Ideas are free, execution is priceless.

Thor, the god of thunder, was given a memorable piece of advice from his mother: Everyone fails at who they’re supposed to be. But the measure of a person, a hero, is how they succeed at being who they are. Her words suggest a question that most of us have probably never asked. What kind of relationship do we have with milestones? That’s a big word in our culture….

Science fiction and fantasy writers typically start their novels with the answer to the following question. What happens if you change just one core rule in the universe? Authors do this because they’re creating limits for their fictional world, and they have to make sure the story stays accessible and believable to their audience. Because once you change one rule, it effects everything going forward. You can almost hear…

Traditional male bonding never really appealed to me. Playing sports, social drinking, video games, fishing, hunting, camping, gambling, smoking cigars, insulting each other, working with tools, and of course, sexual conquesting, these activities do almost nothing for me. I love my male friends, enjoy spending time with them, and value guy time as an important part of my growth. But spending eleven hours sitting around a lake, drinking beer…

My least favorite superhero movie trope is the supportive but mortal spouse who continues to implore her workaholic, messianic husband to just stop all the madness. Stop your blind drive to invent, create, build, kill all the bad guys, save the world, leave a legacy for the next generation, and for once in your goddamn life, just rest. Rest, you idiot. Respect your limitations. Surrender this childish god complex….

It’s easy to set boundaries when you’re only accountable to yourself. But when you have a manager, direct reports, coworkers, clients, company founders, and so on, it gets a bit more complicated. Here are several scenarios, some of which are in the person’s control, some of which are not. See if you can spot the difference. You would love nothing more than to make the resolution to not accept…