No matter how good a lion you are, you can’t see well if you’re surrounded by nothing but fog.

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May 31, 2021

The naturalness bias may push us away from fairly evaluating people who have had to work hard for success and towards people who seem like “natural” successes — even when we say we value the things the strivers are living.

May 31, 2021

August 4, 2020

What Business Are You In?

August 4, 2020

Change is a given in life and work, but we frequently anchor our identity in the past or to things we cannot control. There is a huge difference between being attached to a durable, lasting sense of mission (“what” and “why” we do things) rather than our business models (“how” and “where”). Getting the two confused can have a terrible price.

August 4, 2020

July 30, 2020

Pace Yourself

July 30, 2020

Ever been told “it’s a marathon, not a sprint?” Most people intuitively understand the suggestion that we should start slow and conserve our energy. Even if you’re someone who only runs when being chased, we can still learn from this.

July 30, 2020

July 28, 2020

Falling Off The Path

July 28, 2020

All of us have ambitions, and all of those come with a list of things that need to be done to see them through. But there are always temptations to do things which don’t help advance our cause. We unpack advice on dealing with the real source of our issues.

July 28, 2020

Advanced Leadership: Trust and Responsibility

July 28, 2020

High-performing organizations choose to empower and trust their employees to do the right thing. They also enforce accountability for those standards. The alternative is to try to micro-manage each individual, which creates oppressive organizational cultures and environments, and eventually saps the employees and the organization of vitality.

July 28, 2020

July 27, 2020

Do We Crawl, Walk or Run?

July 27, 2020

There is plenty of glittering advice that promises to catapult us and our work into the next realm of performance. Before we embrace this advice, we should be sure that we and our organizations are ready for it.

July 27, 2020

July 15, 2020

Don't Forget Context When Offering Advice

July 15, 2020

The Harvard Business Review article, “Look to Military History for Lessons in Crisis Leadership” offers Covid-era leaders advice drawn from throughout military history. Much of the advice, though, needs more nuance and context to be fully applicable to modern leaders.

July 15, 2020

June 29, 2020

And Then What?

June 29, 2020

Slogans capture and channel our dreams. Iteration, adaptation, and the hard work of implementation make them real. Pausing to ask “And then what?” isn’t an admission of defeat. It’s a sign of wisdom and maturity, a willingness to at least start trying to think more deeply about complex and troubling problems.

June 29, 2020

June 23, 2020

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Strategy?

June 23, 2020

Change is in the air. As we enter mid-2020, organizations and populations everywhere are grappling with a series of powerful social, economic and political shocks. There has never been safety in clinging to the status quo, but it is even less of an option now.

June 23, 2020

May 21, 2020

When Is It Okay to Quit?

May 21, 2020

It’s said that quitters never win and winners never quit, but is this true? For highly motivated people, the drive to achieve can be a direct line to accomplishment or into a dead end. The key is the ability to discern when our goals no longer suit us. Ironically, this can be hardest for the best-motivated.

May 21, 2020

Another Labor Day In The Rearview Mirror

September 04, 2023

What I finished reading in August, 2023…

The Wine Dark Deep

August 27, 2023

The spirit of Homer is alive and well out in the solar system…and beyond.

**Napoleon on Elba, all dressed up and nowhere to go.**
***Image: Wikimedia***

Mid-Year Update, Pt 3: Odds, Ends and Lingering

August 16, 2023 in Miscellaneous

Books which have been exiled unfinished from the e-reader, and some which may soon follow them.

Mid-Year Update, Pt 2: Business Not To Be Concluded

August 14, 2023 in Collection, Fantasy, Indie/Self-Published, Mil SF, Mystery, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series, War

Despite my best efforts, there are always books I can’t finish. This updates books stopped and sent back to the cloud as of mid-August 2023.

Three From The Road

July 31, 2023 in Fantasy, Grimdark, Horror, Mystery

The last day of July 2023, a couple of last-minute vacation reading finishes, including an excellent debut!

Paging Mr. Dickens to Galaxy's Edge

July 29, 2023 in Indie/Self-Published, Mil SF, Reading Notes

It was the best of indie mil SF, it was the worst of indie mil SF…

**Great for the soul, not entirely conducive to productivity…**

Perfect Reading Conditions

July 28, 2023 in Reading Notes

Reading with Pliny, not reading Pliny…

Magazine Catch Up Reading

July 28, 2023 in Fantasy, Grimdark, Horror, Magazine, Non-fiction

The last few weeks saw me catching up reading digital magazines. Spoiled for choice! This includes: the last Galaxy’s Edge monthly, two Nightmares (129 and 130), two Dark Magazines (97 and 98), two Lightspeeds (157 and 158), a new and excellent Grimdark (35) and a new to me quarterly, Khōréō.

**Coming soon to a solar system near you.**

Cixin Liu Is Not Sure It's Going To Work Out

July 14, 2023 in Collection, Science Fiction, Reading Notes

…but read this anyway — it’s good stuff.

Space Westerns!

July 14, 2023

Two great tastes that taste great together or are we going to regret mixing the streams?

**A clever name for a book full of clever writing.**

New Voices Redux

July 08, 2023

Another excellent expedition into contemporary Chinese-language SFF.

Mid-Year Update, Pt 1: Finishes

July 07, 2023 in Fantasy, Indie/Self-Published, Mil SF, Mystery, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, SFF

Shorter reviews from June and early July 2023

Lost Opportunities

July 02, 2023 in Indie/Self-Published, Science Fiction, Series

Another ambitious series from the indie/self-published scene. How does it measure up?

Beyond Redemption, Belief, and Sanity

July 02, 2023 in Fantasy, Grimdark, Reading Notes

A fantastic journey into darkness and magic from Michael R. Fletcher.

The Rise and Fall and Return of Joe Coffin

July 01, 2023

If Guy Ritchie wrote gangster horror, this’d be it…

Retrospective Spring Wrap Up, Pt. 2

July 01, 2023 in Fantasy, Horror, Indie/Self-Published, Reading Notes, Science Fiction

Continuing to catch up from my spring of lots of reading, little writing.

May Magazine Mayhem

June 26, 2023 in Horror, Grimdark, Fantasy, Magazine, Science Fiction

Sorry, that’s cheesy. What’s not are the fiction ‘zines within…

New Voices, New Perspectives

June 22, 2023

A collection of new and mostly award-winning Chinese SF. Strongly recommended.

**Um, don’t box sets actually go the *other* direction IRL?**

Assassins, AIs, Power Armor, and Explosions, Oh My...

June 19, 2023 in Indie/Self-Published, Mil SF, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series

Another industrial-length series, packed with industrial-strength action. This one is genuinely good.

Retroactive Spring Wrap Up, Pt. 1

June 19, 2023 in Fantasy, Horror, Indie/Self-Published, Reading Notes, Science Fiction

I’ve been more motivated to read than write, so find myself catching up on a few months’ worth of reading. Here are some that didn’t rate longer stand-alone reviews.