If you’d prefer an audio version of this piece, you can find it on http://likelytrue.com

I’ve been undergoing a process in the hopes of tuning my intuition — meaning both hearing it more often and trusting myself with it when I do hear it. First let me quickly define what I mean by intuition, why I value it, and then I’ll go into the steps I’m taking on the tuning process.

Intuition is a form of instinctive knowing, versus the deliberative thinking we typically do. It is a speedy/immediate response to a stimulus, whether setting, person, or decision, that may…

Below is an overview of an idea that emerged at the intersection of work life trends from the past decade and those over the past several months of this pandemic. For more detail of the idea and how it may, finally, connect some of the nascent innovations in education to the working economy, listen to the 10/31 episode From COVID to the Contribution Economy of Likely True via likelytrue.com or wherever you acccess podcasts.

There are three trends that I’m seeing that I think will persist post-pandemic (whenever that is) that are also getting us closer to a contribution economy…

ISO: The League of Unaffiliated Cultural Imagineers

Storytelling is something that has become a bit of a buzzword, but is also something that is baked into our thinking. Recently, I’ve been particularly struck by the power and value of storytelling as an aspirational context. I think we don’t realize how often the context of the stories we take in shape our aspirations. I’m specifically interested in the contexts of stories, the subtle background that informs the characters’ assumptions, but that we as an audience member may learn along the way or apply our own expectations of what’s possible. …

Radical Imagining — Investing 25% in Learning

I wasn’t aware of Robin DG Kelley’s book Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination when I first heard the term “radical imagining.” I am inspired by the framing that imagination is a powerful tool for transforming society. My hope with this and any future “Radical Imaging” is to be a jumping off point for my own thinking as I continue to take in the books, articles, podcasts, news, and experiences of the people around me.

Everyone is expected to invest at least 25% of their effort in learning. This is a part of…

The Universal Weird

Is it weird that I get excited about Halloween? I’m a fan of costumes (both subtle and bold) and I like to alternate my costumes each year as either making myself uncomfortable or making other people uncomfortable.

One year I dressed up in jeans, sneakers, a baseball jersey and cap, and had a big foam finger. …

What would this look like if it were easy?

I came across this question the other day (was it in a podcast or an article — I can’t recall), and I stopped. I could immediately see how this would be helpful to the current situation for one of my clients, and to other’s who struggle with the inertia of their office’s status quo.

Who do you rely on?

I was almost offended by this question when posed by my therapist. I am a rock, I am an island… right?! I’d actually never thought about reliance. I’d rarely, if ever, used…

Since Reagan, the GOP has been pushing a vision of private sector > government. They have the absurdist ultimate manifestation of that in Trump. However, only a government can address things like pandemics. Hence their struggle to leverage something they don’t believe in.

This vision also meant that they weakened parts of the government they felt were most “unnecessary” and dismissed information that would suggest ramping up government activity/systems/utilization because they do not believe in government as creator of solutions.

This vision means they see the big companies like GM, Apple, Google as pure manifestation of private sector power and…

This is an economic and societal reflection point. The definition of essential is being refined — and likely for many defined.

I have started a growing list of questions for myself and in general. Add your questions or answers as a response below.

Let’s ask good questions and get curious. To each question’s answer get real toddler-like and ask why? at least 3 times.

Questions (a handful to get started, in no particular order)

• Do we get rid of the bullshit work as a result of the forced essentialism emerging from this pandemic?
• Do we as a society recognize how…