This Is Your Brain on the Internet
We are bombarded by information, thanks in large part to the internet and its allied technologies. But exposure to unlimited information is not the same thing as the ability to capture it as knowledge or synthesize it as understanding. "We are living in a state of perpetual distraction," says Nicholas Carr, "which crowds out the more contemplative, calmer modes of thinking." We need these quieter,... posted on May 31 2013, 9,049 reads

Transformation By Design: Your Visa Card & Evolution's Plan
Like the familiar phrases yin and yang, work and play, peanut butter and jelly, the term chaordic brings seeming opposites together in harmony. According to Dee Hock, the founder and former CEO of Visa International, the company owes its success to its cha-ordic structure. "Hock coined the term chaordic to describe that perfect balance of chaos and order where evolution is most at home. Yes, that'... posted on May 30 2013, 34,094 reads

10 Ways to Get Ahead Through Giving
Why do some people become successful while others do not? Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at The Wharton School, has studied this question and what he found is surprising: "The people most likely to rise to the top are often those who give the most to others -- people Grant calls 'givers,' as opposed to the 'takers' who try to get as much as possible from others and the 'matchers' who t... posted on May 29 2013, 32,575 reads

How to Change the World with Hot Cocoa & Neruda
"Wake up. Don't press snooze. Sling your legs over the side of the bed. Right. Left. Turn on music. Good, good music...You need a life soundtrack. Has anyone told you that yet? Pick out something spectacular from your closet. Feel good in your skin. Put on an item that tells some kind of story. Always have a story to tell, just a wrist or coat sleeve away. And if that yellow sweater ain't got a st... posted on May 28 2013, 35,972 reads

Miserable & Magical: A Graduation Speech for Paradoxical Times
When the student body of an elite private school in Silicon Valley was given the chance to vote on who would give their graduation address, their first pick was Nipun Mehta. An unexpected choice for these teenagers, who belong to what Time magazine called the "Me Me Me Generation". Nipun's journey is the antithesis of self-serving. More than a decade ago, he walked away from a lucrative career in ... posted on May 27 2013, 548,702 reads

Ladder to the Pleiades
"My daughter, Hannah Virginia, who recently turned three years old, is teaching me about the stars. Far from being a liability to her, my own profound astronomical ignorance has turned out to be her boon and, through her, a boon to me as well. The most important thing the kid has taught me is the brilliant, open secret that if you don't go outside and look up, you won't see anything. Every night b... posted on May 26 2013, 55,071 reads

At 18, He Taught Us How To Live Before He Died
"Every teenager believes they are invincible," said Zach Sobiech. "It's not the kind of invincible like Superman; it's the kind of invincible like, 'I'll see you in five months.'" Zach didn't have five months. He died of cancer on 20 May 2013, shortly after his 18th birthday. This film gives us glimpses of Zack's enormous capacity for love, his gentle humor, haunting music, and the quiet courage w... posted on May 25 2013, 9,883 reads

Recipes for Recovery
With a tagline that reads, "Where hitting the bottom, begins the climb to new heights," the Delancey Street Foundation is a residential education center for drug addicts and ex-convicts. It currently operates a few facilities across the US, bringing hope and empowerment in communities where people are breaking out of cycles of incarceration and drug abuse . Their mission is rooted in showing resi... posted on May 24 2013, 11,388 reads

A Poet's Take on The Mystery of Existence
"When I start to write, I'm not a guide or teacher; I'm not even a poet. I'm a person far out at sea, and the poem is a raft made of whatever floats past in the water. Those almost accidental rescuing pieces are words, rhythms, musics, ideas, the memory that is mine and the memory that is all of ours and the memory that is held in language itself. The experience of writing, for me at least, isn't ... posted on May 23 2013, 16,815 reads

What To Do When You've Angered Someone
"I was running late. My wife Eleanor and I had agreed to meet at the restaurant at seven o'clock and it was already half past. I had a good excuse in the form of a client meeting that ran over and I wasted no time getting to the dinner as fast as possible. When I arrived at the restaurant, I apologized and told her I didn't mean to be late. She answered: "You never mean to be late." Uh oh, she wa... posted on May 22 2013, 339,579 reads