Keely Adler

The Nobel laureate particle physicist Frank Wilczek once said that beauty exists as a dance between opposite forces. First, he said, beauty benefits from symmetry, which he defined as “change without change.” If you rotate a circle, it remains a circle, just as reversing the sides of an equation still reveals a truth (2+2=4, and 4=2+2). But beauty... See more

So, if cooperation and collaboration has been key to our survival and some of our most impactful innovation, why is it so hard?

One of the biggest culprits is the pervasive influence of zero-sum thinking. While commonly associated with Western capitalism and competitive markets, it’s not an exclusively Western artifact. Civilizations across the... See more

Rest is slow. You can’t feel rushed while you’re resting. That doesn’t mean that you can’t rest for an incredibly short period of time; it just means that, if you’re time-limited, you’ll need to have a timer. You cannot be in charge of the time as a resting person.

This is a concept some people call skill stacking, where you don't have to be the best at any particular thing, but you accumulate diverse experiences, then bring these unique skills that are ordinary in one area to some other area where they're extraordinary. It gives you a unique place and special power in your work.

The key implication is that while you have not yet found the unique opportunity that will be the engine and purpose of your empire, you have to adjust your sense of value. Value is very legible within a clear plan to reach a clear objective. But you cannot pursue interesting novelty—things that no one else is doing or which you have never seen... See more

Despite formulaic acknowledgements that of course others have it worse, the basic claim remains the same: “The persistent low grade dysfunction I am experiencing is a social problem.”