The Clarity Crisis: Why Busy People Accomplish Nothing Read online → “ Productivity is about “knowing what you want to do, intending to do it, and doing what you wanted to do.” — Laura Mae Martin It’s Friday at 4 pm. You look at your calendar for the week. Back-to-back meetings Monday through Thursday. Slack threads answered. Emails cleared. A dozen small fires extinguished. You were busy every single hour. But when you try to name what you actually built this week — crickets. In 2009, Paul...
10 days ago • 9 min read
The Real Truth about the OODA Loop Read online → “ If you want to understand something, take it to the extremes or examine its opposites. — John Boyd In 1961, a brash Air Force officer at Nellis Air Force Base had a standing bet. He'd start any simulated dogfight from a position of disadvantage — the other pilot on his tail — and win within 40 seconds. Every time. His name was John Boyd. Pilots called him "40-Second Boyd." He never lost. The interesting thing is that Boyd wasn't the fastest...
17 days ago • 10 min read
What Will Leaders Actually Do When AI Handles Everything Else? “ “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” — Ralph Nader Read Online → How Leadership Evolved Over 25 Years (And Why It’s About to Shift Again) I started my career in the mid-2000s. I’ve watched leadership change a lot since then. I was lucky — I didn’t have a command-and-conquer boss when I was starting out. But I could see that style everywhere around me. The leaders who hoarded information....
24 days ago • 12 min read
The Emotional Intelligence Playbook “ Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. — Lao Tzu → Read online “We don’t have an intelligence problem. We have a compassion problem.” That line is from Blake Crouch’s novel Upgrade. With no spoilers, it's a novel set in the not-too-distant future and focuses on gene editing. Think the movie Limitless without the pills. Upgraded humans so to speak. It reminded me of...
about 1 month ago • 12 min read
How to Build a Learning Path with AI (5-Step System) “ I still underestimate the compounding power of the rapid execution and iterated learning feedback loop. A commitment to this, over the course of a career, is the closest thing you can get to guaranteed success. — Sam Altman Build a learning system that fits your role, your gaps, and your goals — in 30 minutes. Why Method Beats Willpower (Tim Ferriss's Secret) Tim Ferriss failed Spanish in high school. Twice. Years later, he moved to Tokyo...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
The 5 Leadership Skills AI Will Never Master “ Humans feel high-level emotions like empathy because we have evolved to feel them... but empathy is not inherently a characteristic of 'anything with high intelligence'... unless empathy has been coded into its programming. — Tim Urban Hey friend,Happy New Year! So I'm back in the saddle for 2026, and we've got a lot lined up this year. Thanks for joining me on this journey so far, and I hope that you're getting a ton of value from these emails....
about 2 months ago • 9 min read
A Time to Reflect “ When we are clear and act with intention and purpose, we expand what is possible. — Marc Champagne Hey friend, So here we are. Another year coming to a close. I'm excited for 2026, but first, I'm taking a couple of weeks off. The family and I will be celebrating the holidays, then we're headed to Denmark to unwind and slide into the new year. I'm ready for it. And this means you won't see the newsletter in your inbox for two weeks. But before I completely unplug, I want to...
2 months ago • 4 min read
The Golden Repair Method Read on the web → “ Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. — Viktor Frankl I got laid off two weeks ago. At 45, I've been kicked in the proverbial nuts a few times. My reaction now is different than it would've been at 25. But it still stings. That moment when you get the call. The pit in your stomach. The questions that flood in before...
2 months ago • 5 min read
71% of CEOs feel like frauds (here's why) Read on the web → “ "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. — Dale Carnegie October 2008. New Orleans. Howard Schultz stood before 10,000 Starbucks store managers at a leadership conference. The company was hemorrhaging money. Stores were closing. Employees were being laid off. Wall Street was screaming for blood. His advisors pulled...
3 months ago • 7 min read