It’s Easier to Be Critical Than Creative
Criticizing, correcting, editing, rejecting—these are easy compared to the hard work of creating, originating, and inventing. In every human endeavor I can think of, there is a time and place for both. What’s also true is they don’t go together. It seems intuitively obvious that the correct order of operations is to create first and […]
The Second Arrow
There is a Buddhist teaching called the two arrows. Our lives are full of “stuff happens.” Some of it we like, some of it pains us, and some we hardly notice. It’s the rhythm of life. The first arrow is the pain or discomfort we experience from something we don’t want or like. It’s enough […]
Who Will Help?
You can’t do this alone, and more to the point, you don’t need to. If you don’t have these kinds of people in your life, get busy and get some . . . Angels believe in you and want to help just because it’s you. Their energy and encouragement are priceless. Pioneers are people willing to go […]
The Next Time You’re Shot with an Arrow
A famous Buddhist parable (sutta) relates a conversation with a man called Malukya. It begins with Malukya demanding answers from the Buddha to what were then referred to as the “fourteen unanswerable questions” —e.g., is there life after death, what is the nature of the cosmos, etc. These are the same questions we’re still asking […]
Wolfing vs. Tasting
Trader Joe’s sells a very nice 500-gram dark chocolate bar for about $8.00. We break it apart and put the pieces in a jar. It’s super easy to walk by, grab a piece, and wolf it down before I make it to the other side of the room. In the same pantry, we keep single-origin, […]
Plan Like a Pessimist, Work Like An Optimist
We plan, prepare, work, worry, work some more, use our skills, and employ our tactics and strategies, all in service of bringing about a positive outcome. Myriad causes, conditions, and often competitors add to the soup of our intentions. We like to think we have some measure of control over how things will turn out, […]
Happy Birthday
As I type this, someone is having a “birthday.” And another. And another. “Birthday” refers, or course, to another lap around the sun since the last observance stretching back to the time you left the womb and drew your first breath. It’s actually an odd idea. “Today is my birthday.” Who is the “me” in […]
It’s Not Over Until It’s Over, And Even Then . . .
It’s a jittery time of year. I’m not talking about elections. I’m talking about baseball. In 2023, Major League Baseball teams played 2,471 games. At the end of each, some people went home happy, some disappointed, and presumably some just went for the peanuts and hot dogs and didn’t care. The intensity of those feelings […]
50/10,000,000 is Not Reality
The human brain takes in roughly 10 million bits per second (Mbps) of visual information. Right alongside, it processes another 100,000 bits per second of auditory information, along with a lesser volume of touch, taste, and smell data. By way of reference, the 4k camera on your mobile phone processes about 6,000 Mbps. So what […]
Unfinished Business
I had a conversation with a colleague today. Some months ago, he and a business colleague had a bad breakup over a piece of business they did together. They have spoken since, but the feelings of hurt, betrayal, distrust, mistrust, and disappointment linger on both sides. Whether they are “finished” as business partners or transactors, […]