Weekly quote #5: Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

Continue reading “Weekly quote #5: Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat”

Weekly quote #3 – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

We are so bad at prevention, simply because few direct reward acts on it. We only do it when our modern human brain can overrule the often stronger prehistorical brain mass🧠. Jonathan Haidt calls it ‘the rider and the elephant’ (just read his fantastic book ‘The happiness hypothesis’. A lack of training of that animal is dangerous.

There are many examples of an ounce of prevention:

  • We all know we need to plan,
  • sport regularly, eat healthy,
  • put a lot of quality energy in our kids,
  • start our day with the hardest tasks,
  • finish that one chronic task,
  • use sunscreen, stop smoking, etc etc.

It is only when you understand how humans act and become an observer of society, rather than a participant only, that you start preventing more than average, because you see other people’s elephants going wild. (for example yelling in traffic is a very good example of what I call a ‘lose-lose’ strategy).

The biggest problem with the climate change issue is that feedback is too slow and hence, rewards are too little. If you ask me, this big planet problem is a psychology issue, not a technology issue. There’s a lack of immediate gratification, which makes the problem so hard to solve. Can anybody come with an example of a problem of global scale that was solved with global teamwork effectively?

Preventing problems with a small, continuous effort is a very smart strategy, yet the vast minority of people understand this concept and act accordingly.

How proactive are you? Are you a preventer or a drowner? Let me know what your thougths are on Weekly Quote 3! Wim

Weekly quote #2 -Great vision without great people is irrelevant

If you work on a project, if you start a business, if you write a paper, whatever you do with others: you need a vision. Preferably a big one.

You will never reach something big without big vision. But it’s not enough. Great vision without great people and your vision will remain nice words. Great people without great vision and the people will leave.

Since we started hiring people we see 2 groups:

  1. People for which vision and values are important
  2. People that don’t care
    • a) either they never will
    • either they don’t realise the importance yet

I think you need groups 1 and 2b….

Agree?

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