The Dogmas Of the Quiet Past Are Inadequate

On December 1st, 1862 Abraham Lincoln wrote a long message to Congress in which he passionately argues for controversial measures such as the voluntary colonization of slaves and compensated emancipation.

Do What Is Rare And Unique

Here is some advice for those of you who are a little earlier in their careers (and all of us where this never seems to change).

A few days ago I found myself talking to a fellow Heretic who, as a freshman in college, is faced with the decision how to…

Be The Wise Fool Of Tough Love

We have talked about failure so many times already. Despite the startup mantra of “Failing Fast & Failing Forward,” I can see no benefit in failing over succeeding.

That said — of course, you will fail. Over and over again. You will fail way more…

Never Underestimate The Future

Yesterday we wrapped up the November Executive Program at Singularity University — time-traveling with our participants for a week into the future. Having had the pleasure and honor to have participated, moderated, taught and led workshops in the program for nearly four…

Strive For A Lot And Fail Well

Today I found myself answering a series of questions on Silicon Valley’s attitude to failure. You know — the whole “fail fast, fail forward” thing…

The fixation on failure seemingly for the sake of failing is just wrong. All you learn from failing if…

On Being Right

Today, during a longer one-on-one session with one of my team members, we reflected on all the amazing people coming through our doors at Singularity University — may they be our faculty, staff or participants. It made me remember a mantra my first boss kept mentioning in meetings:

Operate in Technicolor

For a very long time, I took pride in my ability to very quickly categorize problems into binary categories and make decisions on a “black and white”-view of the world. When I explained my decision making, I prefaced it with an “I know that the world is not black and white, but it helps…