Dave's Library

In a sermon delivered at the height of World War Two, a period awash in distraction and despair, C.S. Lewis delivered a powerful claim about the cultivation of a deep life: “We are always falling in love or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If […]

I recently came across a Hemingway quote that caught my attention: “My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.”

It’s not just Zoom. Popular video chat platforms have design flaws that exhaust the human mind and body. But there are easy ways to mitigate their effects.

The rise of remote work during the pandemic is just one part of a generational shift that is redefining how and why we do our jobs.

A conversation about not letting work rule your life and what companies get right and wrong with flexible work.

Yes to a coffee meeting means saying no to an hour of reading. Yes to a Zoom call means no to getting some exercise. Next time you face a choice, author Ryan Holiday suggests you ask: Which of thes…

This weekend we welcome Stacey Vanek Smith, NPR host of The Indicator and correspondent for Planet Money, who joined us to discuss her recently released book, Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace. Women have been making strides towards equality for decades, or so we’re often told. They’ve been increasingly entering male-dominated areas of the workforce and consistently surpassing their male peers in grades, university attendance, and degrees. They’ve recently stormed the political arena with a vengeance. But despite all of this, the payoff is, quite literally. not there: the gender pay gap has held steady at about 20% since 2000. And the number of female CEOs for Fortune 500 companies has actually been declining. So why, in the age of #MeToo and #TimesUp, is the glass ceiling still holding strong? And how can we shatter it for once and for all? Stacy Vanek Smith’s advice: ask Machiavelli “with this delicious look at what we have to gain by examining our…

A guide to uncommitting gracefully.

Our lives are loud — and too often it costs money to escape the noise.

An irreverent conversation about hope between journalist Wajahat Ali and theologian Kate Bowler. They speak to this moment we’re in through the friendship they found on the edge of life and death that is cancer — Wajahat through his young daughter; and Kate with a stage 4 diagnosis at the age of 35 that she’s chronicled in a beloved memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved). Their conversation is rich with practical wisdom for facing uncertainty and mortality, losses we did not foresee, and new beginnings we would not have chosen. This is the first in a new series, The Future of Hope — a beautiful array of voices, former guests on this show, having the conversations they want to be hearing in this time.

The pandemic prompted a surge in the use of workplace surveillance programs – and they’re not going away any time soon

Want your employees to stick around? Flexibility is just the minimum.

I am sure we all agree, times are a bit challenging right now. Many of us are being faced with dilemmas and situations that we never imagined nor rehearsed. How will some companies or teams survive, who will fold, and who will thrive? Survive: you will “make it through”. Your product or team will take some hits but you will keep moving forward, not overly inspired, maybe a bit bruised but still functioning at a mediocre level. Fold: Didn't make the cut. The tension, change, anger, and resentment

We live in a call-out culture, says activist and scholar Loretta J. Ross. You're probably familiar with it: the public shaming and blaming, on social media and in real life, of people who may have done wrong and are being held accountable. In this bold, actionable talk, Ross gives us a toolkit for starting productive conversations instead of fights -- what she calls a "call-in culture" -- and shares strategies that help challenge wrongdoing while still creating space for growth, forgiveness and maybe even an unexpected friend. "Fighting hate should be fun," Ross says. "It's being a hater that sucks."

If cultivating a certain kind of workplace culture is important, it shouldn’t be extra work that goes uncompensated, researchers say.

You are not a visual learner — learning styles are a stubborn myth. Part of this video is sponsored by Google Search. Special thanks to Prof. Daniel Willingham for the interview and being part of this video. Special thanks to Dr Helen Georigou for reviewing the script and helping with the scientific literature. Special thanks to Jennifer Borgioli Binis for consulting on the script. MinutePhysics video on a better way to picture atoms -- https://ve42.co/Atom ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ References: Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological science in the public interest, 9(3), 105-119. — https://ve42.co/Pashler2008 Willingham, D. T., Hughes, E. M., & Dobolyi, D. G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), 266-271. — https://ve42.co/Willingham Massa, L. J., & Mayer, R. E. (2006). Testing the ATI hypothesis: Should multimedia instruction accommodate verbalizer-visualizer cognitive style?. Learning and Individual Differences, 16(4), 321-335. — https://ve42.co/Massa2006 Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). The myth of learning styles. Change: The magazine of higher learning, 42(5), 32-35.— https://ve42.co/Riener2010 Husmann, P. R., & O'Loughlin, V. D. (2019). Another nail in the coffin for learning styles? Disparities among undergraduate anatomy students’ study strategies, class performance, and reported VARK learning styles. Anatomical sciences education, 12(1), 6-19. — https://ve42.co/Husmann2019 Snider, V. E., & Roehl, R. (2007). Teachers’ beliefs about pedagogy and related issues. Psychology in the Schools, 44, 873–886. doi:10.1002/pits.20272 — https://ve42.co/Snider2007 Fleming, N., & Baume, D. (2006). Learning Styles Again: VARKing up the right tree!. Educational developments, 7(4), 4. — https://ve42.co/Fleming2006 Rogowsky, B. A., Calhoun, B. M., & Tallal, P. (2015). Matching learning style to instructional method: Effects on comprehension. Journal of educational psychology, 107(1), 64. — https://ve42.co/Rogowskyetal Coffield, Frank; Moseley, David; Hall, Elaine; Ecclestone, Kathryn (2004). — https://ve42.co/Coffield2004 Furey, W. (2020). THE STUBBORN MYTH OF LEARNING STYLES. Education Next, 20(3), 8-13. — https://ve42.co/Furey2020 Dunn, R., Beaudry, J. S., & Klavas, A. (2002). Survey of research on learning styles. California Journal of Science Education II (2). — https://ve42.co/Dunn2002 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Mike Tung, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Ismail Öncü Usta, Paul Peijzel, Crated Comments, Anna, Mac Malkawi, Michael Schneider, Oleksii Leonov, Jim Osmun, Tyson McDowell, Ludovic Robillard, Jim buckmaster, fanime96, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Joar Wandborg, Clayton Greenwell, Pindex, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Research and Writing by Derek Muller and Petr Lebedev Animation by Iván Tello Filmed by Emily Zhang and Trenton Oliver Edited by Trenton Oliver Music by Epidemic Sound https://epidemicsound.com Additional video supplied by Getty Images ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

Studies show prolonged isolation takes a toll on our memory and attention. Fortunately, there are small steps you can take to mitigate lockdown brain

Taking time to better understand yourself can improve your leadership and help unlock the next stage of your career.

People hired during the pandemic finally got a chance to see what their colleagues look like in real life; ‘there’s this weird moment when you lay eyes on someone who you know but you don’t know’

Here are the results from last week's polls: - How long does it take to change culture? - How long is our attention span for culture change projects? Check out this video for the data and what you can do about it!

The longer that Covid-19 keeps people home, the harder it may be to get them back to offices, executives say.

Now’s the time to build your career with strategic patience.

As leaders, it might be our first instinct to make our voice heard early and often. Great leaders know, however, that reserving your opinion until the ... 64 comments on LinkedIn

No. 1: treating their employees like children. They’ve grown accustomed to independence. Get used to it.

The fast-spreading Delta variant has managers revamping schedules, with bosses delaying office reopenings and canceling events.

A research-based case for why everyone should be in the office on the same days.

Our homes and businesses have become more technology-dependent, and having a solid network is more important than ever. This week, the guys talk about what goes into designing and maintaining reliable wired and wireless networks.

Our Mike Ryan decided to share a nice thing Jason Sudeikis once did for him at a time when he needed it.

This Is Not About Sports. Let's talk about the hubris hangover. Giannis Antetokounmpo hosted a masterclass in a post-game interview. When we focus on...

If it’s not the CEO, maybe you need to designate a chief entrepreneur.