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“It’s not possible for us to deliver this project before August.”

“We haven’t seen a decrease in participation.”

“We haven’t got a plan yet.”

The problem with these sentences is they are framed in the negative, which results in vague, muddled conclusions.

Framing things in the positive, however, provides clarity.

“It’s possible for us to deliver this project by the 15th of August.”

“We have seen stable participation rates averaging 25 people per session.”

“We’re committing to having a finished plan by the end of the week.”

Whenever you find yourself framing in the negative, see if you can flip it on its head and frame in the positive instead.

In a world that produces more information than we can possibly consume, who do we listen to when the stakes are high?

During COVID, governments have tried—with varying degrees of success—to define what we can and can’t do, but what’s missing are voices that guide us in the little things. For example, who answers when is it safe to go on public transport? Or do I still have to wear a mask even though cases have been falling in my area?

I’ve found I gravitate to a few “high signal” sources, rather than reading all the articles with catchy titles.

I’ve previously mentioned Donald G. McNeil, a journalist who has been covering epidemics for more than 30 years. Every so often he speaks on The Daily Podcast and shares what precautions he takes. I generally use McNeil as a heuristic and copy what he does. I figure if it’s good enough for an epidemic expert, it has a good chance of working for me, too.

Nothing he shares is ground breaking, but his advice is a strong motivator to stay the course. For example, I’m staying away from all indoor gatherings outside my household, and I’m always cycling rather than using public transport.

When it’s easy to be overwhelmed with information, finding a high-signal, trusted voice to follow can make challenging situations simpler and easier to manage.

“Those who panicked early don’t have to panic today,” was a thought shared by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in early March as lockdowns around the world were intensifying.

At the time, I simply used it as a justification of my decision to stock up on pasta and frozen vegetables.

However, I’ve come back to this thought many times throughout the lockdown, as its lesson are applicable well outside the global pandemic.

A little thinking, a little prudence, and a little caution, can have positive ripple effects into the dreary days down the line.

Here’s a little blogging experiment.

Have you been reading anything recently that you think I’d find interesting? Or that you think I could write and share about?

I’d love to hear it!

Yesterday was Juneteenth, a day celebrating the end of slavery, and a celebration of Black Americans.

On this day, Facebook asked all employees to take it as a day of learning to better understand the history and systems of racial injustice, so that we may help contribute to their dismantling.

During my reading, I came across The 1619 Project by the New York Times Magazine. It’s an on-going long-form journalism project with the goal of re-examining the legacy of slavery in the United States. It started last year, 2019, on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia.

The essays not only tell the history of slavery in the United States, but they also detail how systemic racial injustices can be seen across a wide range of topics, such as interstate highway traffic jams, sugar, healthcare, the prison system, the vast wealth gap, and capitalism.

These essays are simply an entry point into understanding how racial injustice has permeated throughout our society—how it has become systemic.

I highly recommend taking an hour and reading through these articles.

Earlier this year, I read about how one of the most senior traders at US Investment Bank, Citigroup, was let go after supposedly stealing food from the company’s canteen.

The employee was reportedly on a 7-figure salary, and so it baffled me that he would be tempted to steal food in the first place.

This story serves as a simple reminder that no matter how high you climb, being faithful with the small things remains an important virtue that one should never forget.

In recent weeks, I’ve accidentally let a few more typos slip into my daily posts than I would like.

What I love, though, is the small group of readers that reliably let me know when there is a grammatical error or misspelled word.

I’ve publicly shared how one of the reasons I write every day is because I want to become a better writer, and so I deeply value this community of people who know I can do better, so they keep me honest.

I encourage you to find some time today to reflect on the community in your corner, and to send them a little thank you!

I remember my immediate reaction to reading James Joyce’s Dubliners.

I felt sad and despondent.

When I commented on it, Maru asked me, “Isn’t that what Joyce was trying to do? To make you feel an emotion about a certain time and place in history?”

It helped me take a step back and see literature, art, and music, in a new light.

Sometimes the sadness, the grief, or the discomfort, is exactly what the artist wanted the world to hear.

I love working to music, but I struggle to work to music with lyrics. Music with lyrics wreaks havoc on my ability to write, so I listen to instrumentals instead.

I came across a few Spotify playlists that had pop song instrumentals, and the moment I heard the music, my mind immediately started to populate the instrumentals with the melodies and lyrics. It was almost as if I was listening to the actual song.

For me, this was a lesson in emotion and groove. Sometimes a piece of music can be so memorable that all it takes is a small reminder for the mind to fill in all the gaps.

What a feat to create art, write prose, or compose music that evokes such a reaction.

Over the past few days, I’ve come across some striking examples of how technology is improving our understanding of the natural world.

In particular, I was astounded by Curiosity Rover’s 1 billion pixel image of the surface of Mars; the highest resolution photo of the red planet to date.

You can see craters, mountain ranges, cliffs, and where a lake existed billions of years ago. It almost made me feel like I was looking at a desert landscape on Earth, and that Mars wasn’t so far away after all.

I also enjoyed understanding this unique “Turtle Census”, where scientists put non-permanent white paint on the back of 2,000 green sea turtles, and use drones to capture images of the turtles out at sea. Scientists are able to use the ratio of painted to non-painted turtles to determine the size and health of the turtle populations.

Nothing else today, just some fun things I’ve been enjoying!

When you have something important to say, how much time do you spend thinking about what you want to say?

If you’re like me, the answer is probably, “Most of it.”

I recently found myself in a situation where what I wanted to say was important, but I should’ve also thought about:

Why do I need to say it?

When is the best time to say it?

How should I say it?

To whom am I speaking?

It’s easy to forget that what we want to say is often only the first part of the equation.

The magic is not in what you add, but in what you take away.

This is true for the presentation, the song, the speech, the scene, and the post. There’ll always be the temptation to add more.

But the message—the most important thing—has the best chance of shining when the clutter is removed.

It’s inspiring to see the movement in the UK petitioning the removal of statues that glorify slave traders and colonialists.

I hope we look back and wonder, “How did we ever let these statues stand for so long?”

It’s easy to assume that those memorialised in statues did good for the world, but it’s a fragile illusion. We don’t need to look far to find despicable deeds behind some of those statues.

Take Edward Colston, for example, a man who forcibly ripped 100,000 people from their home, the African continent, to sell them in the Americas. I cannot imagine the immeasurable pain he inflicted on their families and descendants. Yet, his statue was allowed to stand in a place of pride in Bristol for 125 years before it was torn down and thrown into the harbour this weekend.

Removing these statues is just the beginning, though. It’s the first step in a process to look back at history, analyse the actions of those that came before us, and remove from places of honour those that don’t deserve to stand as symbols of a fair, just, and honourable society.

How much of our daily lives, meetings, moments, chores, or tasks, could be made better by simply deciding to have fun?

Some would call it naive, but the mind has an extraordinary ability to turn bad situations around.

We just need to let it.

The winners of the World Photography Awards were announced today.

With over 345,000 images submitted, it’s amazing to have immediate access to the works of all the winning photographers.

What I find amazing is the level of depth each winning photo has. A close look into each photo reveals emotions, stories, and moments captured so delicately and deliberately.

One in particular that stood out is called ‘Hurry’. It’s a photo of a street performer that looks like they’re in a hurried motion, but they’re actually completely still. A unique piece of commentary on our hectic, hustling lives.

Another is ‘Seeds of Resistance’, which is a stunning depiction of the landscapes at risk from mining and agribusiness, alongside portraits of the activists trying to protect them.

Take a look and enjoy!