Wisdom, humor, and what comes next
RWL #420
Greetings from The University of New Hampshire! Can you say amaretto bundt cake? I’m sorry I didn’t get a shot of it fully dressed, with the almond glaze, but it was pretty perfect right out of the pan. We celebrated TLW’s birthday this weekend, and this was the cake she asked for. Amaretto is the liquor of love, and this cake is all about love. (recipe here)
I ran my last conference of the fall last week, the annual meeting of the American College of Healthcare Executives of Northern New England (ACHE of NNE). I brought six students with me and of course they were fabulous! I’m so behind in everything as a result of running two conferences and participating in two more over the course of less than 30 days, and getting COVID in the middle, but they were all great, and the best thing is getting the students out there with industry leaders. I was also surprised and honored to receive the New Hampshire Regent’s Award this year.
As usual, willing good for all of you!
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From the comments:
I don’t usually do this, but I wanted to share this comment on Sunday’s post. I think Jeff does a great job refining my overall message:
Hey there Mark, thanks for your many posts. I read them all and rarely comment. This one resonated with me as I too believe there are only three things in life: things we control, things we influence, and things we have neither. My experience is many people reject this concept. For those willing to consider, it I offer the following:
1) The lesson in this idea is to restrict (ideally eliminate) spending any energy on the later.
2) Any energy wasted on the later is energy wasted that might be expended more profitably.
3) The better investment is to put that energy into building relations that may expand what influence you might weld.
4) Building strong, healthy relationships with others is the key to influence.
5) The challenge is doing so with people who seeing the world differently than you do.
Many of the folks I supported in this election did not win and my plan going forward is to work to build more robust relationships with people who do not think like me. Worst I get some new perspectives, at best others expand their world view. Cheers brother, jeff
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What: Psyche, Wisdom is a virtue, but how do we judge if someone has it?
https://psyche.co/ideas/wisdom-is-a-virtue-but-how-do-we-judge-if-someone-has-it
Why: From the article:
People generally acknowledged their own cognitive limitations, rating themselves lower in reflective orientation than the wisest individuals. However, they tended to see themselves as more socially and emotionally aware than most others. In other words, they were willing to acknowledge their cognitive imperfections but believed they excelled in empathy, communication and awareness of social context.
The whole thing is short and worth reading. Wisdom is the focus of my project, so I may be biased.
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Watch
What: TED, Why great leaders take humor seriously (9 min)
Why: The universe reflects the priming we greet it with: “live on the precipice of a smile”. Some nice tips here, and an overall fun approach.
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Listen
What: The Foreign Affairs Interview, The World of Trump 2.0 (48 min)
Why: Features one of my favorite foreign policy and military affairs commentators, Kori Schake. I always appreciate her point of view. Things are moving fast now that the election is a week behind us, but I think this pod gives some good insight into potential trajectories. (TLW used to refer to Schake as “the woman with the laugh” when she heard me listening to her on a different pod)