Gail Caldwell on the unknown
The old Navajo weavers used to insert an unmatched thread into each of their rugs, a contrasting color that runs to the outside edge. You can spot an authentic rug by this intentional flaw, which is called a spirit line, meant to release the energy trapped inside of the rug and pave the way for […]
A writer at sea, an editor on the dock
In my experience of writing, you generally start out with some overall idea that you can see fairly clearly, as if you were standing on a dock and looking at a ship on the ocean. At first you can see the entire ship, but then as you begin work you’re in the boiler room and […]
5 Lessons From Entrepreneurship That Have Nothing To Do With Money
Originally published at BostInnovation.com Message is Everything I grew up thinking it was the merit of the work that was important. How that work was communicated and made visible was significant, but nothing mattered as much as the nature of the work itself. Anyone who knows anything about marketing or PR can tell you why […]
Will the Revolution Be Tweeted? Yes and No
Originally published at BostInnovation in October 2010 as “Will the Revolution Be Tweeted? Gladwell Says No, Ignites Debate” I came across Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker essay, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” on Facebook. I bookmarked the page because I didn’t have time to read it right then. Every time I saw […]
Mentoring Goes Far Beyond Support & Guidance
Originally published at BostInnovation.com I think we’d all agree that young people stand to benefit from having a mentor. I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think we all need mentors though. Every single one of us, whether we’re 15, 25, or 50. OK, maybe not every single one of us. […]
Step Into Your Real Work, Keep Going
Originally published at BostInnovation.com A few of us are fortunate enough to more or less choose our jobs and careers. We pursue advanced degrees, take time off after college or grad school, spend time building our professional networks, and wait for our ideal jobs to come around. Perhaps we are lucky enough to have financial […]
New Ideas Require New Language
Originally published at BostInnovation.com As an entrepreneur and lover of big ideas, I read and follow many other creative folks online. And when I say follow, I mean follow-the-work-of, yes, but I also just mean follow on Twitter. The great thing about Twitter is that if you make thoughtful choices about who to follow, you […]
A Call for Both Women and Men to Support Women’s Leadership
Originally published at BostInnovation.com I grew up believing the women’s movement was essentially over. I was born in 1984, and as far as I could tell, apart from being occasionally harassed on the street, being a woman never held me back. When it came time for college, I wouldn’t consider women’s colleges. I believed in […]
Want Your Project to Succeed? Take a Break
Originally published at BostInnovation.com Human beings are funny creatures. We carry around with us all these wonderful intentions about how to live, we generally give people good advice, and then very often we go and do the opposite thing. For example, I’ve been an active entrepreneur for almost three years now. If someone asked me […]
Simple is Hard, and You Can Too!
Originally published at BostInnovation.com I grew up believing in the idea that if something didn’t feel like work, then it wasn’t real work — it didn’t mean much, it probably wasn’t useful to anybody. We New Englanders like hard work. We live rather fast-paced lives, we shovel a heck of a lot of snow, many […]
