Learning

How Do You Create Something Special?

Almost anything I have ever created, built, designed or written that anyone else in the world cared about, I did on my own initiative, out of love of the work, love of the process, love of the team, and the sheer enjoyment of the experience of creating something new. I’m not saying everything I’ve ever ...

The Astonishing Ignorance, and Brilliance, of Henry Ford

Henry Ford is heralded today as a technological genius, a brilliant capitalist, even a kind and generous moralist fighting for the rights and wages of commoners. He is often referred to as the inventor of the modern age. Quotes from Henry Ford are plastered on notecards and in boardrooms everywhere. “If you think you can ...

The Problem with Stereotypes

“A single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. When we stereotype others, we reduce them. We imprison them in our own small view, a dark and tiny place with no light and no room for growth.” novelist Chimamanda Adichie     Isn’t ...

Learning is Interactive, Not Consumptive

We have a new puppy. The kids named him Wallace, although he has immediately become “Wally”. Neighbors want to hold him, get a selfie with him. He is adorable. He also creates disasters everywhere around the house, chewing, shredding, drooling, peeing everywhere. He can be a wrecking ball. He’s also learning more quickly than I ...

The Best Leaders Don’t Try to Control People. They Do Something Else.

This may surprise you, but prior to the early 1970s the word “parenting” didn’t exist. The word parent was a noun, not a verb. A parent was someone you are, not something you do. In the same way that we don’t child our parents, and we don’t husband our wives. According to Alison Gopnick, a ...

The High Cost of Conformity

Imagine you are in a room with seven other people, and the person running the meeting presents everyone with two cards. On the left-hand card is a line. On the right-hand card are three lines of differing lengths. You are asked to pick which line on the right card matches the length of the line ...