pattern: when your office isn't a good place to work

i’ve noticed a pattern among a ton of my friends who do knowledge work. that pattern is that our offices are terrible places to do work. this is often in spite of the fact that we have nice offices and like our coworkers.

mentoring: the best way to learn. also the best to know your place in a community and feel like you belong

the best way to grow is to have teachers, peers, and people you teach. — gibrán rivera, evolutionary leadership

ezra glenn: on people and the weight of the relationship between them

yesterday i had lunch with ezra and, as always, we had another one of our wide-ranging, free-wheeling, thought-generating conversations.

overly complex, complicated writing: why do we write not like we speak?

the other day i was talking with a friend about the process of writing in academia. we got to talking about how, often, there are clear and specific ways to explain very complex ideas and yet the output that academia prefers (requires?) doesn’t allow for ideas to be explored simply. this out, the currency of academia, peer-reviewed journal articles, create a demand for inaccessible writing. in my opinion, this form of output is needlessly hindered by this complexification (is that a word? am i doing it right now? lol).

on becoming a more coherent person

as i get older, there are some themes that are becoming increasingly clear as important. across place and time, certain questions, certain journeys seem to be ubiquitous and worth pursuing. one of these is what i currently understand to be the journey towards becoming a more coherent person (not my words).