Gus Guerrero

Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen (2016) put it even more concisely:

“A theory is a statement of causality. It’s a statement of what causes what and why.”

Theories then, are ideas about how things work - about causality and how to create change. And those who dismiss theory dismiss the practical application and power of ideas.

The idea of research as leisure activity has stayed with me because it seems to describe a kind of intellectual inquiry that comes from idiosyncratic passion and interest. It’s not about the formal credentials. It’s fundamentally about play . It seems to describe a life where it’s just fun to be reading, learning, writing, and collaborating on... See more

There is a huge problem when it comes to "changing the system":When you go deep and help people reframe the paradigms, myths and worldviews at the core of a system, it's often too abstract and people ask for real-world examples of alternative worldviews. When you give people examples of alternative ways of doing things, they often ask for more... See more

When research is your leisure activity, you’ll end up making connections between your existing interests and new ideas or topics. Everything gets pulled into the orbit of your intellectual curiosity. You can go deeper and deeper into a narrow topic, one that seems fascinatingly trivial and end up learning about the big topics: gender, culture,... See more

Today our eccentrics—by which I mean those who push at the boundaries of the acceptable—are more likely to provoke for the sake of provoking, not to expand possibilities but usually out of petty resentment; they are most often trolls. In shorter supply are public figures who act earnestly and gleefully, who use their idiosyncrasies and status as... See more