Brené Brown describes vulnerability as a measure of strength, not weakness. Expressing feelings of self-doubt and uncertainty, discussing uncertain situations, and sharing encounters with failure and hardship are all ways that we can practice vulnerability. Many Westerners have been raised to think of vulnerability as a weakness or a flaw. In fact, vulnerability is a tool […]
The World is…Flat?
It’s rare to see a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer argue that the world is flat. But that’s exactly what Thomas L. Friedman has done, observing the “flatness” of a global market that lets developing countries complete and collaborate with developed nations. Tracing the phenomenon of globalization all the way back to Christopher Columbus, our Instaread on […]
Food for Thought: The Mindless Mishap that Unraveled Brian Wansink’s Bestseller
Is there any story more delicious than a proud man’s fall from grace? Discredited food psychologist Brian Wansink, a Cornell professor and formerly the head of the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and promotion, built his career by fanning the flames of public interest in his gimmicky food lab projects. As a frequent fixture in […]
A Tour of Silicon Valley
For some, Silicon Valley is a place to live and work. For others, the Valley seems so alien that it might as well be another planet. This rift has perhaps never been so clear as it is in a trio of pieces in the New York Times that ran this week about how parents in […]
Walter Isaacson’s Renaissance Men
Walter Isaacson was once labeled a “protean biographer” by the New York Times. The phrase was a clever reference to the way his writing style shifts to accommodate the demands of a given subject. As a professor of history, a journalist, a network news leader, and the head of a respected think tank, Isaacson is […]
Star Wars
Space has always occupied a special place in the human imagination. From the landscape of literature and movies to the realities of hard science, it carries heavy symbolic weight. Progress, mystery, loneliness, death — space has come to represent some of our most cherished ambitions and private fears. But maybe most of all its exploration […]
