Polymathic Being Podcast

Today's topic investigates the failure of so many proofs of concept, minimum viable products, innovation initiatives, and systems in general. The underlying reason might actually surprise you because very often the details look great, the people worked together really well, and all of the processes and artifacts were tip top. It’s only when we step back and look at the whole system that we discove...

Today's topic probes the trend of so much of our communications moving from voice to text. We’ll look at the patterns, the psychology of data ingestion, common pitfalls of text communications, and recommend some key opportunities to avoid the Con[of]text and ensure true context. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic looks at the hiring process and the tools, techniques, and tactics that are used in order to screen candidates and how these can lead to actually terrible behaviors. We’ll look at some of the current trends, how technology is being applied that drives this, and recommend a few new ways to look at hiring the right people with the right behaviors. Get full access to Polymathic Being at...

Today's topic shifts gears and explores the interesting sport of freediving I immersed myself in while living in Florida. Let’s plunge into the psychological and physiological challenges of the sport as well as the beauty of relaxing, being in the moment, and letting things go. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic is another collaboration, introducing co-author C.J. Unis, a Space Force systems engineer, aspiring polymath, and complexity wizard. It’s actually a double collaboration where this essay also sets a foundation for STO Realities from Progressive Plan Inc . to build on to optimize key processes in the petroleum industry. So what is this topic that has garnered so much interest and coll...

Today's topic straightforwardly addresses a lot of the underlying issues we’ve covered in essays thus far, specifically underlying the concept of the Successfully Unsuccessful. This essay looks to pull back the curtain of what allows the status quo to not only survive but thrive in most modern businesses. It actually has a pretty blunt name to describe the concept of this apathy? malaise? at a min...

Today's topic evaluates a trite and therefore, often wrong concept known as the Wisdom of Crowds. This concept suggests that large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant, and are better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, and even predicting the future. While this appears to be very aligned with the Polymathic mindset, in applicatio...

Today's topic tackles the recent discussion around whether AI can be creative when it comes to art, writing, and other content creation. We’ll dig into what being creative really means, and how creative we really are. Throughout this essay, we’ll actually have a conversation with ChatGPT to discuss and test whether it can be creative. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/...

Today's topic is a collaboration with co-author Joshua Deiches , a fellow aspiring Polymath, and looks at our tradition of celebrating the New Year on January 1st in the Western World. What we uncover is a fantastic look at history as we chase the shifting of when the New Year actually occurred, why 11 days were removed in 1752, and the traditions that surround this holiday. Get full access to Pol...

Today's topic is holiday inspired and investigates the history behind Christmas, the fusion of traditions, who Santa is, how it ties into our culture, and what it all means for us throughout the year. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic Builds on our first essay on the Keys to Innovation, Embrace the Divergents , which shares insights for inviting the divergents, pirates, and rebels to rethink the way we do innovation. The next step is probably the first toward actual change; you have to face the fear of change. We’ll investigate the basis of these fears and propose some opportunities to not only overcome the fear b...

Today's topic challenges the over simplified assumption that stereotyping is bad. In this exploration we look at what stereotypes are, how they are applied and misapplied, and how to leverage the strengths and avoid the pitfalls of this powerful social tool. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic dives into crypto currency and blockchain in general to look at the positives and negatives of where these technologies can take us in the future. We’ll introduce blockchains, cryptocurrency, and blockchain analytics and then focus on what can happen when governments begin leveraging blockchains and some of the risks involved. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbein...

Today's topic looks at climate science in an effort to contextualize what we are seeing from climate change within the larger realm of what we should be expecting. I’m not trying to be absolute or prescriptive. I’m just trying to investigate a topic that I feel has a lot of questions we are ignoring. Therefore, this essay will attempt to investigate the baseline of where we are measuring the chang...

Today's topic tackles my consistent frustrations with the Data Science community and how they apply machine learning algorithms and other tools to data without fully understanding the rest of the context. While this problem isn’t constrained to Data Science specifically, this discipline does lead the pack in examples. To understand this problem we’ll focus on three things that have been forgotten....

Today's topic gets into something that is not only counterintuitive, but really frustrating for so many people. It’s the behaviors, over and over, that everyone says they don’t want, but keep doing, and keep getting rewarded for, while so many, who try to break the cycle, are penalized. It’s the paradox of the successfully unsuccessful. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.co...

Today's topic addresses a common perspective that I’m finding in the Startup world that they are somehow unique in how they execute and how they need to focus on shipping features at high velocity and, more often than not, overlook the product, process, and people maturation that is essential to long term growth. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic looks at three common fallacies that I’ve found leaders tell themselves thinking they’ll provide success. Yet I find them as the primary causes of organizational inefficiency. If I see one of them, I typically see two or more as they seem to build off of each other. These three failure modes also have a simple solution to remedy, or better yet, prevent any leader from falling victim...

Today's topic addresses accepted tropes of eating, diet, and insights into how little we really know about something as simple as eating / or not eating. I’ll share some of my experience on this topic culminating with my most recent 10-day fast. Yes, that’s 10 days of nothing but water, coffee, and electrolytes. I’ll share things I’ve learned along the way about the benefits, and lessons learned a...

Today's topic engages the idea of bias in artificial intelligence (AI) and looks at how such a simple term actually isn’t, and leads to a fundamental misunderstanding of how to achieve the outcomes we desire from AI. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic will explore the current ‘phenomena’ of Quiet Quitting and questions whether our current cultural expectations for work are actually good for us. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic is a follow on to The Band-Aid Paradigm and we look at what to do, after removing the band-aids, to achieve true, sustained, process improvement. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic highlights how you can't just want innovation; you have to think innovation so that you can unlock the true capabilities in your existing systems and chart a course for the stars. This is part one of an envisioned series of insights into innovation. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic introduces a controversial concept that divorces religion from theology and shows how even the atheistic are vulnerable to a psychology. Get full access to Polymathic Being at www.polymathicbeing.com/subscribe

Today's topic shifts from leadership and steps back and introduces myself to you. Not my background, but introduce you to my brain. That crazy, idiosyncratic, sometimes fractured, often nuts, but always curious chunk of gray matter between my ears. It’s taken me a few years to get to know myself and I thought I’d share my findings and hopefully motivate you to consider similar introspection. I’ve...