THIS.

Narcissus, despite the linguistic bait-and-switch, isn’t really a story about vanity. The name Narcissus actually shares its root with the Greek narkē , which is where we get narcosis , aka, numbness. In ancient usage, it referred to the kind of paralysis induced by a drug or a shock, like the feeling of being frozen in place. Seen this way,... See more

Find some topic you care about. Just one. Resist the temptation to have takes on everything else. Let the discourse rage without you while you spend weeks or months actually understanding something. Read books about it, not takes. Talk to experts, not pundits. Follow the evidence where it leads, even when it's uncomfortable. Change your mind when... See more

The problem is that metrics are seductive. Once something is being ranked, it becomes almost impossible to get that ranking out of your head. Over time, this can lead to what C. Thi Nguyen calls “value capture.” In “The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game,” Nguyen writes that “value capture occurs when you get your values from some... See more

“The authentic and pure values — truth, beauty and goodness — in the activity of a human being are the result of one and the same act, a certain application of the full attention to the object.”

Does it need to be said? We are not machines. Our lives are not data problems that can be quantitatively optimized. And the actual human ability to attend is something much more expansive and much more beautiful than a tool for filtering information or extending our time on task. True attention lies at the heart of personhood: reason, judgment,... See more

The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry. The old experience of the movie-goer, who sees the world outside as an extension of the film he has just left (because the latter is intent upon reproducing the world of everyday perceptions), is now the producer’s guideline. The more intensely and flawlessly his techniques... See more

I would accept very early that strategy does not happen in theory: it happens inside organizations. And organizations are political structures, whether people acknowledge it or not. Politics here is not about manipulation or theatrics; it’s about understanding how people operate under pressure, what they fear, what they want, what they’re rewarded... See more