You Know More than You Think

You Know More than You Think

There was a high school teacher who taught his students a call and response in his high school chemistry class. “What do you do when we encounter a problem we don’t know?” He would ask them, “Don’t panic!” They would shout in reply. “Why?”“Because you know more than...
The Plywood Palace: Constraint and Invention

The Plywood Palace: Constraint and Invention

During World War II, the until-then introverted and relatively inconsequential United States found itself a warehouse of military production and invention. Engineers and military leaders were trying to build their way out of the war. The advances made during this...
Funerals, Potlucks, and the Ripple Effect

Funerals, Potlucks, and the Ripple Effect

The problems we are the most passionate about are often the ones we are least able to see clearly. We can spend so much time in the minutia, in the nuance, of a large, complex problem, that we lose the thread of what we’re really trying to accomplish. Instead of...
How to Spend 100 Million Dollars

How to Spend 100 Million Dollars

Getting to 100 Million Two years ago, I sat across from the Executive Director of the foundation for a large, downtown church. His office was on the 22nd floor of a towering steel and glass bank building and felt very much like a place for successful people to build...