in every area of my life. A silly example is learning rope flow. I was intrigued when Nsima Inyang described a technique called rope flow on the Tim Ferriss podcast (here’s an example video of him demonstrating […]
The Compass Within, by Robert Glazer
Amazon link Subtitled “A Little Story About the Values That Guide Us”, this is a short parable of a young professional at a career crossroads who discovers his core values through a mentor guiding him through the process. By aligning his work and community with his values, he becomes more energized and impactful. I’ve heard […]
Becoming more trauma-aware
My professional development investment for 2024 was completing the Trauma-Informed Coaching Certification program (TICC) with Thomas Hübl and Amy Elizabeth Fox, after hearing both of them multiple times on the Coaches Rising podcast. While I was familiar with many of the concepts shared in the program (Immunity to Change, Internal Family Systems (covered in chapter […]
Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity, by David Bessis
Amazon link I wish I could remember who linked to David Bessis’s Twitter thread explaining that we teach math wrong, as that thread and this one on why math talent isn’t primarily driven by genetics convinced me to buy his book, which was a delight to read. Bessis believes that the way we talk about […]
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, by Dr. Peter Attia
Amazon link I’ve had several friends recommend Attia’s book to me over the past year as a way to live a longer and more healthy life, so I recently read it as part of my 50th birthday activities. Attia’s main premise is that current medical practices are about delaying death, figuring out how to keep […]
Reflections from an aspiring elder
I turned 50 this week, which has prompted lots of thoughts and reflections. I won’t offer 100+ pieces of advice like Kevin Kelly or 50 thoughts like this guy, and I don’t know if I qualify as what Chip Conley calls a modern elder, but I did want to share a few principles that have […]
The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks
Amazon link I had heard of the work of Gay and Katie Hendricks, including Gay’s idea of the Zone of Genius (as opposed to the Zones of Excellence or Competence that most of us spend our lives in) or Katie’s idea of integrity as energetic wholeness ((which I heard described by Jim Dethmer). So when […]
Becoming artists in a post-AI world
I have had a couple conversations about AI this week where my perspective was surprising to others, so I wanted to more broadly share my thoughts to seed more possibilities about the future impact of AI. A few articles that prompted these conversations: (Aside: In originally editing this post, I realized the articles below are […]
