• “… we shouldn’t be lured into thinking overall talent is the best predictor because it is the most important factor. It might be the best predictor because we’re not yet good at capturing the nuance of collective dynamics.” Insightful essay on what we can learn from complexity science about building winning teams.
  • “The things that I would say that we focus on and think a lot about are… about community health. How do we make sure that the community is happy, productive, not full of trolls, thoughtful, kind, all of those great Wikipedia values? Which are like all communities, all groups of people.” Tyler Cowen interviews Jimmy Wales on what makes Wikipedia tick.
  • “If you are a leader who can come into a situation that is ambiguous and uncertain and bring clarity, that’s leadership.” Four leadership lessons from Satya Nadella.
  • “To confront an ambiguous problem, we have to invert our decision-making: Instead of focusing on the problem itself, we need to define what a successful outcome looks like — what I call your ‘vision of success.’” How developing a clear vision can help us manage ambiguous situations.
  • Four ways to improve your problem-framing abilities.
  • “Great public spaces are owned by everyone and therefore ought to be designed for everyone.” Writing in Wired, Eli Pariser argues that we need the digital equivalent of public parks.
  • “Zillow usage has climbed since March, with online visitors to for-sale listings up more than 50 percent year-over-year in the early months of the pandemic.” On the phenomenon of perusing real estate listings for entertainment. (I wonder what, if anything, Zillow is doing to capitalize on this trend?)
  • Personal reflections on the balance between conformism and independent-mindedness.
  • I’m both excited and wary of the promise of “digital thinking” apps like Notion and Roam. Does using such apps — especially when provided “as a service,” as Roam and Notion are — risk creating an unhealthy dependency?
  • From 2014-2017 I had the privilege to work alongside my friend Hans Krueger. Hans taught me about the Cycle of Emotions, an ancient Buddhist framework that has helped me interact more effectively with others. Jessica Fan has posted a beautiful writeup of the framework.<p>A version of this post first appeared in my newsletter. Subscribe to receive posts like this in your inbox every other Sunday.</p>