These posts contain my ideas, tips, and strategies for leading and managing groups of people in modern organizations.
I stan few companies as much as I stan Disney. I'm not ashamed of this even a little. When I saw that the greatest Disney CEO since old Walt himself had a new autobiography out, I couldn't wait to read it. The Fanboy Awakens. Bob Iger is best known as Disney's 6th CEO, reigning from … Continue reading Demma’s Notes: Bob Iger’s The Ride of a Lifetime
I just started listening to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Antifragile and I wanted to share some quick thoughts from the opening chapters. Taleb defines fragility as that which is adversely affected by volatility. In other words, fragile things break when faced with adversity or change. We don't want to be fragile. We want to be the … Continue reading How Will You Deal With Change? Reading Taleb’s Antifragile…
Happy New Year everyone. This year we're thankful to have wrapped up a relatively peaceful year, which was a goal of ours after many years of nearly constant major life changes like I wrote about here. I'm pretty sure we either moved, had a baby, changed jobs, or Kelly was pregnant every year for the … Continue reading 2019 Recap and my 200th Post
I'm really enjoying Scott Adams's new book Loserthink, and I wanted to quickly share one key insight with you. I'm a big fan of Adams's previous books. I wrote a Demma's Notes summary on my favorite here: Demma’s Notes: My 3 Favorite Concepts from How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by … Continue reading Quick Take: Loserthink and How To Know if You’re Right or Wrong
WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, including details about the ending, story, and plot twists. If you haven't seen the movie yet STOP reading and come back later. I took Jack and a couple of his buddies to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) on opening night. TROS is … Continue reading Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Review, Thoughts, and All 9 Skywalker Films Ranked
People have a need to be engaged in purposeful work. We want to feel like we're part of something bigger than ourselves, and that our work makes a difference in the world. Maybe that's why Servant Leadership seems to be growing in popularity. I think people want to learn about the deeper concepts of Servant … Continue reading Servant Leadership: Key Concepts
Here's a short thought experiment about the difference between better and good. Imagine you're driving a big truck along a highway. You see a sign that says low overpass ahead. 13' clearance. You realize you're driving a 19' tall truck. Good thing you saw that sign! You go back to the dispatch warehouse and get … Continue reading Quick Read: Better?
The challenge with growth companies is to figure out how to scale the culture as the size and complexity of the business grows. How do you grow the business without breaking the culture that made the business great to begin with?
What could a cartoonist possibly have to teach you about living your life? That's the question I had before starting Dilbert creator Scott Adams' book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. By the end of the book, I was an Adams disciple. It turns out there's so much more to Mr. Adams than Dilbert.
This is it. The moment I've been training for. We've got one more FastPass+ to hit before our lunch reservation on the other side of Magic Kingdom. The hot Orlando sun beats down heavy. The stench of old cotton candy is thick in my nostrils and my hands are sticky. My 11 month old is … Continue reading Disney World: The Super Bowl of Parenting
Limbo, by Alfred Limbrano, is an eye-opening book about what it's like to be raised in a working class family, be the first in your family to go to college, and then migrate to a middle class world.
Jack is going through the sacrament of First Penance and Reconciliation next week. This is the Catholic ceremony of the first confession in which a child examines their conscience, asks for forgiveness for their sins, prays, and is granted absolution. I love the psychology of the rite of passage. We look inward and examine the … Continue reading Forgiveness
We just got home from our 2018 Christmas adventure. It started with a night in Fairfax, VA where Gracie was starring as a snowflake in the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker. From there we drove up to Central New York for 3 days with my family followed by 3 days with my in-laws in Windsor, CT. The … Continue reading Christmas Vacation and 2018 Recap
"There's a starman waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds." - Bowie Elon Musk has been grabbing more headlines than usual lately: for announcing a passenger trip to the moon, for the Model 3 becoming the best selling car in the US, for poking … Continue reading Demma’s Notes: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
"You're already a cyborg." Elon MuskIn 2012 I noticed how addicted I was becoming to screens, mostly my phone. I wrote this article about it. To clarify, I was then, and remain now, a technology optimist. I am not the guy who wants to go off the grid and live in a tiny house in … Continue reading 4 Ways to Win Back Time From Your Phone
