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Lions In The Fog

SJ Ryan's Blog
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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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Featured posts:

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Are We Biased Against Hard Work?
May 31, 2021
Are We Biased Against Hard Work?
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.

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May 31, 2021
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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.

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August 4, 2020
Pace Yourself
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.

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July 30, 2020
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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.

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July 28, 2020
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.

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July 28, 2020
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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.

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July 27, 2020
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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.

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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.

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June 29, 2020
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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.

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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.

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May 21, 2020
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The Chronicles of Jason Rokku's Many, Many Jobs

December 31, 2022 in Indie/Self-Published, Reading Notes, Science Fiction

Jason Rokku has many jobs. You’re invited to explore them…if you can figure out why he’s doing what he’s doing.

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Tags: Shane Shepherd, Shepherd, Jason Rokku, Key, Backwater, Bassalia, Barter, Job
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Harrow The Ninth

December 31, 2022 in Reading Notes, Fantasy, Science Fiction

A challenging and often-frustrating read leaves me wondering if I should go forward with the series.

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Tags: Muir, Locked Tomb, Harrow the Ninth, Necromancy
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“Hang on, and I insist you fasten your seatbelts. No seriously, this spacecraft is not noving until everyone is buckled in.” —Probably the crew’s ship’s computer, at any given moment of crisis.

Gravity Storms And More

December 31, 2022 in Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series

Interstellar adventures, intrigue and excitement — and a computer that looks and acts like the captain’s mother.

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Tags: Tom Dublin, Shadow Vanguard, Gravity Storm, Lunar Crisis, Immortality Curse, Ultimate Payback, Alien Genocide, Family Reunion, Humor, AI
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Liberty of Death!?

December 31, 2022 in Mil SF, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series

No, not a typo for “Liberty or Death” — I checked. Complex and with dangerous hints of nuance and darkness!

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Tags: Kassabian, Liberty of Death, Prisoner's Dilemma, A Call To War, Victory or Death
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December 'Zines

December 31, 2022 in Collection, Reading Notes, SFF

The good, the…well, none of it was bad or ugly, really. Three solid short publications for December, 2022.

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Tags: The Dark, Nightmare Magazine
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The E. C. Tubb Box Set: Vintage SF With A Modern Side

December 30, 2022 in Collection, Science Fiction

A prolific author from the last century, updated and reissued for today.

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Tags: Tubb
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What, this doesn't say 'Happy Thanksgiving!' to you?

Thanksgiving Break - Books Completed

November 27, 2022

A sweep through the virtual bookshelves, looking at books finished during November.

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Thanksgiving Break - Abandoned and In Stasis

November 27, 2022

Or, what happened to the time when I liked reading nonfiction?

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Choose your future adventure carefully.

Future Adventures: The Collection

November 12, 2022 in Science Fiction, Series, Collection, Indie/Self-Published

Future Adventures is a 2019 collection of eight self- and independently-published SF novels, brought together under one virtual cover. Not all are created equal, but it was a great vehicle for finding authors I’d never been exposed to before and will definitely seek out again.

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Tags: Jansen, Springer, McGuire, Crusoe, Green, Saoulidis, Pruden, Avera, Goodreads
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Not content with awesome writing, she made an official (and awesome) trailer for the series….

Daylight Savings Update

November 06, 2022 in Series, Science Fiction, Reading Notes, Mil SF, SFF

I used the extra hour on November 6 to put the finishing touches on this long set of capsule reviews, covering late summer into the autumn. Dive in for some great series, stand-alone, and compilations, as well as one or two you might consider avoiding.

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Tags: J.S. Morin, Ringo, Mammay, Nightmare Magazine, Bester, Lucas, Darkness Wakes, Millhouse, Grimdark, Nolan, Mondesir, Kwak, Terrible Cherubs, C.G. Harris, Hall, Sanderson, Schmitz, Skye, Haskell, Schwartz
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Immerse or Die: The Novel Smackdown

October 30, 2022 in Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series

Exactly like it says! An eight-pack of solid SF from prolific author, critic and treadmill owner Jefferson Smith. Nothing bad, some truly excellent!

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Tags: Jefferson Smith, Immerse or Die, Wright, Levesque, Linton, Adams, Dickson, Morin, Anderson, Hunt
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Labor Day Labor of Reading Love

September 05, 2022 in Science Fiction, Mil SF, Reading Notes, Series

That’s me slaying my procrastination! Hahaha…of course it isn’t. Time to read has been plentiful for the last seven months. Energy to write, not so much. Catching up with this post.

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Tags: Larkwood, Bartetzko, Coatsworth, Evans, Haskell, Livingood, James, Millhouse, Collins, Tordotcom, Wolanyk, Grimdark, Jefferson Smith, Baen, Kilby, Bruno, Castle, Fantasy Magazine, Mammay, Anspach, Cole, Galaxys Edge, Partlow, Thompson, Adler
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Metal On The Move: Metal Legion Complete Series

July 01, 2022 in Science Fiction, Mil SF, Series

Heavy metal, marching into combat to the sound of…heavy metal!

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Tags: Martelle, Metal Legion, Heavy Metal, Gideon, Wachter
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A Master of Djinn

June 01, 2022 in Reading Notes, SFF, Steampunk

Fantastic novel-length addition to a vivid world, by a highly-awarded author. Please tell us more is on the way!

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Tags: Clark, Djinn, Series
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Exit Spring

May 22, 2022 in Reading Notes, Science Fiction, SFF

New Saad Z. Hossain! And an end-of-spring cleaning: what’s done, what’s paused and what’s out.

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Tags: Scalzi, Wells, Tesh, Polk, Tordotcom, Robertson, Fox, Robinson, Curry, Panatier, Hossain, Chambers, Wagner, Loofbourrow, Brackett, Todd, Michael Anderle, Gopal, Woode-Smith, McGuire, Self-Published, Series
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Just. Could. Not. Do. It. (Sigh…)

Not Ready For Valentine's Day

May 15, 2022

Not ready by my Valentine’s Day deadline, but worth the wait!

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Interesting concept, lots of potential.

The Arc of the Story: Recent ARCs

May 08, 2022

The good, the bad and the irritating — sometimes in the same book!

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Libertarians of Luna, Unite!

May 06, 2022

America has colonized the Moon. Will it have the wisdom to keep that colony?

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Winter Author Special Look: P.K. Lentz

February 13, 2022 in Science Fiction, Reading Notes

SF/SFF from an interesting independent author who’s not afraid to color outside the genre lines.

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Tags: P.K. Lentz, SF
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The Interdependency Trilogy

February 06, 2022 in Reading Notes, Science Fiction

A polished trilogy from a modern master who brings echoes of the future into today.

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Tags: Scalzi, Allegory, Politics, Trilogy
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email: sjr@gmx.us
phone: (571) 366-9110