In 2014, Om Malik wrote:
A few years ago, I pointed out that Google’s lack of social DNA is why it would constantly fail at all its attempts to succeed at “social.” Similarly if there is a fault in Facebook, it lacks that inherent humanness. Facebook is a tool whose core addictive value is in allowing us to star in the movie of our lives. It is not a tool that encourages empathy, instead it is a tool for rewarding others with fractional attention, through likes and LOLs. It is a playground of words without meaning.Om Malik
It’s 2017, and the world doesn’t seem to have changed much (link via Nicola Losito):
It is not just Facebook. It is time for our industry to pause and take a moment to think: as technology finds its way into our daily existence in new and previously unimagined ways, we need to learn about those who are threatened by it. Empathy is not a buzzword but something to be practiced. Let’s start by not raging on our Facebook feeds but, instead, taking a trip to parts of America where five-dollar lattes and freshly pressed juices are not perks but a reminder of haves and have-nots. Otherwise, come 2020, Silicon Valley will have become an even bigger villain in the popular imagination, much like its East Coast counterpart, Wall Street.Om Malik in The New Yorker
Otto reminds us that creativity is an alternating cycle of expansion and contraction.
When you begin down the path of creativity, you will encounter challenges and moments of insight and growth, each time at a different level. There is no such thing as being done with an artistic life. You will always experience downturns as well as highs. As the writer, director and producer Julia Cameron writes in her book The Artist’s Way.
Frustration and rewards exists at all levels on the path. Our aim is to find the trail, establish our footing, and begin the climb. The creative vistas that open will quickly excite you.
I’ve come to realize, more and more, that I’m always rushing.
I rush from one task to the next, rush through eating my food, impatient for meditation to be over, rushing through reading something, rushing to get somewhere, anxious to get a task or project finished.
What’s the deal? This coming from a guy who has written a lot about slowing down and savoring, about being present, about single-tasking?Why I am always in a hurry
CEO leadership definitely sets the culture of the organization. No buck-passing.
I understand that a first-time CEO and leader may not have all the context or experience to understand the dynamics and culture that they are creating and to an extent that is forgivable.
But for those that have built multiple organizations, I would venture to say that it’s intentional. Yeah, I’m going to choose a side here and not sit on the fence. It’s intentional. It’s explicit. It’s even pre-planned and premeditated.John Saddington
Via With the Grain
The only way it is possible to be good in this world is if you can be good without knowing the consequences. It has to be random or there’s no goodness. So you know you can be the best person in the world, and you can still die young. But at least, if you know that, then your goodness was real goodness. You were doing it because you believe good is important, or you love other people, or being good makes you feel good — something intrinsic and not because you’re being good because you know God’s going to reward you.Rabbi David Wolpe
