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 […]
Design thinking for the self
As you can probably tell from recent posts on gratitude, generosity, and choosing action, I have been thinking a lot about the kind of person I want to be recently. This is partly inspired by me co-leading a session at Up to All of Us on how to change the world by first changing yourself. […]
Being generous
Following up on my post on practicing gratitude, another practice I’ve been working on is being generous, both to others and to myself. Like with gratitude, part of the reason I want to work on this practice is to change how I see the world. When we are confronted with somebody who is arguing with […]
Whistling Vivaldi, by Claude M. Steele
Amazon link Subtitled “How stereotypes affect us and what we can do”, this is one of the most powerful books I’ve read in a while. Diversity issues are everywhere these days, and they seem hopeless to overcome – when looking at a problem like why so few women are in technology, people argue about whether […]
Practicing gratitude
Continuing along the line of this self-improvement post and inspired by reading Brene Brown’s books, I’ve been thinking a lot about the practice of gratitude recently. Brown points out that gratitude is not an attitude, but a behavior that we have to practice on a regular basis. Gratitude is the act of taking the time […]
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
Amazon link This book had been making the rounds last year, and everybody who had read it recommended it (including Bill Gates), so I was happy to finally get it from the library. Subtitled A Brief History of Humankind, Sapiens traces the rise of humans from prehistoric hunter gatherers to world-dominating titans. What I like […]
Choose Action over Identity
I have just returned from the Overlap retreat and am, as always, buzzing with ideas and energy as a result. So I’m going to start writing here once again to document and explore some of those ideas. One powerful distinction that was discussed was the difference between identity (“I am”) and action (“I do”). This […]
Reflecting on the Talia Jane brouhaha
I’m summarizing my comments from various social media threads on Talia Jane’s letter to the Yelp CEO and the responses like this one, and reposting them here for later findability. I have complicated feelings about this letter, given that I have been that ranting employee – not doing it publicly (even back when my blog […]
Be the change
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Meditations by Marcus Aurelius I have been thinking about personal responsibility, and the idea of starting change with oneself. This is continuing the thinking of my recent post about updating our mental software. Some background: I started […]
2015 Year in Review
After 2013 was the Year of Yes and 2014 was the Year of More, the theme of 2015 was Pushing the Limits. 2015 was about a combination of great physical exertion but also deep introspection, and I’m in a pretty happy spot as I enter 2016. Sports: Let’s start with the most obvious focus of […]
