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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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Gunn and Salvo: The, Um, Final Broadside?!?!

March 05, 2023 in Indie/Self-Published, Science Fiction, Series

Two mostly honest bounty hunters save the universe in style.

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Tags: James
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Lightspeed Magazine 152, January 2023

February 14, 2023 in Fantasy, Magazine, Science Fiction

Branching out a bit, finding both new authors and a reassuringly familiar format.

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Tags: Lightspeed Magazine, Adams
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Nightmare Magazine, January and February 2023

February 14, 2023 in Horror, Magazine

Two fresh editions of the ‘zine which Treats Horror Very Seriously…

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Tags: Nightmare Magazine
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The Dark Magazine, January and February 2023

February 14, 2023 in Horror, Magazine

A favorite gins up two more compact, lovingly-crafted missives to the world.

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Tags: The Dark, Wallace, Madrigano
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Nietzsche x K. Gorman = Strong Space Opera

February 12, 2023 in Indie/Self-Published, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series

Abysses, archetypes, gods and demons and spaceships and horror and…

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Tags: K. Gorman
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Iron on the Tongue

February 11, 2023 in Mil SF, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series

The second volume of The Reckoning Cycle is even better than the first. Adventure, intrigue and intelligently-drawn characters swirl together in a compelling read.

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Tags: Narbutovskih
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The Lost -- And Last? -- Metal

February 09, 2023 in Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Series, SFF

The fourth read in a seven-volume series. Time for a new theme?

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Tags: Sanderson
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“Rare But Serious Side Effects Include Confusion, Nausea, Temporal Dislocation, Dissociation and Premature Brain Death.”

"Who Is Johnny B. Truant?" -- Part 1.5

February 08, 2023

A Delayed Addition To The January, 2023 Featured Artist

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Battling for Bremen

February 08, 2023

Steve Higgs brings us a surprisingly human wizard/private eye from the heart of North Germany. Non-Teutonic hijinks ensue…

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An Inhuman Race

January 22, 2023 in Reading Notes, Science Fiction

Being human may mean less than we think…

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Tags: Wijeratne
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A David Drake Trifecta

January 22, 2023 in Collection, Mil SF, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, SFF

Three books from a masterful writer, the “father of military SF” — and much more.

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Tags: Drake
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The Masters

January 21, 2023

A vintage SF/vampire short story.

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I did what now? No, exactly what was it I did?

Underwhelming

January 21, 2023 in Rants, Reading Notes

In which I overreact to an underwhelming and annoying email from Amazon Kindle.

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Tags: Amazon, Kindle
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Cover is unrelated to stories…

Grim and Dark and New?

January 20, 2023 in Reading Notes, SFF

The January 2023 edition brings grim-dark fiction and asks some good questions.

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Tags: Grimdark
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Who Is Johnny B. Truant?

January 20, 2023 in Collection, Indie/Self-Published, Reading Notes, SFF

January 2023’s author focus zeros in on a vampire and unicorn fan.

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Tags: Truant, Platt
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Reginald Bretnor In Review

January 14, 2023 in Collection, Reading Notes, Science Fiction, Mystery

An interesting and unusual man who wrote some interesting and unusual things.

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Tags: Bretnor, Feghoot, Megapack
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Most-Loved Authors of 2022

January 07, 2023 in EOTY

The top 20% from 2022.

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Tags: End of the year, 2022, Authors
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From Ghost Galaxy to the Black Table: 2022 In Review

January 06, 2023 in EOTY

The first but still much-dreaded year in review post.

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Tags: 2022, End of the year
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Black Table

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

When is good good enough? And does it matter if it’s written in Finnish or English?

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Tags: Pennanen, Black Table
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The Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne

December 31, 2022 in Reading Notes, Science Fiction

Deep thoughts about existence, God and a black hole’s event horizon.

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Tags: Wijeratne, Rohan, Slow Sad Suicide
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email: sjr@gmx.us
phone: (571) 366-9110