Blogs

“Essential Life-Learnings from 14 Years of Brain Pickings: Choose Joy”

Originally posted in our March 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. We end this month’s Top of Mind by reflecting on “choosing joy” from the blog formerly known as Brain Pickings (now The Marginalian). Maria Popova writes beautifully about how we should choose joy “at first consciously, effortfully, pressing against the weight of a world heavy with reasons for sorrow, restless with need for action.” She urges us to choose joy despite all that the world throws…

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“A Project of One’s Own”

Originally posted in our November 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter. As we close out our discussion of building entrepreneurial culture, let’s consider one more option for fostering innovation: the side project. In his recent essay, Paul Graham thinks through the beauty of a self-directed project. That is, a project “that you’re doing voluntarily, rather than merely because someone told you to, and…that you’re doing it by yourself.” Graham shares the wealth of positive emotions that come…

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“The ‘idea’ of being an entrepreneur”

Originally posted in our November 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter. As we think more about creating an entrepreneurial culture, we must consider various ways to promote the behavior. For example, in a recent blog from Matt Clancy, we see more evidence that social influence promotes entrepreneurship. In this piece, we see that entrepreneurial co-workers increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity in us. And, it is even more likely if we have other things in common such…

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“Ethics Pays”

Originally posted in our October 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter. “Is good ethics good for business? Crime and sleazy behavior sometimes pay off handsomely. People would not do such things if they didn’t think they were more profitable than the alternatives.” With topics of climate change, societal inequity, and governance at the forefront of many big thinkers’ minds, we need to talk about the role of ethics in business. This piece suggests that while unethical behavior…

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“What’s the next big idea? Neo-Aristotelianism.”

Originally posted in our October 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter. Following on from our discussion of virtues and character development, we move into a discussion of ethics. An exciting resurgence of Aristotle’s ethics, Neo-Aristotelianism, provides a deeper understanding of how we develop ethics. Much has been written about Aristotle’s good and virtuous life. And, there is a movement among policymakers, psychologists, and philosophers towards these teachings again. The goal of eudaimonia, or the highest form of…

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