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Most of us inherited an industrial model of leadership where people are resources and teams are managed. I think the best leaders are closer to farmers than mechanics. You don’t make things grow. You create the conditions where growth is possible, and then you get out of the way. If you lead people — or work inside a system someone else built — this is where to start.

I see organizations as living ecosystems, not machines to optimize. The interesting patterns hide in the connections between things, not in the things themselves. Systems thinking sounds academic until you realize it’s just paying attention to how things actually work instead of how the org chart says they should.

There are capabilities that resist being systematized. Call it taste, instinct, the ability to make something that works even when you can’t explain why. These are the unlearnable skills — and they only develop when someone cares enough to do the work twice. I write about making and building as a way of thinking, not just producing.

Here’s the thing about AI that most people are getting wrong: they’re asking "how do I keep up?" when the better question is "what’s actually mine?" AI can deliver the statistical mean of any category. What it can’t do is replicate the specific combination that comes from a lived life. The future belongs to people who resist being averaged.

I don’t do productivity hacks. I’m interested in the conditions that let you do your best work — the environments, rhythms, and decisions that make the difference between a person who’s surviving their week and one who’s actually building something. Same person, different conditions, different results.

Beneath every skill you’ve ever learned, there’s a smaller set of capabilities doing the heavy lifting. Exploring. Creating. Feeling. Imagining. Innovating. Adapting. These six metaskills underpin everything else. Most people have developed two or three. The other ones are waiting for the right conditions.