Character and integrity

June 11, 2023

I’m including a couple of weeks worth of watches, listens and reads here, highlighted by commencement speeches at Wharton by Thasunda Brown Duckett and at Smith College by Reshma Saujani.

This Wharton School commencement speech by Thasunda Brown Duckett is well worth the watch/listen: "When I think about the most precious thing I own, the thing that is mine, the thing that no one can take away from me, it is my character. Character is what defines you. My character shows in the way that I live my life, the way that I lead, the way that I treat others, what I expect of myself."

Your job title is rented, you own your character.

Your character can shine through regardless of the situation, the job, the people surrounding you. As Brown Duckett highlighted, a recruiter named Valerie Manning at Fannie Mae changed Brown Duckett's life forever. When Brown Duckett was the runner-up for an internship at Fannie Mae, Manning advocated that they hire a second intern, which ultimately helped Brown Duckett break into the financial sector. She is now the CEO of TIAA and one of only three Black female CEOs ever to lead a Fortune 500 company.

As Brown Duckett said, "What will remain true is the story that is told about you. It's always going to come back to the difference you made, the lives you impacted, and the people you inspired. That's always going to be driven by your ownable asset, your character."

A second standout commencement speech from this year is by Reshma Saujani at Smith College on impostor syndrome and it being made up to stifle and intimidate women.

Book Insight by Tasha Eurich - on how we see ourselves, how others see us and why they aren’t always the same.

Preparing for new Cold War 

Authoritarianism in states

Racism in Spain - several weeks back a racist incident in Valencia against Real Madrid player Vino sparked debate over racism in Spain. There is racism everywhere, which comes through in different ways in different places. It surprises me that some debate that it happens in a given place …this is a piece by Rayde Luis Báez on his experiences of racism in two decades living in Spain 

Health and racial inequities in USA

So many incompetent male leaders - there’s a book but also this shorter read by Toms Chamorro-Premuzic “When men are considered for leadership positions, the same traits that predict their downfall are commonly mistaken, even celebrated, as sign of leadership potential or talent. … traits like overconfidence & self-absorption should be … red flags. … Arrogance & overconfidence are inversely related to leadership talent, though we often mistake confidence for competence. However, we on average judge overconfident women differently than men.

Inflammation & depression

Notre Dame Nigeria students - on four young women from Nigeria, two Christian and two Muslim, who 

Derek Civers on Tim Ferriss show

Felicidad

Impacts of air pollution

Sarah Langs on ESPN Daily - a remarkable piece on a researcher who truly loves baseball and who is now dealing with ALS as a woman in 30s.

Casey Neistat love letter on moving back to NYC. Terrific video. Not everyone is huge on place, but I am. For me, both NYC and Spain are places I feel more myself than anywhere else. Spain in general, but especially Barcelona. 

Casey talks about NYC being the place he truly belongs and feels like himself 

Seeking novelty is good for memory

Recovering memories - has to be reconsolidated after you move it out of long-term storage, and it could be lost at that moment. Vulnerable to erasure. Scary, emotionally charged memories not vulnerable to erasure

Why we dream at night - has to do with brain plasticity- visual and rotation of the planet

So many rejections for book Sum

Persistence from his top collaborator - Don Vaughn method try from every angle

How plastic the brain really is

Possibilitismo

If you’re laying down richer memories

Likelihood of 50C days around Mediterranean

Water quality in Iowa - I was shocked to learn that Iowa, my home state, has the second-highest rate of cancer in the U.S. Water quality is declining, with the pollution from hog and poultry manure equivalent to that which 168 million (!!!) humans would produce.