Jay Matthews

B. Dare to blaze an unconventional trail: Six years passed. I was fortunate to have worked with very capable teams and truly exceptional managers. I had built a reliable ecosystem of mentors, well-wishers and friends; however, as my bank account swelled, my heart felt empty and to overcome that feeling of emptiness, I asked myself, “Who am I?” As I... See more

This, indeed, is the silent refrain of the novel: the haunting reminder that however the past and the future might unfold and refold in the origami of even the most elaborate time-model, unless we live in the present, we are not living at all.

Following are ten foolproof ways to nurture your community that have served me.

1. be present and listen


2. take initiative and be accountable


3. eat together: communal dinner with questions prepped ahead of time


4. give gifts 


5. inspire fun, play, and adventure


6. design spaces for belonging: “Designing intentional spaces is at the root of belonging. It’s the physical

... See more

If the knowing process is thought of as a kind of dancing, as an interactive, reciprocal, give-and-take relationship between knowing subjects on the one hand and the physical and social environment on the other, then the resulting pattern of thought and behaviour, the known, may be thought of as the dance itself.

“All that is known. It proves nothing; its demonstrative value is destroyed by the habit of thinking in terms of advantages and disadvantages, the most evil of all ways of looking at life. “Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.” Once that is said, the unbearable becomes bearable—a mere disadvantage, and what after all is a disadvantage... See more

Inherent in this vision of “perfection” is the embrace of trial-and-error learning and experimentation as necessary aspects of any worthwhile human endeavor. Integrating this commitment to  tolerating and learning from error  as part of one’s ideal of self-perfection is, by the way, one of the most powerful correctives for neurotic perfectionism