-
The Emotional Toll of Believing in the Wrong Story
It’s 1860, the year before the end of “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.” In 1814, the Congress of Vienna had put together the Kingdom of Naples (the southern half of Italy’s “boot”) and the Kingdom of Sicily under the rule of a Bourbon, in Naples. This is the backdrop for a spellbinding story. “For…
-
3 Books to Make Sense of What Was, What Is, and What Could Be
Value and the good are synonyms in Aristotle's thought. You can see it play in 'beauty.' Beauty possesses a motive force and can be transferred to do the work of being, which is why art 'moves us.' Thus beauty is good. But this meaning has been lost to history. Culture is organic. It grows and…
-
If I Ruled the World
Have you ever wondered what could be if you ruled the world? I have. And since there's no chance of that happening, I'm with Umberto Eco on supporting political empathy. There's so much we would accomplish if interests were not financialized so much. Along similar lines, you can accomplish a lot if you don't care…
-
Philosophy as a Lens to Understand Money… and Yourself
“The philosopher's job is to be an interface between things that would not normally communicate with each other. We think about policies, strategies, business models, priorities: they are all open problems, where the philosopher has his perfect place.” Oxford University professor Luciano Floridi considers himself a digital philosopher. Digital communication has become a much…
-
Is the Internet a Significant Break from the Past?
And if so, how should we think about what we do with it? Innovation is not a single thing, a eureka (Greek for I have found) moment. There are many factors that go into taking a discovery to making an impact. Bringing something new to the world means standing on the shoulders of giants across…
-
Experimenting with the Questions
The restoration of value begins with fixing the language. And continues with adjusting expectations. When you tell a new story, you can begin to weave into an alternative narrative. This in turn allows you to tap into a new set of beliefs. And the path that seemed unimaginable before opens up. Childhood, for example,…
-
Why we Need More of the Right Kind of Books
I love books. The ones I've read, and the ones I'd love to read. Reading is a form of freedom. Libraries and bookstores are some of my favorite places in the world. Growing up, we had a library of 5,000 books in the house—so much possibility. Right at a point in my life when…
-
Don’t be a Trend Chaser: Pick a Small Number of Books and Dig Deeper
[image courtesy Festival della Filosofia, Modena 2020] “Think with your head” is terrible advice. Because it glosses over what it means “to think.” The process of thinking uses reason to consider facts in order to understand something, make a decision, or solve a problem. There's accountability built into it. That's the part we tend to…
-
Things that Only Books can Teach
There are things that only books can teach. Their format is most suitable to sharing knowledge, wisdom, and arguing a point. A good book opens new worlds, it gives us words to say the things we feel. Sometimes, it also opens our mind. For many, the love of books starts early. Mine comes from the…
-
Why a Good Book Opens a Secret Door
Many of the stories we read as children open new worlds to us. By cultivating this interior space we call imagination, we learn to weave together ideas we get with situations we face in the world. What is real? It depends on who we ask more than we'd like to admit. Mac Barnett is the…