Welcome back!
I hope you had an excellent summer or some awesome skiing, depending on the hemisphere.
Here are a few links from items that “crossed my desk” this month.
- Ed Batista reminds us that we don’t get what we deserve. It’s about locus of control.
- I really liked this from Chip Huyen: “The resume evaluation process is pretty much a black box for most candidates. And it is so because few hiring managers have publicly discussed this. I thought I should start the conversation.”
- A business case for well-being in the workplace from Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program.
- Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale with insights on the question: Is anyone ever ready for leadership?
- Thoughts on creativity from John Mayer. Among others, Don’t shoot ideas down before you have them. ‘That won’t work’ is the worst thing you can ever say. ‘That didn’t work’ is cool, but ‘that won’t work’ is not a way to go through life.”
- Recent MIT CISR research suggests that digital business transformations may be beginning to stall. It identifies three sources of organizational inertia.
- John Maeda reflects on AI. He thinks we should embrace uphill thinking in a world optimized for shortcuts.
- Jean Hsu makes a simple but useful distinction between Ask v. Guess culture. Useful to know where you stand on that continuum.
- Derek Thompson has three theories for why you have no time.
- Benedict Evans answers two fundamental questions: “ChatGPT and generative AI will change how we work, but how different is this to all the other waves of automation of the last 200 years? What does it mean for employment?” An excellent read.
- A contrarian take on life:
All around us are these lives – heads down and arms open – that ignore the siren call of flashy American individualism, of bright lights and center stage. I’m fine right here is the response from the edge of the room, and that contentment is downright subversive. How could you want only that? the world demands. There’s more to have, always more.