Newsletter Archive

Last week’s piece left two open questions: The answers to these questions are inexplicably connected. To demonstrate, we will answer them in reverse order. The Brain’s Two-Phase Development It is extremely rare to hear the term “late” contextualized positively. In many cases, appropriately so; but in others, perhaps we’ve been misled. Neurological development is a…

If an individual had the following resume, how would you view them: University of California-Berkely: B.A. Economics, Minor in Mathematics and Philosophy Harvard Business School: MBA Harvard Business School: Youngest Assistant Professor in College’s History (24) US Air Force: Captain Ford Motor Company: 15 Years Executive Management, including CEO United States Government: Secretary of Defense,…

It hit me while at Phoenix Airport this week it’s been three weeks since publishing a piece: couple reasons for that. First, I’ve been traveling or have hosted travelers each of the past three weekends. As much I enjoy these experiences, they cut into the hours needed to produce quality writing. Second, and what I’ll…

Pierre Boulle is a name unknown to most. His limited contributions to literature and cinema, however, are transcendent. Boulle authored Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes in 1952 and 1963, respectively, both of which were adopted into the namesake award-winning films. They are among my favorite films because of their fascinating…

The past couple weeks have been filled with lots of conversation around education. I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to speak to a variety of people from administrators to educational consultants and school board members as well as tour revolutionary learning facilities closer to a science museum than a classroom. These interactions have been thought…

In continuing with the reflection theme of the past couple pieces, I will begin this week’s with another lesson learned from this past year of Becoming Polymathic. Fair warning, it is nothing earth shattering. There are few universal themes in life. I can hear the “no shit” comments ringing in my ears. The genesis of…

My current role is the second consulting one I’ve had. It’s going well, much better than my first foray and failure in early 2020. A minor reason for that failure was the global pandemic. The major reason was my inexperience navigating the politics of consulting. My assumption was anybody who hired a consultant was seeking…

“Opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one,” said some crass old man I encountered. Medium aside, the message is sound. We’ll examine the nuances of developing opinions in another piece. As for this one, we’re going to discuss the equally important process of developing taste. You‘ve Already Started Developing Taste Whether you realize it or…

This August marks two meaningful milestones – one year of Becoming Polymathic and a completed first draft of my novel Forward, A Madison Story, which was finished on Wednesday, August 7, 2024. By no means are these ventures complete, but as I’ve stated previously, it’s important to reflect upon these intermittent markers to not lose…

If you were to type the title of this piece into a search engine, the results would be a series of triggered bloggers and columnists bloviating about how the cost of a four-year degree has made it undesirable. I’m not here to further disturb them; that topic is an entire history in of itself. I’m…