Every Swing to an Extreme Is a Search for Balance From left to right, and back again. Socialism to capitalism, and back again. Autocracy to democracy, and back again. Skinny to baggy, and back again. Consumerism to minimalism, and back again. The change is constant....
Be Fluid in Comfort, Stable in Challenge Comfort and challenge change us in opposite ways. Comfort makes us rigid and confident. When things are going well, we settle into what works. We stop questioning. Our routines harden into rules, and our confidence slowly turns...
We Don’t Choose What We Inherit, Only What We Pass On We inherit far more than we realise, and we inherit it at multiple levels. As human beings, we inherit properties we never asked for. The instincts, the tendencies, the strengths and the weaknesses of being human...
Lead with Reasons That Outlast the Season In a lifetime, we live through many seasons. Each season comes, changes us, and leaves us with a different version of ourselves. We move from childhood to our teenage years, through the long spectrum of adulthood, and into old...
Discipline Needs a Reason. Leaders Have to Give It. Our mind is lazy by nature. It craves pleasure. It runs from pain, from boredom, from hard work. Left to itself, it will always choose the easier path, and it will find a good-sounding reason for doing so. That is...
Being a Practitioner Is No Longer a Choice Leadership positions are often achieved by demonstrating your craft. You do high-quality work, consistently. You show your character and determination, consistently. Over time, people notice, and responsibility follows. Then...
We Judge the Parts. We Rarely Judge the Fit. When we build something important, we look for the best parts. We hire the strongest candidate. We select the most capable software. We appoint the most experienced partner. Each choice is defended on its own merit, and...
Our Actions Are Blindly Biased Towards What We Want On the surface, we think we are rational. We make rational choices based on multiple factors and conditions under review. We gather information, weigh the options, consider the risks and arrive at a decision. At...