Jay Matthews

Where the production organisation has strong output controls and depends on managing relational networks, the institutionalised organisation has ambiguous outputs and depends on confidence and stability it achieve by following the rules of its environment—conforming both to the opinions of external constituents as well as the demands on internal... See more

Writing, art, creation: this is smithwork. You set your fire; you use your bellows, your pen, your paper, to heat it to the right temperature. You set your base metal in the flames, heat it until it is white. Then you begin your transformation.

And so how do we break these cycles of violence? I think the only way is to see ourselves as both/and, perpetrators and victims, and to look at that really closely and to say, the only way to break that cycle is to acknowledge the traumas and the wounds that inform and create the violence that we enact on others.

Starting  projects and embracing “theories of change” became  de rigeur .

In one of my favorite podcast episodes, Tim Urban and Jim O’Shaughnessy talk about the benefits of viewing the world through models instead of beliefs —an idea that has stuck with me since I heard it and pretty much sealed the deal of an individual-first approach to my life.

Here is something I strongly believe: These are the kinds of people that are not only going to thrive on unconventional paths but in the broader working ecosystem. The world of work is increasingly being driven by creativity, art, and storytelling.

Take, for instance, the dream-world in which time does not flow but sticks, adhering each town to a particular point in history and each person to a particular point in life. There is no shared stream of present in this world — only islands of neighboring solitudes, each suspended in a different moment of a different past: "The tragedy of this... See more

Adam's notes Research shows that the kind of frustration he harnessed can fuel creativity. In other words, the curmudgeons on your team could be great untapped resources.