2026-03-19 17:03:00
Tonight, when you’re off the clock, what will you listen to, watch or read?
I imagine that most of us would agree that this is a free choice. To watch a silly video on YouTube, read a book on Greek philosophy from the library or scroll your feeds. We have time (surprisingly called “free”) and we allocate it to focus our attention on something.
While it might seem like a free choice, well-paid people and powerful forces are working to shift our focus. Many systems are built to manipulate us into focusing on things that benefit them, not us.
If you’ve ever felt lousy after doomscrolling, you might question how free your free time actually is. It takes effort to regain our freedom of focus.
We can take this one step further. We not only make choices about the media we consume, we also make choices about our internal focus. Until you got to this sentence, I’m guessing you weren’t spending much time thinking about your high school graduation.
We don’t need research to show us that the internal narratives we focus on shift our attitude and soon become our reality. We’ve all experienced it. Soon after we stop the broken record, things get better.
Perhaps it’s not a free choice, though. Perhaps the stories we relentlessly focus on are simply the byproduct of our brain’s chemical reactions, a reaction to the world inside us and around us.
And yet… many people have learned to shift the stories they rehearse.
The first step: change the external focus. Change the people we interact with, the media we consume, the attention we offer. Not all at once, but as a habit, a persistent practice of being mindful about the triggers and amplifiers we consume. If you’re not happy with what your attention is bringing you, you can change it.
Aristotle said that we become what we do, but before we do, we focus.
And the freedom and responsibility of that focus belong to us.
2026-03-18 17:03:00
It’s tempting but useless.
The skin is unblemished and the perfect color. It’s well displayed, promoted widely and on sale.
But there’s nothing inside. It’s not worth eating and certainly not worth sharing.
This is the streaming series with great lighting and talented actors, based on a beloved novel, but it’s empty and we fade after one or two episodes.
This is the book with a polished author photo, pre-written blurbs and plenty of footnotes, created by a ghostwriter and edited by committee.
And it’s almost any content created by AI without care or oversight.
The solution to hollow oranges isn’t more of them.
2026-03-17 17:03:00
We were taught to look out for red flags. Little signs that something is wrong, that we should be careful or even turn around.
Don’t let that distract you from being on the lookout for green flags.
We might need encouragement to leap forward. If you look for the green flags, you’re more likely to find them.
2026-03-16 17:03:00
Colleagues you care about are coming over for dinner. What should you make?
Some people don’t care if it’s delicious, as long as it’s interesting.
Some don’t need it to be interesting, but it needs to start on time.
Others define delicious differently than you do.
One couple doesn’t care at all about the effort you put into it.
A few don’t care if you’ve worked hard to create a spectacular meal, they’ll notice that the kitchen is a mess.
One person is really concerned that the food match their dietary needs.
And many are paying attention to the sustainability and cost of what you prepared.
Some are uncomfortable if you put in too much of effort.
The lesson is simple: empathy matters and empathy is hard. The more diverse the group’s interests, the more you’ll need to let them know in advance where you’re heading.
Get clear about what it’s for before you start doing the work.
2026-03-15 17:03:00
You’re at the Zoom meeting, on time, and no one is there. Are you the ghost or is everyone else?
We needed a word for this existential minor dread, and now we have one.
Coordination is hard.
PS the Ides of March are overrated as a threat. It’s the chronic conditions that really get us in the end.
2026-03-14 17:03:00
When an organization is known for speed and quality, it’s likely that if times get tough, quality will suffer before speed does. That’s because customers notice speed right away, but it takes a while to come to a conclusion about quality.
If a musician or politician is known for showmanship and wise insights, the showmanship will probably outlast the wisdom.
When we measure and compare the easily visible, we may be setting ourselves up for disappointment.
