In the fast-paced startup culture, Tony Hsieh stood out for his unique attitude and incredible values. He was a mentor to many young entrepreneurs and an internet icon for budding founders who wanted to embrace a unique purpose-driven life.

“The biggest (and hardest) lesson I’ve learned in life is that the external world is just a reflection of the world within.” — Tony Hsieh

Hsieh had incredible success in LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million in 1998. Then as the CEO of Zappos until 2020. …

A few days ago I scrolled past a peculiar ad. I’m never sure what exactly the Instagram algorithm gods have in store for me, but here I was, staring into the void of what my micro-dosed brain could look like.

I fundamentally don’t like the idea that I am a capitalist drone who needs to ingest psychedelics to increase my productivity (and thus increase the profit of whoever is hiring me). If I am not productive enough to keep up without psychedelics, then the system is flawed and my workload should decrease.

It reminded me that while I was researching…

When I saw Japan had announced $19 million to launch an “AI tinder”, my first thought was that this is a cosmetic, faddy solution to a wickedly deep problem.

I am confident that instead of wasting $19 million on an AI matchmaking program, using funds that were reserved for the “slumping birth-rate crisis”, we should would never assume that the reason women aren’t having more babies is that we aren’t meeting men. It’s because we don’t want them right now.

Please governments, stop getting caught up in the promise of what AI can offer, and realise that to fix sociological…

Lately, I’ve noticed that feeling of isolation which creeps slowly into your lockdown life. It bleeds in slowly at first, just into the corners, but then eventually paints the whole thing red. I was reflecting with a friend about how interacting with so few people has caused my perception of myself to shift.

I started to wonder, is being withdrawn from society always a challenge? Or can it change our stubborn perspectives, both on the world and the universe?

No one deals with the vastness of the universe and our small place in it more than astrophotographer, astronomer and astronomy…

Last semester I was teaching negotiation to a room full of entrepreneurs. I asked them a simple question:

“Put your hand up if you think you are a good negotiator?”

At least 70% of them raised their hands.

“Keep your hand up if you think you are a master negotiator? As in — you could negotiate for hostages in a kidnapping.” About 40% of the founders identified as master negotiators.

As an entrepreneur, almost everything is a negotiation. From clients to partners, employees, services, infrastructure, investors, heck even with your own family. …

In a zoom meeting at a national archaeological conference on Wednesday, Professor Schuyler interrupted a younger female academic by using the Nazi salute and phrase “Sieg heil to you”. Professor Schuyler confirmed that he used the salute and phrase.

The phrase “Sieg heil,” is a victory salute used originally by Nazis at political rallies. After World War II, white supremacists in North America adopted the phrase. You can watch the interaction in the youtube clip below (Schuyler speaks at 20 seconds in and does the salute at 1.36 min).

To contextualise the incident, University of York Ph.D. candidate Liz…

A mob of pro-Trump supports have broken through security into the Capitol building to oppose the counting of electoral votes.

Congress has been sent into lockdown in response to throngs of MAGA hat-wearing, pro-Trump flag-waving protesters. The proximity of these protests to the BLM protests earlier in 2020 provides an interesting opportunity to illustrate the differences in how police and security treat both groups.

The pro-Trump rioters greatly outnumbered Capitol security to the point where they were able to filter inside after breaking glass. These rioters weren’t unexpected, given Trump incited insurrection. …

I remember when I was a teenager and I got a new puppy. I took the puppy to a training school. The rambunctious little thing was yapping away. All the other puppies sat there silently, well behaved, making me look bad. I was petting the puppy. Trying to soothe her. Wanting her to shut up so the trainer would stop looking at me.

It didn’t work. The trainer singled me out.

“Stop patting your dog,” she said. “If you pat your dog when she is being naughty, you are giving her positive reinforcement for her misbehaviour”.

I stopped patting the…