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 […]
Category: stories
Tips for job seekers to stand out and get hired
I’ve shared the same advice with several job seekers recently, pulling together a number of LinkedIn posts to provide my thoughts on job hunting, so I am publishing those thoughts more broadly in case it’s helpful to you or somebody you know. The main principle I offer is that people don’t hire you because you […]
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
Amazon link This book is Frankl’s account of surviving the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, as told from his perspective as a psychiatrist. He readily admits that the conditions were so brutal that every ounce of energy had to be put into survival to even have a chance. He gives the example of earning a […]
Gratitude or Greed?
Last week, I went on a week-long bikepacking tour along the Lost Coast in Humboldt County (pictures here for those interested). For three of those days, we biked along desolate dirt and gravel roads through nearly untouched nature, camping at primitive campsites with no running water (we purified the water from creeks like the picture) […]
Purpose and meaning
I’ve been having several conversations recently about purpose and meaning, so I thought it was time for me to write a blog post to try to sort out my own fuzzy thoughts on the subject. What does it mean to have a purpose? Do we all have to have a purpose? Do people with a […]
Thinking like a Futurist with Jane McGonigal
[n.b. I added a MailChimp subscription link to the sidebar if you want to get email notifications of posts rather than depending on RSS, Facebook or Twitter to see when I update] I’ve been a fan of Jane McGonigal for a decade, after being introduced to her via her Cruel 2 B Kind game in […]
Choosing Utility over Truth
I have previously discussed on this blog my skepticism about the existence of a single Truth. I’ve been reminded of that in several recent conversations, so I thought I’d revisit that idea again. The most recent example was a conversation on Facebook where a friend linked to a debunking of learning styles, showing that students […]
Pros and cons of thinking systemically
One of the challenges I have in trying to figure out how to effect change (as discussed in my last post) is that I can’t figure out where to start. And part of the reason for that is that I tend to have a systemic top-level way of thinking about situations. So I see these […]
Utopian Entrepreneur, by Brenda Laurel
Amazon link A few weeks ago, somebody on Facebook linked to this great long interview with Brenda Laurel who is one of the original interaction designers, developing game designs based on user research. A representative quote from the interview, of her experience teaching game designers now: once [these game designers] talk to real people about […]
One step at a time
I was helping an entrepreneur friend with his investor pitch last week, and something was bugging me – the pitch didn’t feel right, even though I think the idea is good. He is passionate about how to run a company, so he was describing his philosophy of management in the pitch. And I realized that […]
