seths.blog / .seths-blog

We are story-processing creatures, and the most effective stories are often embodied in people. Living examples of the lesson we're trying to learn and the posture we hope to model. Heroes, m ...

Celebrity gossip, fortune-telling and superstitions are the original forms of fake news, but now it's increasingly widespread. In every field from science to world affairs, it's troubli ...

Until you look at the system. Kevin Wilson wrote a great short story about the workers who have to sort the tiles that go into a Scrabble box. The hero is responsible for searching through the pile ...

Once a company hits a plateau in its market share, the pressure begins to mount. Investors want more of a return, shareholders want the stock price to go up. Managers pay attention to the metrics t ...

Pop culture is spiralling. I had no idea what "mad magazine autostereogram, cutecore" meant, but it was enough for Midjourney to create this: Older generations have always been left out ...

Nothing important is for everyone. When we encounter a thoughtful critic, we need to quickly understand who is speaking to us. If the work we made was intended for someone just like this, and they ...

This is the first rule of safe driving. Don't hurtle your car into a jam where you have no options. But the first rule of management and human interaction is to leave other people an out. Whe ...

This is not the same as not working very hard. In fact, they're very different. We've been indoctrinated to avoid trying hard (too risky and emotionally fraught) and to resign ourselves ...

In a world of automation, AI and outsourcing, what exactly do we do for a living? Perhaps we make decisions. And what's in short supply? A willingness to take responsibility. If you choose to ...

Left alone, a cup of coffee will gradually cool until it reaches room temperature. Stable systems regress to the mean. Things level out on their way to average, which maintains the stability of the ...