Why I’m Obsessed With Optimal Outcomes
If I had a life motto, or a working framework by which I live, it would be this: maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Or, put another way, optimization.…
Latest Articles
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Sometimes, I’m Almost as Good as I Think I Am
I’ve been accused, more times than I can count, of being arrogant, condescending, self-righteous. There are probably a few other adjectives in that same vein that would…
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Impact and Value… Bring It Or Else
How do people, organizations, and businesses make money? At the most basic level, they sell something. Or they work for someone who sells something. Products. Services. Ideas.…
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Musing on Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
The French national motto is: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity). That seems like a pretty good thing on which to found a society. When we talk…
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Let’s Talk About Plato’s Republic
Plato’s Republic is the kind of thing that you’re supposed to have read, understood, and talked about. That is, if you want to sound smart. It ranks…
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The Leviathan Still Lives
Thomas Hobbes didn’t trust us. And the truth is, he may have had good reason. In Leviathan, Hobbes imagines what humans are like without rules, without authority,…
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Conditional Belonging: From The Diamond Age to the Beast System
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age offers a strange and prophetic look at our world. In his novel, nations have faded and the globe is divided into phyles;…
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Building Belonging Before the Fracture
It doesn’t take much imagination to sense that our world is fragile. Whether the strain comes from economics, geopolitics, the environment, or something else, there’s a feeling…
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Tribalism: the good, the bad, and the ugly
I just read an article that painted tribalism as a wholly negative thing. And, sure, it can be, in many respects. When people divide themselves into us-versus-them…
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“Governing the Commons” – A Short Summary and Review
If you’ve ever wondered why humans seem perfectly capable of sharing a planet but keep acting like raccoons fighting over the last slice of pizza, Elinor Ostrom…