Tramping through the woods this week, I was able to cross a creek bed that had been impassable during the springtime rains. The view was clear across a pond that had been obscured by the summer’s tall grasses. The source of this summer’s hornets was suddenly revealed, their giant nest dangling from a tree […]
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. – Mary Oliver It’s a funny phrase, and apt: we don’t make attention, or do attention, we pay attention. It often feels like a cost. When we are called to pay attention, it’s because our focus is elsewhere. Pay attention to the algebra […]
Asking the right question is much more important than finding the solution. – Brian Arthur Our professional worlds are increasingly silo-ed, and so if you are not a scientist yourself the odds are high that you don’t get to spend much time with scientists. This is one reason for my longstanding affiliation […]
“When we reject the single story, we regain a kind of paradise.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie This week was a wonderful jumble of tactical questions, scientific exploration, and philosophical reflection… pretty much a perfect week. It was a week of Big Questions. Is this portfolio reflecting the great variety of investment opportunity we see? […]
If you’re asking a question with an answer, chances are you’re asking the wrong question. This plus many other insights were part of the exchange between Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, and Mary Berry at this year’s Schumacher Lecture, part of the terrific Schumacher Center for a New Economics. If you are interested in how to […]
807 million. That’s the number of people who could be supported by US cropland, according to a fascinating new study published in the journal Elementa. Of course, there’s a catch: the US could self-sustain 800m people IF we were all vegan. Continuing with our current national diet, high in meat and sweeteners, there’s carrying capacity […]
We usually save these sorts of observations for our “Sunday Best” posts, but really, the most powerful unplugging of all might be the kind that occurs during the week. If you sit with a big question for a whole screen-less hour today, who knows what might emerge? As you read this I am happily unplugged […]
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain Dare to doubt. One of my top 3 talks from this year’s TED conference was the finale from Casey Gerald, who dared to wonder, what if our answers […]
Our new graphics series has begun – welcome to Wisdom of the Hive! This week’s wisdom: HOW is greater than WHAT. Why and What are answers; HOW is the question.