The Philosophy of Excellence
Excellence is not a destination, it's a way of being. Rooted in the ancient Greek concept of arete, true excellence is the relentless pursuit of becoming the best version of yourself in every aspect of life, work, and relationships. It's about refusing mediocrity and embracing the discipline required for mastery.
Plato's most radical leadership idea wasn't about power or position, it was about character. The philosopher king represents the ultimate integration of wisdom, excellence, courage, and transformation. Here's how to stop managing systems and start transforming people.
The Greeks understood something we've forgotten: excellence isn't something you achieve, it's something you become. This fundamental shift changes everything about how you approach work, leadership, and life.
Everyone wants greatness until they realize what it demands. The edge isn't found in comfort, it's in the obsession, discipline, and relentless focus that transforms potential into reality.
Frustration comes when we judge ourselves by a single moment. But true growth—true excellence—comes from trusting the work, not the moment.
Distinguishing genuine self-optimization from elaborate avoidance strategies
Output (Arete) is where internal mastery becomes external transformation. Discover how to bridge personal excellence to world-changing impact through systematic application of ancient wisdom.
You don't have a knowledge problem. You have a craft problem. Most people understand excellence intellectually but lack the embodied competence to execute it consistently. Techne bridges the gap between knowing and doing.
I chose government safety over startup fire, and it didn't just stall my career, it eroded my soul. The trap of 'practical' choices that kill excellence.
Jason Fried's knife-maker defense sounds reasonable, stay in your lane, perfect your craft, ignore the pressure to build battleships. But what if your 'disciplined focus' is just fear dressed as virtue? Aristotle had a test for this.
You consume endless information but produce mediocre results. The problem isn't what you know, it's how you process what you know. Smart people excel at input but fail at transformation. Time to build your Processing Engine.
Most people consume information like they eat at a buffet, grabbing everything that looks appealing without considering nutrition or purpose. Then they wonder why their thinking is sluggish and their decisions are poor. Greatness requires intentional information architecture.
Real curiosity isn't about asking smart questions, it's about pursuing the brutal ones you've been avoiding because they might change everything.
Excellence isn't a destination you arrive at once and maintain through willpower. Excellence is a flywheel. The six-stage cycle that transforms ancient Greek wisdom into systematic excellence methodology.
Most people disguise cowardice as prudence. Here's the single question that cuts through all self-deception and reveals what you're really running from.
Most people think discipline means forcing yourself to do things you don't want to do. This fundamental myth keeps people trapped in cycles of failure and self-recrimination.
The fundamental difference between position thinking (comparing to others) and trend thinking (tracking your own trajectory). Why your direction matters more than your location.
Most people torture themselves pursuing goals they don't actually want. The framework for distinguishing authentic desire from sophisticated self-torture.
Plato's most radical leadership idea wasn't about power or position, it was about character. The philosopher king represents the ultimate integration of wisdom, excellence, courage, and transformation. Here's how to stop managing systems and start transforming people.
Trail running exposes the magic pill trap poisoning all growth: Want endurance? Embrace sustained discomfort, no hacks allowed.
The Greeks understood that lasting change requires complete transformation of mind, heart, and character. Most organizational change fails because leaders try to change everything except themselves. Here's the ancient solution.
Why brilliant strategies fail and how ancient Greek wisdom provides the solution through integrating theoretical and practical wisdom.
You don't have a motivation problem. You have a completion problem. Every unfinished project is evidence that you can't trust yourself to follow through. Here's how to build the character that finishes what it starts.
We turn personality tests and strengths into excuses for staying small. 'I'm just not that kind of person' sounds authentic but kills growth. Here's how to stop bullshitting yourself.
Your word is your bond, including the word you give yourself. Every broken promise to yourself erodes your confidence. Every kept promise builds it. This isn't productivity, it's character work.
You're not struggling with willpower. You're not lacking the right system. You're protecting the disease by treating the symptoms.
How to tell when leaving is strategic wisdom versus fear-based avoidance. The uncomfortable truth about when running away is the courageous choice.
How to tell when resistance is teaching you versus when you're using your intelligence to avoid what needs to be done. The uncomfortable truth about sophisticated avoidance.
How intelligent people use optimization as sophisticated avoidance, creating elaborate systems to avoid simple transformations. Includes the 5-question diagnostic framework.
Most people track what's easy to measure rather than what actually drives excellence. Learn how to audit your metrics and ensure you're measuring character development, not just performance theater.
Most productivity advice forces you to fight your authentic rhythms, creating internal conflict and unsustainable systems. Here's the Natural Rhythms Integration Model that honors both authenticity and growth.
Intelligence can become a barrier to growth when it creates sophisticated comfort zones. Here's how to recognize when your optimization becomes elaborate avoidance, and what to do about it.
The ultimate test of leadership isn't what you accomplish, it's what continues after you're gone. Here's how exceptional leaders create legacies by developing other leaders who develop leaders.
True independence isn't the absence of structure—it's the mastery of structure. Here's why the most free people are often the most disciplined, and how to build systems that create authentic freedom.
The Greeks understood that courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the commitment to excellence despite uncertainty. This ancient virtue transforms how you lead through risk, change, and the unknown.
The greatest challenges require the greatest safety. Great leaders understand this paradox: the more psychological safety you create, the more difficult challenges your team will tackle. Here's the framework that makes it work.
Most one-on-ones are glorified status updates disguised as leadership development. The DIALOGUE method transforms individual conversations into systematic leadership multiplication, creating leaders who create more leaders through structured excellence.
Companies obsess over team size while ignoring the fundamental truth: transformation happens at the leader level, not the team level. Size is a symptom, leadership is the cause.
Your circumstances will change. Your duty will not. Discover how ancient Stoic wisdom provides unwavering guidance for modern leaders when everything else shifts.
The most indispensable people aren't those who avoid problems, they're those who actively seek them out and solve them effectively. Here's the framework for building that rare and valuable skill.
The future belongs to leaders who can build teams that don't just use AI tools, but think AI-first. This requires a fundamental transformation in how we hire, develop, and structure technical teams.
The phone book to Google transition was about efficiency. The Google to ChatGPT shift is about quality of understanding. That's the difference between incremental improvement and categorical transformation, and it requires metanoia.
The Greeks understood something we've forgotten: excellence isn't something you achieve, it's something you become. This fundamental shift changes everything about how you approach work, leadership, and life.
The most liberating realization: those people you're trying to win over aren't worth winning over. Energy spent seeking approval is energy not spent building excellence. Time to break free from the validation trap.
You don't need another course. You need to start doing. The journey itself holds every lesson you need to learn. The internet gave us infinite information and infinite excuses.
The self-help industry got fear completely wrong. Every person operating at excellence has learned to dance with fear, not defeat it. Fear isn't your enemy, it's your compass pointing toward what matters most.
Your 5-star vacation restaurant would get 2 stars at home. Context isn't an excuse for mediocrity, it's a test of your standards. The Disney Churro Effect is killing your judgment, and you don't even know it's happening.
Your mind is either your forge or your prison. The Stoics knew what modern neuroscience confirms: mental state determines reality. Here's how to forge mental excellence through the Four Furnaces framework.
I'm a motorsports enthusiast who loves manual transmissions. So why do I hate driving rental cars now? The rental car experience taught me something uncomfortable about human nature, and why we resist the very technologies that would improve our lives.
The mountain had other plans. What started as a simple run became a journey back to who I've always been—buried under survival, responsibility, and the slow drift of adulthood.
Clean test output isn't just about aesthetics, it's about developer productivity, debugging efficiency, and maintaining code quality. When your test suite runs quietly and only speaks up when something's wrong, you can focus on what matters: building great software.
Everyone wants greatness until they realize what it demands. The edge isn't found in comfort, it's in the obsession, discipline, and relentless focus that transforms potential into reality.
It's not about the run or the miles. It's about returning to the place where your resolve gets sharpened, your personal forge where growth happens through resistance.
Everyone's racing to build Model Context Protocols, but they're solving the wrong problem. You're not building for operators—you're building for agents that interpret, decide, and act.
You're in the file. You see the broken code. If you walk past it without fixing it, you're not just part of the problem, you are the problem.
The people around you influence your mindset, shape your habits, and often determine your trajectory. And the right ones don't just support you—they sharpen you, steady you, and accelerate you.
In the quiet hours when decisions weigh heaviest, leadership can feel like a solitary journey. But it's in these moments that both leaders and their teams can transform pressure into power. Here's how to keep the flame alive.
They're relentlessly positive. They say yes to everything. They talk about collaboration constantly. But underneath the performance, real execution never happens.
In fast-moving tech cultures, dissent feels like friction. And friction feels like delay. But a team that agrees too easily is already halfway to failure.
Your test looks fine. The records match. But sometimes it passes, sometimes it fails. Uncover the hidden gotchas of comparing ActiveRecord Relations in Rails tests.
Your best ideas are vulnerable to creativity hit jobs. Learn to guard your spark, select the right team, and keep innovation flowing despite the critics.
First principles thinking strips away the bullshit and starts with what's undeniably true. It's how leaders transform organizations and build the future.
Frustration comes when we judge ourselves by a single moment. But true growth—true excellence—comes from trusting the work, not the moment.
AI isn't a code monkey. Treat it like a thinking partner, not a servant. Here's how to navigate AI-assisted development without micromanaging.
The best leaders don't micromanage every note—they create the groove and let their team play. Here's how to lead with rhythm, trust, and improvisation.
Most people wait for struggle to humble them. The best train for it. The Reset Walk is a simple practice to build resilience before stress takes over.
Speed isn't the goal—winning is. Learn how the fastest teams avoid wasted motion by solving the right problem before they execute.
True success isn't about external achievements—it's about mastering yourself. Learn how to integrate Areté and Eudaimonia into your daily life for deep fulfillment.
Discover how AI-driven, adaptive learning is reshaping education. Parents no longer have to wait for change—they can take charge today.
Cleaning up old messes is meaningless if you're still making new ones. The best teams don't ask for permission to fix tech debt—they stop creating it in the first place.
Great teams don't avoid conflict—they process it efficiently. The key to success isn't eliminating conflict, but resolving it quickly and productively.
The biggest AI problem right now? A lack of imagination. The chatbot era was training wheels—it's time to take them off. If AI isn't rewiring how you think, you're not using it enough.
Most developers spend years learning these lessons the hard way. You don't have to. Master these principles now and take control of your dev career.
Dive into the world of private class methods in Ruby. Understand their purpose, implementation, and when they're the right choice for your code.
Struggling to decide between concerns and service objects in Rails? This guide dives into the pros and cons of each approach, helping you choose the right tool for clean, scalable, and testable code.
Discover how ChatGPT is changing the landscape of education and tutoring, while understanding the unique value that human tutors bring to the learning experience.
Discover the art of mental switching - how to activate and deactivate different aspects of your personality and skills to excel in various contexts.
Dive into the world of personal responsibility and team success in software development by distinguishing between reasons and excuses. Explore the vital role of accountability, examine real-world examples, and uncover five effective strategies designed to help you and your team conquer excuses and take command of your professional journey.
Discover three game-changing daily habits that can significantly boost your productivity and help you achieve more in both your professional and personal life.
Discover practical approaches to balance daily responsibilities with innovation initiatives, ensuring your organization stays competitive and forward-thinking.
Explore the crucial roles of enforcers and nurturers in team dynamics, and discover how their complementary strengths create high-performing teams.
Discover practical solutions for maintaining a balanced schedule by effectively syncing your work and personal calendars.
Learn why maintaining a sense of humor is crucial for processing criticism constructively and using it as a tool for personal growth.
Explore a curated selection of biographies that provide powerful lessons in leadership, resilience, and success through the lives of remarkable individuals.
Discover how to train your mind to overcome physical barriers and unlock your true potential through mental conditioning.
Discover practical approaches to make accountability visible and actionable within your team and organization.
Explore the advantages and challenges of both live and recorded product demos, and learn when to use each approach effectively.
Learn about the critical changes and challenges organizations face during different growth stages, particularly when doubling in size.
Discover how high-performing product organizations balance team autonomy with organizational alignment to consistently deliver the most impactful work.
Understand the risks of pushing too hard too early, and discover how to pace yourself for long-term success.
Explore how software development differs from intense physical training programs, and what we can learn from these contrasts.
Discover the profound impact of your social connections on your personal and professional development.
Discover how accepting and working through challenging situations can lead to significant personal and professional growth.
Are you looking to make self-improvements in your life? These 10 questions can help guide your reflection and introspection to better understand your values, strengths, weaknesses, and goals. From identifying what led to your biggest achievements to examining your responses to challenges, these questions can help you better understand yourself and your path towards personal growth. Take a moment to ask yourself these questions and discover what you can learn about yourself and your journey to self-improvement.
Discover why traditional daily standups might be holding your team back, and how to make them more effective.
If you are an introvert like me the last thing you want to do is spend time "networking". Even if you are an extrovert your time is valuable and just mingling isn't going to cut the mustard if you want to get any kind of meaningful results. So what is the best strategy when attending an event with intention of networking?
Building an idea is hard. Turning it into a business is even harder. Scaling that business is another level of hard. This is a list of tips to help you get there.
I struggle with what level of disclosure to give in public forums, because vulnerability is a hard. I don't care for writing and know a path to getting better at something is to do a lot of it. At least that is the excuse I hide behind when it comes to sharing more freely. A while back during a long period of seeking self awareness it became apparent that I didn't really believe in myself very much. Other people believe in me. I believe I am able to get results, but I haven't been able to really believe in me. I was smacked in the face on this topic looking in the mirror and seeing myself over 250 pounds and utterly out of shape and control.
Dealing with trolls is an art form. Being on the internet requires you master it.
MailChimp knocked it out of the park with stunning Christmas gift.
The Decider Protocol is the fastest path to get immediate and unanimous team decisions.
How redeeming my El Pollo Loco birthday reward points revealed powerful life principles through exceptional customer service.
The difference between influence and manipulation can be pretty subtle. However, the outcomes they produce can massive. How are they different to you?
What about asking for help is so difficult? What expectations do we put on ourselves and others that could be avoided if only we asked for help more frequently?
Dealing with hybrid work environments where some one is remote full time.
I see a lot of new teams search endlessly for the best process for to use. They tend to ask what is best for us? Which usually devolves into Scrum vs Kanban. I am firm believer in experiencing them to understand, but one could argue you have to start somewhere. For those seeking here is a very brief quick side by side view.
Using metaphors to describe being booted with the Core Protocols.
What does exceptional service at 10,000ft look like?
How to estimate everyday things.
The future we want has to be created by us. Creating the Arizona we want.
The future we want has to be created by us. Creating the Arizona we want.
AZ Art Project Influx AZ coming to Chandler, AZ.
Open Spaces always tend to amaze me. They really are the right people in the right place at the right time. When we kicked off Agile Open Southwest, I was a little bit nervous about what might come out. As always, I was left absolutely amazed. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Finding everyone was a different place on their journey yet still able to be find common ground and learn from one another.
If you read a lot of digital content, you should share a lot. The problem is that you probably read in spurts. If you shared in spurts, you would probably annoy your friends. Buffer helps fix that problem.
If explaining an activity in a retrospective takes more than a minute or two it probably isn't very effective. Don't fall into the trap of making things too complex. Activities shouldn't be complicated they should be fluid. Giving participants too many options and being unclear with instructions makes it difficult to fluid with sharing thoughts.
As a ScrumMaster when you are "running" a retrospective it is easy to fall into the trap of actively participating in it. It is extremely difficult to do this well (if not impossible), because your role should be as a facilitator not a participant. The minute you start participating you are no longer neutral and severely impact your ability to effectively facilitate.
Clay Shirky enlightens us in Cognitive Surplus that, the organization of sharing has many forms and that those forms have varying output values. He gives us a way we can identify four essential points on the spectrum
Sometimes when Getting Things Done, you need a little more power in your inbox than the default. Boomerang for GMail is the extra horsepower you need.
Gangplank is a community of creators that fuses family life, civic life, creating and earning a living into this unique blend where anything is possible. The support and tenderness offered is counter balanced by a gruff and forceful exterior making participation daunting to most.
People need to be understood that they matter. We are wired to belong. It doesn't matter if it is your spouse, child, employee or coworker every relationship you wish to maintain requires your attention. Most people consider attention to be measured in time. Time is in short supply and high demand in our connected and fast paced world.
Changing a community is slow work. Paying attention to the details and working with discipline over time with patience is required to get real results.
Abraham Maslow made the concept of hierarchies of progression in systems popular via his work on a hierarchy of needs. Here is a theory about the hierarchy of different types of readers.
Be the best parent you can. Prepare your children for the future.
Planning events is difficult. The hardest part is starting. Here is a quick 10 step guide to get you planning for that perfect event you have been dreaming about.
Consumption is rampant. What does is it mean to create?
I love Arizona. It's natural resources are one of it's greatest assets. I have been encouraging people to get out and ExploreAZ. If you didn't know our State Parks have become seriously under funded and need our help. So how can you help?
Resilience refers to the ability of a person to effectively cope with and recover from adversity or stress. This concept has been studied in psychology and neuroscience, and various strategies and techniques have been developed to build resilience, such as mindfulness, cognitive reframing, and social support. Building resilience can help individuals better handle life's greatest challenges and maintain their mental and emotional well-being. Here are ten ways to increase your resiliency.
In Andre Agassi's Open he shows the authentic and human side of himself. He talks about giving a friend named Frankie the money he needs to put his children through school. He reflects on it in the following way:
I generally keep voice memos or written journals around as outlets for my thoughts when I am not regularly able to connect with people to share what is on my mind. I try to purge them into a digital format fairly quickly to prevent clutter. I don't recall why I recorded this segment, but I ran across it today and it made me smile.
In a blog post, Mark Turner has responded to the claim that Ruby is just a bunch of tools by stating that it is actually about making developers happy. I believe that the Ruby community is too focused on creating tools and lacks creativity and true innovation. Regional Ruby events have become more about showcasing tools and less about sharing cutting-edge ideas.
I have always liked Unix because of it's mentality that lots of small tools chained together could be more than an opaque larger tool. In this instance. I mean Rubyists are a bunch of Tools not of the useful kind. Maybe Zed is right an Rails is a Ghetto.
Whatever our exact ritual, the social act of eating together is important; it reunites us with our tribe. Transforming us from solitary beings to members of a group.
Notes from Joe Kalt talking about Arizona's economy from Arizona's 96th Town Hall on Building Arizona's Future: Jobs, Innovation & Competitiveness.
Random notes from the Arizona's 96th Town Hall on Building Arizona's Future: Jobs, Innovation & Competitiveness.
If you are listening. A lot of people are talking about a "new norm", a "reset" or a "shift". Largely this discussion is around economics and growing concerns of debt. In reality it is about a lot more than that.
The benefit about working on a high performing team is that everyone expects excellence. There is always a drive that it could be better. Nail a perfect 10 and then ask how it could be an 11.
Why do we keep doing 1950 economic development? Capital first, then innovation and then people. Yet, companies wanting to be here say that it's lack of skilled people that keeps them out. What are we doing to invest in people? Keep and attract the best and brightest?
The basis of the 'Sharing Economy' operates on principles. How are you seeing them applied in the world around you? What can you learn from them? How are you applying them?
I am a fan of great service. When I see it exemplified I try to share it. For example, QuikTrip does a great job #winning. Another company that has always impressed me is Discount Tire. They always greet me right away. They fix my tires for free when repairable. They give me a free air check when my tires are low. All of this even on tires not purchased from them. WOW! They never give me problems when I need tires rotated or tires replaced under warranty that I did purchase from them.
When talking about Gangplank I always struggle to consider it to have anything to do with coworking. After doing some reading on collaborative learning vs. cooperative learning, I believe I can better articulate the difference between collaborative workspaces and coworking spaces.
The Greater Phoenix Economic Council released a report touting that Skysong actually is exceeding expectations and has been underestimated. Citing a $113 million impact which is largely calculated using salaries of people that have worked there over the last five years.
It is no secret, I love books. One of my favorite things to read is autobiographies. I enjoy them because I love to hear the authors reflect back on how they got started. A glimpse of what made them who they became.
I see a lot of new technology. Not very often am I impressed. Microsoft has a winner on their hands with Kinect. I completely ignored it at launch. Gangplank even had Kinect setup at the Chandler Block Party with tons of kids playing it. It looked stupid to me. The Wii had already won my heart.
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