The Tennis Legacy of Vic Braden
If you haben’t heard about Vic Braden, he is one of the most influential people in the history of tennis and one of sport’s great innovators. Tom Perrotta explains in Grantland, Vic Braden did more than anyone to make tennis big in America. He taught countless players, from world No1s like Tracy Austin to hopeless […]
Today Says Nothing About the Future
Ben Carlson on why is it so difficult to predict what transpires in the financial markets: Peter Bernstein in Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk lays out three reasons regression to the mean can be such a frustrating guide to the investment decision-making process: Sometimes it happens at such a slow pace that […]
History in the Service of Victimhood
Dr. Thomas Sowell of Stanford’s Hoover Institution’s collection of essays, (2005,) discusses how history is being used to claim victimhood, rather than as a tool to move on: Race and rhetoric have gone together for so long that it is easy to forget that facts also matter—and these facts often contradict many widely held beliefs. […]
The Ideal of Female Grace
Travel writer Rick Steves on how Venus de Milo’s well-proportioned body personified the balance and orderliness of the Greek universe: Split Venus down the middle from nose to toes and see how the two halves balance each other. Venus rests on her right foot (that contrapposto pose so popular with classical sculptors.) She then lifts […]
Leadership in Four Short Sentences
Pascal Finette quotes an important leadership lesson from VISA’s Dee Hock: Get Your PhD in Leadership in 30 Seconds Dee Hock, architect of payment juggernaut VISA, inventor of chaordic organizations and visionary-extraordinaire once summarized his most important leadership advice as: Make a careful list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do […]
Retailers Abusing Workers
Karin Klein in Los Angeles Times says that Thanksgiving shouldn’t be the only time to care about poorly paid and abused retail workers: I’m no fan of the Thanksgiving shopping trend, but the outrage over holiday work hours seems like one of those easy hits, full of the symbolism that gets people posting on Facebook, […]
How Leaders Overcome Adversity
Executive coach Ed Batista summarizes Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas’s Crucibles of Leadership: A crucible is a vessel used in chemistry and metallurgy in which substances are transformed through the application of extreme heat and pressure. We can think of the current global crisis as a ‘crucible experience’—a chapter in our lives that will undoubtedly […]
Put Nature First
Sereno Sky writes in Lonely Traveller (2014,) The beautiful and natural usually isn’t far away. Even if you happen to live in an ugly industrial or commercial city, it usually doesn’t take much to get out of town and show admiration to beautiful nature. Or you can plant cacti, all kinds of flowers, herbs and […]
Music Stars and Their Un-sexy Real Names
The Futility Closet notes, David Bowie—David Robert Hayward Stenton Jones Eric Clapton—Eric Patrick Clapp Alice Cooper—Vincent Damon Furnier Dido—Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong Bob Dylan—Robert Alan Zimmerman Jewel—Jewel Kilcher Mama Cass—Ellen Naomi Cohen Marilyn Manson—Brian Warner Meat Loaf—Marvin Lee Aday George Michael—Yorgos Panayiotou Nelly—Carnell Haynes, Jr. Lou Reed—Louis Firbank Busta Rhymes—Trevor Tahiem Smith Cliff Richard—Harry […]
Pragmatic Buddhism
Patricia Anderson writes in Spring 1999 issue of Tricycle, the Buddhist Magazine: I became enamored of Buddhism when I realized its basic tenet began by saying, essentially, “Life sucks and then you die, so what’s that all about? This was the religion for me. This was a framework I could use to examine my actual […]