It’s repeated so often, it’s cliche. You hear it in corporate retreats, keynote presentations, and motivational videos. But how often do we take it seriously? I’m talking about Margaret Mead’s famous quote:“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”But just because we have all heard it and maybe we give it a knowing nod, many people still do exactly that. The core of crypto people, which is pretty much ...

It’s repeated so often, it’s cliche. You hear it in corporate retreats, keynote presentations, and motivational videos. But how often do we take it seriously? I’m talking about Margaret Mead’s famous quote:“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”But just because we have all heard it and maybe we give it a knowing nod, many people still do exactly that. The core of crypto people, which is pretty much ...

My dad said to me when I was young. “The person with the agenda will always defeat the person without the agenda.” By agenda, he meant “motivation and passion.” Now, the defeat of those with no agenda/belief may not be immediate. It may take a long, long time, but eventually those with the motivation will wear down those without it. Right now, if you look around the cryptoscape, there’s a feeling of depression. So much of the promise that Satoshi laid out seems further away than ever. Celsius...

My dad said to me when I was young. “The person with the agenda will always defeat the person without the agenda.” By agenda, he meant “motivation and passion.” Now, the defeat of those with no agenda/belief may not be immediate. It may take a long, long time, but eventually those with the motivation will wear down those without it. Right now, if you look around the cryptoscape, there’s a feeling of depression. So much of the promise that Satoshi laid out seems further away than ever. Celsius...

I just returned from a week and a half in Europe, where I spent a lot of time with my teammates and colleagues. It was both empowering and humbling. Humbling because the in-person discussions give you the opportunity to hear the candid feedback, all delivered very kindly, about where I could be doing better. Empowering because I learned so much, in such a short time, about the need for clarity, the importance of setting a vision, how strategy is the result of the alignment between vision and ...

I just returned from a week and a half in Europe, where I spent a lot of time with my teammates and colleagues. It was both empowering and humbling. Humbling because the in-person discussions give you the opportunity to hear the candid feedback, all delivered very kindly, about where I could be doing better. Empowering because I learned so much, in such a short time, about the need for clarity, the importance of setting a vision, how strategy is the result of the alignment between vision and ...

There are a series of articles and charts in the WSJ showing how the “world order of global trade” rose tremendously after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but in recent years, has begun to fragment. Looking, as I do, at everything through rose-colored crypto glasses, I see an opportunity (perhaps a catalyst here) for the future adoption of crypto. While countries themselves have been struggling and de-globalizing, I wonder if the citizens are really ready to do the same. After all, we’ve had a t...

There are a series of articles and charts in the WSJ showing how the “world order of global trade” rose tremendously after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but in recent years, has begun to fragment. Looking, as I do, at everything through rose-colored crypto glasses, I see an opportunity (perhaps a catalyst here) for the future adoption of crypto. While countries themselves have been struggling and de-globalizing, I wonder if the citizens are really ready to do the same. After all, we’ve had a t...

I am not the first person and I certainly won’t be the last to think about consciousness. So, in some respect, there’s probably nothing new here in the grand scheme of things, but for me, it was a new. And hey, it’s my blog, it’s a workshop and I don’t really care (do I?) if anybody reads at all. There’s the brain, the physical entity, but then there’s the mind. The mind, it seems, is what connects each of us to something outside of ourselves. While the brain is contained in the skull, the mi...

I am not the first person and I certainly won’t be the last to think about consciousness. So, in some respect, there’s probably nothing new here in the grand scheme of things, but for me, it was a new. And hey, it’s my blog, it’s a workshop and I don’t really care (do I?) if anybody reads at all. There’s the brain, the physical entity, but then there’s the mind. The mind, it seems, is what connects each of us to something outside of ourselves. While the brain is contained in the skull, the mi...

Lao Tzu writes: “The soft overcomes the hard.” This came to mind after my friend Arthur Jones sent me a link to this blog post. It’s something I’ve come to appreciate, how the things that really matter as you grow in your career are the things that are almost invisible. How things work isn’t about process documents and to-do lists. It’s about the invisible threads that bind (or don’t bind) people to each other. The money quote:"Culture is how an employee feels on Sunday night about going to w...

Lao Tzu writes: “The soft overcomes the hard.” This came to mind after my friend Arthur Jones sent me a link to this blog post. It’s something I’ve come to appreciate, how the things that really matter as you grow in your career are the things that are almost invisible. How things work isn’t about process documents and to-do lists. It’s about the invisible threads that bind (or don’t bind) people to each other. The money quote:"Culture is how an employee feels on Sunday night about going to w...

As I wrote yesterday in SBF vs. Voorhees:In all of the discussion about regulation, what people don’t seem to get is that, the very rails that connect people with each other must, at their core, be free.This entire movement, crypto, is a liberation movement. It’s a liberation movement that comes out of compassion for the suffering of others who have been mistreated at the hands of central bankers. As Erik wrote in his initial reponse:If defi does not swell your heart with joy, hope and inspir...

As I wrote yesterday in SBF vs. Voorhees:In all of the discussion about regulation, what people don’t seem to get is that, the very rails that connect people with each other must, at their core, be free.This entire movement, crypto, is a liberation movement. It’s a liberation movement that comes out of compassion for the suffering of others who have been mistreated at the hands of central bankers. As Erik wrote in his initial reponse:If defi does not swell your heart with joy, hope and inspir...

Personally, I knew it was over before it even began. Erik is a trained debater and extremely articulate. Plus, he’s been studying the issue of crypto regulation for years, so the actual YouTube discussion between them, while illuminating, is probably a big one-sided. But in the midst of the hullaballoo around the debate, I think it’s worth reading Erik’s post in response to SBF’s original post. This is one of the key points:But it would be so much easier if the blockchains themselves would bl...

Personally, I knew it was over before it even began. Erik is a trained debater and extremely articulate. Plus, he’s been studying the issue of crypto regulation for years, so the actual YouTube discussion between them, while illuminating, is probably a big one-sided. But in the midst of the hullaballoo around the debate, I think it’s worth reading Erik’s post in response to SBF’s original post. This is one of the key points:But it would be so much easier if the blockchains themselves would bl...

I was speaking with my friend, Daniel Szuc, one of the world’s leading authorities on how to build workplace environments that generate meaning for its members. Along with Jo Wong, he’s the author of Make Meaningful Work, a primer for leaders who want to focus on the all-important, transferable soft-skills that become increasingly important, the more senior you get. This is top of mind for me as I look towards an upcoming corporate off-site and seek to identify the invisible patters within my...

I was speaking with my friend, Daniel Szuc, one of the world’s leading authorities on how to build workplace environments that generate meaning for its members. Along with Jo Wong, he’s the author of Make Meaningful Work, a primer for leaders who want to focus on the all-important, transferable soft-skills that become increasingly important, the more senior you get. This is top of mind for me as I look towards an upcoming corporate off-site and seek to identify the invisible patters within my...

I used to be a bigger sports fan than I am now, which is mostly a focus of time and attention. However, I still really appreciate the games, and find that when you understand the intricacies of the sport, it’s riveting, particularly it deals so much with unknown information. I also love watching it with my kids, who have become knowledgeable sports fans and we can talk strategy together. I’m probably not the first person to realize this, but I was thinking about the fact that we’re all playin...

I used to be a bigger sports fan than I am now, which is mostly a focus of time and attention. However, I still really appreciate the games, and find that when you understand the intricacies of the sport, it’s riveting, particularly it deals so much with unknown information. I also love watching it with my kids, who have become knowledgeable sports fans and we can talk strategy together. I’m probably not the first person to realize this, but I was thinking about the fact that we’re all playin...

A friend recommended a series of short stories by Ted Chiang in a book entitled “Exhalation. They were riveting. A mixture of sci-fi, history, philosophy, and just a lot of knowledge, they played with my mind in a way that I have experienced in a while reading fiction.

A friend recommended a series of short stories by Ted Chiang in a book entitled “Exhalation. They were riveting. A mixture of sci-fi, history, philosophy, and just a lot of knowledge, they played with my mind in a way that I have experienced in a while reading fiction.

One of my growth opportunity areas is in learning how to become a better builder of organizations. I see the vision of how I want things to come together, like seeing a vision of the car or the building, but I don’t always see how all of the requisite pieces fit together and I need to do a better job of that. Orgs, or at least well-functioning, are like gears in a machine, right? But different gears need to turn at different rates. The engineering of the organization.

One of my growth opportunity areas is in learning how to become a better builder of organizations. I see the vision of how I want things to come together, like seeing a vision of the car or the building, but I don’t always see how all of the requisite pieces fit together and I need to do a better job of that. Orgs, or at least well-functioning, are like gears in a machine, right? But different gears need to turn at different rates. The engineering of the organization.