As a consultant, I offer (allow) many contact methods: my various email addresses, a few Slack channels, and several Discord channels. That’s not all. I also have contact forms on my websites, a phone number, and my various social media. If I had to add it up, I suspect there are over 15 ways I […]
How Many Contact Methods Do You Allow, Check, and Use? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s May 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. A few weeks ago, I met a friend, Dave, for lunch. We’d had to cancel that lunch two weeks in a row. The first time was because I was sick. While I selfishly decided
How Do You Know When a Selfish or Generous Decision is Best? Read More »
In last week’s question, How Do You Manage to Want to Keep Learning?, my last option was to sleep on the learning to reinforce what we learned. So an eagle-eyed reader asked this question: How do you force yourself to take that rest? (No one can continue to burn the candle at both ends—that’s not
How Do You Manage to Force Yourself to Take a Rest? Read More »
An amazing thing occurred in the recent French elections. After the first round of voting, the third-place centrist-left candidates dropped out and asked “their” voters to support the other centrist-left candidate. That’s how the center-left overwhelmed the far-right candidates. Yes, the third-place people stayed committed to their principles but did not stay attached to their positions.
How Can We Be Committed to Principles, But Not Attached to Positions? Read More »
As a consultant, I work with people who have plenty of problems. (No one calls a consultant when things are going well.) Many of these nice people feel as if they should be able to find a simple and direct solution to their problems. Simple and direct solutions assume we know enough about the risks
How Can We Move from Craving Simple Direct Solutions to Adapting with Experiments? Read More »
At my instigation, Mark and I went to Norway last week to see the Northern Lights. We had a terrific time. (If you want to see just one image, go to the online version of the newsletter.) Mark found an accessible tour, so I saw the lights from two perspectives: standing in the cold—and sitting
When Do You Make Assumptions About Other People’s Abilities? Read More »
Long ago, in a company that no longer exists, my managers asked me to “stretch the truth” to a customer. I refused. One of them threatened me with the loss of my job. They didn’t fire me that day, and I left soon thereafter. I didn’t have trouble doing the right thing because I’d already
How Can We Make it Easy to do the Right Thing? Read More »
Fred, A sixty-ish colleague, said, “My son is so overloaded at work. But he refuses to work overtime. He says it compromises his ideals. Is overtime something Millenials don’t do?” I asked, “When do you think it’s okay to work overtime?” Fred said, “Whenever the company needs me to work overtime.” “How many days do
When and for How Long Do You Choose to Compromise? Read More »
I read a terrific piece by Hannah Fry that women don’t excel at math because of sexism. Sexism! Not innate or learned ability. Sexism. When I was a kid, the culture “said” that women couldn’t do math. However, I had two immediate examples that women were great at math. My mom could remember duplicate bridge hands
How Can We Learn to Belong to New Communities? Read More »
I love shortcuts—especially if I’m not supposed to use them. Why can’t I avoid right-angle paths and use the hypotenuse instead? That saves me some time. Can I make my exercise easier? I can—and I too often lose the value of the exercise. So shortcuts aren’t always good or always bad. The context matters. Shortcuts
What Do You Gain or Lose with Shortcuts, Rules, and Laws? Read More »