Things that made me stop and think

People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” —F. M. Alexander

When you have a clear vision, it’s rare, so stick to what you know in your gut is correct.

Here’s what has worked for me over the years to stave off boreout :

• Leaning into digressions: Passion projects (like this very one) and side hustles, whether they’re directly related to your work or completely unrelated, create the crackle of energy that boreout can stamp out; rather than be afraid of these things taking time away from your team’s

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Looking closely is valuable at every scale. From looking closely at a sentence, a photograph, a building, a government. It scales and it cascades — one cognizant detail begets another and then another. Suddenly you’ve traveled very far from that first little: Huh.

I’d say that that huh is the foundational block of curiosity. To get good at the huh... See more

The critical dividing line in our economy is no longer simply education or specialization, but rather agency itself: the raw determination to make things happen without waiting for permission.

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

​ Welcome and entertain them all!

​ Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new... See more

Likability is evaluated before confidence.

This brings us to the deeper point: the value of reading lies less in retention than in integration. A good book tweaks your internal models and you begin to see a familiar problem in a new frame. You revise the assumptions behind a mental shortcut or you absorb a phrase that becomes part of your vocabulary of thought.

These changes are easy to... See more