Weekly Filet #50: Solitude and Leadership. And more.
Happy new year! Weekly Filet #50 is out now. You can view it in your browser or right below.
This week's top recommendation
I couldn't think of a more brilliant piece of inspiration to plunge into the new year with than this. An essay based on a lecture at the US Military Academy at West Point in 2009. It's about leadership, in general, not in the military, and about how leadership is not about being on top, not about excelling, not about leading the pack, but first and foremost about thinking. About taking the time and enduring the solitude that are prerequisite to being able to think. My favourite quote from an essay filled with quotes worth highlighting: "I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s."
→ Solitude and Leadership (The American Scholar)
Further recommendations
Mani Matter would have called it "metaphysisches Gruseln": a intriguing read about a man who can trick you into thinking you're a doll.
→ Out-of-body experience: Master of illusion (Nature)
Among a legion of boring year-in-review pieces on TV, this is the one that you will want to watch. Sharp, cynical, true.
→ Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe (BBC Four)
Standford University is offering a series of free, open-for-all online classes starting in the coming weeks. This one on model learning caught my attention.
→ Model Thinking (Stanford Online Education)
A fascinating one year project that has now come to an end: the effort to challenge one person's perception of time through new and unusual experiences, one every day.
→ The Time Hack
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