Reading Time: 2 min Integrated complexity is the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once, and it’s a wonderful trait for people to have. Some have it more naturally than others, but we can all work to do more. It’s really the ability to see opposing viewpoints, and understand the “why” for both sides. You don’t have to agree […]
Empathy
Humans versus output
Reading Time: < 1 min I’ve talked about empathy on this blog quite a lot, and the idea is simple — it’s the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. I see it as “walking in their shoes”, and trying to see the world from their perspective. When it comes to business, Simon Sinek has a very simple […]
Engage in Conflict
Reading Time: < 1 min Conflict can be a good thing. Donald Miller compares engaging in conflict to being like having a great workout — it can hurt a bit in the moment, but it leads to a healthier future. This doesn’t mean you should go around stirring up drama and creating conflict, but rather you shouldn’t run away from […]
What is their reason?
Reading Time: < 1 min As we go through our days, we will come across people that seem problematic to us. Perhaps they’re problematic to others as well, but it’s also likely that we come across as problematic to people that encounter us. As French film director Jean Renoir famously said: The hell of life is that everyone has his […]
Collaboration beats competition
Reading Time: < 1 min I’ve talked before about how I love to collaborate with our business “rivals”. There’s a place for competition at times, but collaboration almost always has a better outcome. I saw a recent post on Reddit that talked about that as it relates to driving, and I thought it made a lot of sense. If you […]
Grace or outrage?
Reading Time: < 1 min To paraphrase Tim Kreider in an Op-Ed he wrote for the New York Times, “people love to feel right and wronged“. Particularly when it comes to social media, many people either want to be right or else they want to be offended. It’s easy to hate those you disagree with. For those that are Christians, […]
Thinking for yourself requires the right friends
Reading Time: < 1 min It’s kind of a weird title, no? To be able to think for yourself, you need certain friends around you? It might not be as weird as it seems. George Mack recently published a great tweet that explains it more thoroughly. In short, you can have two kinds of friend groups: Centralized friend groups that […]
The good side of hate speech
Reading Time: 2 min Free speech is a wonderful thing. While there are frequent arguments about what constitutes “free speech”, almost everyone can agree that it’s great to have. Of course, free speech means people can say things you disagree with, even to an extreme degree. Sometimes, though, even that can be a good thing. An episode of the […]
Animosity drives engagement
Reading Time: 2 min It’s sad but it’s true, and most of you have seen it on social media. The more animosity behind a post, the more engagement it gets. Specifically, if you directly attack an opposing political group, your post is much more likely to be shared. From a recent tweet by Jay Van Bavel: “Slamming a political […]
We don’t all have the same amount of time
Reading Time: 2 min I used to believe that “we all have 24 hours in a day” and while it’s technically true, it’s really not. Shailja Patel said it very well in a popular tweet from a few years ago: Use public transport? Your 24 hours are not the same as those of private jet owners.Do your own cooking, […]