I am still thinking about the talk I gave yesterday at Brown, about which I wrote here. A student from Brazil, Gabrielle Bufrem, asked me a question about decision-making after college. I told her that the most important thing to learn for making better choices was this: learning to fail. You see, if you get
Category: Philosophy
The Founder of a Nation
They say power corrupts. I’ve seen it. I saw people change, as money came down from the skies in the Web 1.0 rising tide of 1998 to 2000. We’ve read about it. There are too many third world leaders who proceed to rob their countries blind, storing billions of dollars in off-shore accounts. I’m mindful
The Law of Unintended Consequences
A meeting yesterday made me think about The Law of Unintended Consequences. I first heard of that phrase from Ed, Kepha’s CFO. It is the idea that you do something, but downstream, the decision creates surprises, which can be good or bad. Here are two examples: Fundraising for Kepha 1. This surprise was one of
‘You Cannot Bury Yourself’
Every year, seniors at The Roxbury Latin School volunteer to serve as pallbearers for those who have died alone. Here is an essay from Mike Pojman, Assistant Headmaster at Roxbury Latin, which appeared in the school’s recent newsletter and is entitled “You Cannot Bury Yourself.” It makes me feel so privileged to serve as a Trustee
Developing Grit: Malcolm Butler
I love seeing people succeed. I really love seeing humble and hard-working people succeed. And, as the above chart shows, success is never a linear phenomenon. As an example, consider Malcolm Butler, the now famous Patriots corner back. You know he is a pro football player. But, you may not know that his life has
Hitting the Road: A Reddit Thread
There’s an incredible dialogue going on right now here on Reddit. Someone has hit rock bottom. He posted that he is going to hit the road for a few months: I’ve had a few great loves in my life. One of them is fishing, the rest of them are gone…. One by one the things I