Most of the time, we’re not short on intelligence — we’re short on visibility. These seven models won’t remove the weather, but they’ll help you drive in the rain. “We are never definitely right; we can only be sure we are definitely wrong.” — Richard Feynman A while back, I wrote about avoiding collaboration traps — the Abilene Paradox, Parkinson’s Law, and Chesterton’s Fence — with a handful of strategies for saner decisions in groups. The gist: teams drift when nobody says what they think,...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
The heretical neuroscience of habit — and why rhythm beats willpower every time Everyone loves the idea of self-improvement — until they realize it’s mostly repetition in disguise. The brain doesn’t care about your goals, your affirmations, or your color-coded planner. It only cares what you do, again and again, in the same context. That’s not motivation. That’s wiring. Heresy #1: Willpower is overrated. The prefrontal cortex — your decision-making muscle — burns out fast. Every “should I?”...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Paris woke to a hole in its crown. Seven minutes. A silent alarm. Empty glass where the Louvre’s jewels once burned under lights. The thieves vanished into the city’s bloodstream before sunrise. Across the Atlantic, bulldozers gnawed at the East Wing of the White House — marble cracking, dust swirling, history traded for a ballroom. You can almost hear the champagne glasses clink while the Republic coughs in the rubble. Hunter S. Thompson might’ve called it a duel between decay and delusion —...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The world feels like it’s on a gnarly bender right now—hungover on outrage, mainlining doomscrolls, and picking fistfights with its own reflection. In moments like these, the most sane, the most rebellious thing you can do isn’t to scream louder. It’s to stay adult. Not in the “pay your taxes and buy beige chinos” sense, but in the “hold your ground while the circus burns” sense. These eight principles are about keeping your nervous system from joining the mosh pit. They’re about showing up...
3 months ago • 4 min read
We usually talk about culture as something that belongs to organizations. A company’s culture is its shared set of beliefs, practices, and unspoken rules—the invisible operating system that shapes how people show up and what behaviors get rewarded. But there’s another kind of culture we rarely name: the culture you carry within yourself. The personal operating system you bring into your life, your work, and your life’s work. Andrew McAfee recently outlined the norms that make great...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Most of us are taught — trained, even — to either suppress emotions or let them spill out unchecked. Rarely are we taught to listen to them. That’s what struck me about a simple chart that flew through my reels the other day: each difficult emotion isn’t just a nuisance — it’s a message. Anger is the tightness in your chest, heat rising, a body screaming: “Something needs to change.” Jealousy can feel like an ache behind the ribs — less about another person, more about what you’ve denied...
3 months ago • 1 min read
The first time I wrote about “heretical truths” I thought it might ruffle a few feathers. Instead, it struck a chord. Maybe because most of us are drowning in conventional wisdom—bumper-sticker slogans about vision, resilience, productivity, healing—that sound noble but collapse on contact with real life. Heresies wake us up. They knock the dust off. Six More Heresies Heretical Truth #7: You don’t need a vision. Steve Albini lived without goals. No five-year plan. No grand vision. And he saw...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Your environment is always shaping your mind.Your spaces work on you more than you notice. Rick Rubin calls this the overstory. The unseen force of place. The coffee shop that helps you focus. The room that sparks a breakthrough. The forest path that shifts your mood. Every place carries history, energy, and intention. They join your thinking whether you want them to or not. Rubin also keeps an empty chair in his studio. It is not for a person. It is for the presence that has not arrived yet....
3 months ago • 1 min read
I once worked with a founder who spent three weeks designing the perfect morning routine. He built spreadsheets. Drew diagrams. Color coded his journal.He got stoked about the latest productivity tool, onboarded himself for half a day.His planning was thorough. Every detail accounted for. Except doing the routine. He was not lazy. He was caught in analysis paralysis. Planning felt safe. Starting felt dangerous. Here is the problem. Preparation looks productive. It gives you the feeling of...
4 months ago • 1 min read