When you go fishing, and get a “birds nest” in the reel, it’s complicated. Line everywhere. Only hope you have to untangle it is a slow, methodical unravelling of the mess. Maybe let’s start at the end… When you watch a school of fish move, it’s not complicated, but it is complex. Simple back and...

A while back I interviewed one of my “heroes” Seth Godin on the podcast. We were talking about that feeling of tension that comes up with publishing work, or with anything that involves emotional labour, or putting yourself out there. Seth put it pretty simply. “I don’t think it’s any different than being a plumber.”...

The world needs everything. A little overwhelming, if you spend some time thinking about all of that. So with finite time, and finite energy, we come to a decision. Where do we focus? What is our work? What do we do? While it’s a big question (and in my experience, any kind of answer tends...

There’s a speech from a lecturer at MIT, his name is Patrick Winston. He’s talking to this big group of uni students in a crowded lecture hall. He says that in battle, it’s essential that soldiers don’t go out unarmed with their weapon, and that in life after university, it’s the same with our ability...

When you start the marathon, unless you plan to go sub-three, it doesn’t matter much where you’re standing. Sure, you probably don’t want to be stuck in the line for the restroom when the gun goes (it happens), but generally speaking, over a 42.2km race, the first 500m won’t matter much. With the marathon, as...

When we’re fired up to the eyeballs with good energy, an adverse local environment is a speed bump. No problem. As the timeframe extends though (becoming chronic), the nature of the environment becomes more important. Ultimately, whether it’s water quality, light, or energetic nature of the people around us, over a long timeframe, we become...

Did you know when he sold his first proper book “Carrie,” Stephen King and his wife had so little money, their phone was shut off?  When she heard first, Tabby had to walk to the neighbours house with the kids to use their phone, just to call Steve with the news on the deal? He...

Effective organisations aren’t one-way streets. To create a healthy, or high performing team (relationship, business, country…), it’s important to build and maintain avenues for open feedback and idea flow in both directions. In many situations, only through feedback, or vertical idea flow from the “bottom up,” can we see a questioning of path dependence or...