Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
What do Elon Musk, Roe v. Wade, James Harden, and professional soccer have in common? They all illustrate the near-universal human disgust with “working the refs”. “Working the refs” is a term I know from professional basketball. Working the refs consists of influencing the decision-making of the referees, who call fouls and enforce the rules … Continue reading Working The Refs
It’s hard to bring something new into the world. If it were easy, it would have already happened. Nearly all startups fail. They’re trying to do something new, and the status quo is one hell of a competitor. Doing nothing is easy and most people’s default choice. Don’t jump into entrepreneurship because you’re lured in … Continue reading Startup Success Requires Accepting Failure
On a regular basis, people who get to know me describe me as one of the happiest, most positive people they know (an assessment I agree with). Is this a matter of circumstance? Genetics? Blind luck? My cousin Stephen asked me to share my reflections on this topic, and I realized that I had never … Continue reading My Social Emotional Journey
I have a confession: I almost never feel imposter syndrome. I feel like that means I should be grateful, and believe me, I am. But that begs the question, how can I best contribute to International Imposter Syndrome Day? It’s hard to write a consoling essay on overcoming imposter syndrome when I have so little … Continue reading Five Ways To Inoculate Yourself Against Imposter Syndrome
Fascinating tidbit from Scott Barry Kaufman via Whitney Johnson’s podcast: We like people best if they start off cool or indifferent to us and warm up over time. We dislike people the most if they start off being friendly to us, then ice us out. This helps illuminate something that I have noticed, but never … Continue reading Why Too Much Enthusiasm Breeds Dislike
America is the most polarized it has been in my lifetime. Even the Covid-19 pandemic, an exogenous threat, has simply reinforced this polarization, and the protests and riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death have pushed opposing sides even further apart. Instead of discussions, nearly every conversation between those disagree has become a debate. … Continue reading Responsible Rhetoric In The Age of Polarization
In his book with journalist John Tierney, The Power of Bad, social psychologist Roy Baumeister writes about what he calls the Negativity Effect. For most of humanity’s existence, we lived in dangerous environments where a single careless moment would mean death. Or as The Power of Bad puts it: “To survive, life has to win … Continue reading Negativity, Risk, And Why Rugged Individualism Is (Mostly) Bunk
We’re often tempted to ignore our animal nature. In our hubris, we believe that our culture and habits trump the billions of years of evolution that have led to this point. That’s a mistake. As individuals, we’re better off acknowledging our animal nature, not to blindly accept it, but to make conscious decisions about how … Continue reading Awareness, Control, and Acceptance
Regardless of where people lie on the political spectrum (graph?), one thing I find remarkably unappealing is when people treat those who disagree with them with angry contempt. Since doing so doesn’t persuade or change minds, I fear that people behave that way because deep down they don’t believe in their own worth, and feel … Continue reading Be Civil
Those who favor and oppose diversity actually share very similar concerns. This thought occurred to me when I read the end of this interview with Slack developer Kaya Thomas: The interview ends with the following exchange: “Brown: As one of the few black women in the industry, have you ever felt tokenized? Thomas: Yeah. It’s … Continue reading Common ground between those who favor and oppose diversity hiring