Are You Collecting or Accumulating?

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I5_R6wYzv34/YWRvjLKir5I/AAAAAAABWhs/616FXLOzAEw7YdN0Gn4L0TwePcgmGo0jQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Giovanni%2BPaolo%2BPanini%2B-%2BAncient%2BRome.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1582" data-original-width="2048" height="494" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I5_R6wYzv34/YWRvjLKir5I/AAAAAAABWhs/616FXLOzAEw7YdN0Gn4L0TwePcgmGo0jQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h494/Giovanni%2BPaolo%2BPanini%2B-%2BAncient%2BRome.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><figcaption class="image-caption" data-pm-slice="1 1 ["captionedImage",null]"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437244">Ancient Rome</a></em> by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1757 (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art)</span></figcaption></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><p data-pm-slice="1 1 []"><em><strong>“</strong></em><em><strong>INTENTION (n.): The mind's sense of the prevalence of one set of influences over another set; an effect whose cause is the imminence, immediate or remote, of the performance of an involuntary act.”</strong> — Ambrose Bierce, 1906</em></p><p data-pm-slice="1 1 []"><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br />Timeless & Timely</strong> has audio versions of the posts for you to enjoy. They are available to <a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe">Premium subscribers</a>. This one is <a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/collecting-accumulating-audio" target="_blank">available here</a>. </em></p></div><div><br /></div><div><div><hr /><br /></div></div><div><p data-pm-slice="1 1 []"></p><p>I think there are two types of people in the world: collectors, and people who have yet to discover they’re collectors.</p><p>Collecting comes from an inner passion. Something excites you, intrigues you, makes you want to get deeply involved.</p><p>Some people are born collectors, while others learn the nuances and benefits of being a collector by being exposed to those who collect.</p><p>For many collectors, the thrill isn’t the collection itself; it’s the process. The hunt. Learning deeply about a subject: stamps, coins, baseball cards, cars, books, or lately, <strong>NFTs</strong>.</p><p>Now, before we get too far, let’s agree to one thing: there is a difference between a collector and an accumulator (someone who has all the discernment of a vacuum cleaner).</p><p>And thus the three Ds of collecting: <em><strong>deliberation</strong></em>, <em><strong>discernment</strong></em>, and <em><strong>display</strong></em>.</p><p>Or, taking these three attributes together: intention.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h4 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Intention is what we talk about with David Amerland, author of <i>Intentional: How to Live, Love, Work, and Play Meaningfully</i> in the first episode of Season 2 of the </strong><em><strong><a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/intentionality">Timeless Leadership</a></strong></em><strong> podcast:</strong></h4> <div><iframe frameborder="0" height="170px" loading="lazy" scrolling="no" src="https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/timeless-leadership/intentionality--vQmHXfUB0V/embed/" style="min-width: 100%; width: 1px;" width="100%"></iframe> <hr /></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Arthur Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes explain the importance of collecting knowledge with intention:</p><blockquote><p>“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>When you set out to collect something — and to me, leaders are in the business of collecting people for their teams — you do so with a specific intention in mind. You <em><strong>deliberate</strong></em> which items and with what features you’d like to pursue.</p><p>It could be first American edition James Bond novels, material written about Edgar Allan Poe in the decade after his death, or collectibles from the DC universe offered on VeVe.</p><p>As you come across different specimens, you begin to <em><strong>discern</strong></em> which are appropriate for your collection. Do the books have dust jackets, or are they signed or inscribed? Are the collectibles common, uncommon, rare, or ultra rare?</p><p>Such details about condition and relative scarcity not only determine whether you might want them in your collection, but also how much they cost. It works with physical items as well as with hiring. Rare talent with good reputation means they’re going to cost more to bring on board.</p><p>And finally, <em><strong>display</strong></em>. What’s the sense of having a collection if no one knows you have it? Most collectors I know are thrilled to be able to share their collections with others — particularly with others who can appreciate the collection.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><h2><strong>The Big Draw</strong></h2><p>Ultimately, every collector has one thing in common: they love stories. They love to tell them and listen to them.</p><p>For any good collector, knowing an item’s provenance and its chain of ownership adds to the romance and intrigue behind it. Association copies — that is, items that have been owned by people associated with the author, artist, or creator in some way — are just as interesting and valuable as nascent copies.</p><p>Or perhaps they recall the seller or the shop they were in when they purchased it, thus reliving an exciting memory as they were on the chase. A book collector friend of mine recounts pre-dawn starts that led through the countryside into barns, antique stores, estate sales, and used bookstores. He retells these moments as if they were part of a chase scene in a movie. It’s delightful.</p><p>If you’re around enough interesting people or read enough material, then you might find that like me, you begin to collect stories. In fact, I’ve begun chronicling some of these in a series I call “<strong><a href="https://racket.com/scottmonty">Wow Finish</a></strong>” on Racket.</p><p><br /></p><h2><strong>Putting It Together</strong></h2><p>Once you’ve got the beginnings of a collection, things will naturally fall into place. You can spot patterns, or see themes. As you do, it’s an opportunity to consider how you arrange your growing collection.</p><p>That is the essence of <strong>curation</strong>.</p><p><br /></p><p><i><b>We talk more about curation in <a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/the-intentional-art-of-curation">the Premium edition</a> ("<a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/the-intentional-art-of-curation?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web" target="_blank">The Intentional Art of Curation</a>") where I share some secrets on how I curate material for Timeless & Timely every week.</b></i></p><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{"id":42041086,"url":"https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/the-intentional-art-of-curation","publication_id":28922,"publication_name":"Timeless & Timely","publication_logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","title":"The Intentional Art of Curation","truncated_body_text":"“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?” — George Eliot, 1871 You’ve been to a museum, right? As you wander around the galleries, stopping at the display cases and pausing in front of wall hangings to ponder the artist’s meaning,…","date":"2021-10-01T11:00:34.934Z","like_count":1,"comment_count":0,"bylines":[{"id":429,"name":"Scott Monty","photo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9ea180a7-4ad6-4937-b37a-52810591c920_2717x2531.jpeg","bio":"Strategic communications and leadership advisor inspiring people to be better communicators, leaders, and humans. First executive at Ford to lead digital communications. Soothing voice available for hire.","profile_set_up_at":"2021-04-25T06:21:53.329Z","publicationUsers":[{"id":1595,"user_id":429,"role":"admin","public":true,"is_primary":false,"publication":{"id":28922,"name":"Timeless & Timely","subdomain":"scottmonty","custom_domain":"www.timelesstimely.com","custom_domain_optional":false,"hero_text":"Makes you a better leader, communicator, and human with advice and counsel from the past for the issues of today. ","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","author_id":429,"theme_var_background_pop":"#2879af","created_at":"2020-02-02T20:45:53.185Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"Scott Monty","copyright":"Scott Monty Strategies","founding_plan_name":"Timeless Supporter","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false}}],"twitter_screen_name":"ScottMonty","is_guest":false}]}"><br /></div><p>For now, keep this in mind: curation is essential when bits of information begin to overwhelm us. Curation is a way of telling a story by assembling the right material in the right order, and giving it context.</p><p>In an age when we’re overloaded with the number of platforms on which to communicate — let alone the amount of content on each — knowing how to curate is an essential skill.</p><p>Similarly, as you assemble your team, you need to think like a curator: put the appropriate managers in place with the right talent, and the right structure. If you throw a bunch of people together without organization or purpose, the result will be chaos.</p><p>The best leaders are collectors and curators. They deliberate over the strategy, discern the talent and resources needed, and arrange everything in a way to display the culture of the organization.</p><p>And doing so with great intention.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks, and I'll see you on the internet.</p><p><br /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><hr /></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">👉 Premium Members receive an additional related essay, plus curated links and stories, and audio and book recommendations every Friday.<br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Join the club by signing up below:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe data-dashlane-frameid="1393" frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://www.timelesstimely.com/embed" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div>

Are You Collecting or Accumulating?

Ancient Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1757 (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art) “ INTENTION (n.): The mind's sense of the prev...

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How Much Is Enough?

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-abiRjnAl7bY/YUyT6xnXucI/AAAAAAABWCg/zuqT6kH-RAQF8MaIf__qZY1gF-JzsfgTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/JS%2BPughe%2B-%2BThe%2BTantalus%2Bof%2BTo-day.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="1024" height="418" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-abiRjnAl7bY/YUyT6xnXucI/AAAAAAABWCg/zuqT6kH-RAQF8MaIf__qZY1gF-JzsfgTwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h418/JS%2BPughe%2B-%2BThe%2BTantalus%2Bof%2BTo-day.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>The Tantalus of Today</em> by J.S. Pughe, 1897 (public domain - Library of Congress)</span></p><blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p><em><strong>Timeless & Timely</strong> has audio versions of the posts for you to enjoy. They are available to <a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe">Premium subscribers</a>. This one is <a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/how-much-is-enough-audio" target="_blank">available here</a>.</em></p><p><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /><br /></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>“I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expense, and my expense is equal to my wishes.”</strong> — Edward Gibbon, 1776</em></p></blockquote><p> </p><p></p><blockquote style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></blockquote><p></p><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><hr /><br /></div><p>Tantalus had everything going for him.</p><p>He was the legendary king of Sipylus, a son of Zeus and Pluto, famous for his immense wealth, like Midas and Croesus.</p><p>But, like some people of privilege, too much simply wasn’t enough.</p><p>Tantalus was welcomed to Zeus’ table on Mt. Olympus—a great honor for a mortal. But he abused Zeus’ hospitality by stealing ambrosia and nectar and brought them back to his people to make them immortal and reveal the secrets of the gods.</p><p>Then, he offered up his son Pelops as a sacrifice, cutting him into pieces, cooking him, and serving him to the gods to test their powers of omniscience. When they discovered Tantalus’ treachery, the gods punished him with an eternal sentence befitting his offenses.</p><p>Tantalus was forced to stand in a pool of water, chained underneath a fruit tree with low branches, for eternity. Every time he reached for a piece of fruit, the branches rose beyond his reach; every time he bent to quench his thirst, the water receded.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>As you know, the English word “tantalize,” meaning to tempt or torment with the sight of something desired but out of reach. For Victorian or Edwardian antique hunters, the tantalus is a wooden rack of decanters secured by a lock; the idea was that servants would be unable to enjoy the nectar of their employers.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8NK5IV3BoNA/YUyUhsHfkmI/AAAAAAABWCo/Ar_dgSbQ0yQWkVvv1DJQxXNDQalD5WYXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s912/Tantalus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8NK5IV3BoNA/YUyUhsHfkmI/AAAAAAABWCo/Ar_dgSbQ0yQWkVvv1DJQxXNDQalD5WYXwCLcBGAsYHQ/w632-h640/Tantalus.jpg" width="632" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><figcaption class="image-caption"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Victorian-era tantalus</span></i></figcaption></figure></div><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false" style="text-align: left;"></label></div><div><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The Ancient Greeks knew it, Victorian British knew it, and it’s still true today: show us something that we don’t yet have, something that might be within our reach, and we will try to attain it, even if we already have everything we need.</p><p>How often do we find ourselves in a situation, wishing we had more or better? We tell ourselves “<strong><a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/if-only">if only</a></strong>.”</p><p>If only I had a better salary, I’d feel secure. If only I had a bigger house, I’d be content. If only I got that promotion, I’d be happier.</p><p>If only… If only…</p><p>We seem to predicate how we feel and how we live our lives based on tangibles and outcomes. As if there were some end goal, some final state of being that we could attain if we possessed something or passed a level—an IRL version of “<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Achievement%20unlocked">Achievement unlocked!</a>”</p><p>If you have desires that are then satisfied—more money, a different house, a different job, a vacation, an ice cream cone, a single malt whisky—does that keep you happy and satisfied? Likely not. Your circumstances change briefly, but then you find you’re back to saying “if only…” again.<span class="embedded-post-publication-name"></span></p><p><br /></p><h2><strong>From Sacrifice to Elegance</strong></h2><p>The Jimmy Carter era was a short stretch of American history blighted with long gas lines, a 55 mph speed limit (for fuel economy more than safety), and a cardigan-wearing president who, in February 1977, advised Americans to set their thermostats at <a href="https://youtu.be/3SFM999m5c0?t=17">65°F in the daytime and 55°F at night</a> to sacrifice for their fellow citizens.</p><p>The Reagan era ushered in “a return to elegance,” where Americans threw off the shackles of sacrifice and adorned themselves with the symbols of a new era, symbolized by stockbrokers in power ties, suspenders, and limousines.</p><p>The decade that was decorated in decadence delivered to us such cultural moments of excess as represented by the fast lanes of Jay McInerny’s <em>Bright Lights, Big City</em> and the “Greed is good” speech in <em>Wall Street</em>.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><br />“Greed is good” equates to “more is better,” and before you know it, Americans were encouraged to pursue happiness, one the triptych of unalienable rights granted to them in the Declaration of Independence.</div><p>That founding document was written at a moment of great upheaval for the country, when our well-read forbears understood human nature and knew history deeply.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>It is precisely at moments of change—a new job, a new house, democracy under threat, or some other significant event—when we should consider what fulfills us and more importantly what our responsibility is to those around us, rather than what we might have more of.</p><blockquote><p><em><strong>“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”</strong> — Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)</em></p></blockquote><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{"id":33313805,"url":"https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/money-happiness-and-worth","publication_id":28922,"publication_name":"Timeless & Timely","publication_logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","title":"Money, Happiness, and Worth","truncated_body_text":"“Money is human happiness in the abstract.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851 Money is one of those topics that traditionally hasn’t been discussed in polite society. People who don’t have enough of it may be embarrassed or anxious, and people who d…","date":"2021-03-05T16:55:24.462Z","like_count":2,"comment_count":0,"bylines":[{"id":429,"name":"Scott Monty","photo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9ea180a7-4ad6-4937-b37a-52810591c920_2717x2531.jpeg","bio":"Strategic communications and leadership advisor inspiring people to be better communicators, leaders, and humans. First executive at Ford to lead digital communications. Soothing voice available for hire.","profile_set_up_at":"2021-04-25T06:21:53.329Z","publicationUsers":[{"id":1595,"user_id":429,"role":"admin","public":true,"is_primary":false,"publication":{"id":28922,"name":"Timeless & Timely","subdomain":"scottmonty","custom_domain":"www.timelesstimely.com","custom_domain_optional":false,"hero_text":"Makes you a better leader, communicator, and human with advice and counsel from the past for the issues of today. ","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","author_id":429,"theme_var_background_pop":"#2879af","created_at":"2020-02-02T20:45:53.185Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"Scott Monty","copyright":"Scott Monty Strategies","founding_plan_name":"Timeless Supporter","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false}}],"twitter_screen_name":"ScottMonty","is_guest":false}]}"><div class="embedded-post-header"><br /></div></div><p>Does the consumption of more or the process of acquisition blind us to other priorities? Does it make us oblivious to the needs of others, or cause others to see us as callous in the face of suffering?</p><p>Look, it’s fine to chase things that bring us joy, in whatever form that might take. Like the saying goes, “Money can’t buy happiness. But it can buy ice cream, and that’s basically the same thing.”</p><p>The question is, how much ice cream is enough?</p><i><blockquote><b>“We reach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow. Or worse than a shadow—misery.” </b><i> — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1926</i></blockquote></i><div><br /><p>Thanks, and I’ll see you on the internet.</p><p><br /></p><div style="background-color: white;"><hr /></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">👉 Premium Members receive an additional related essay, plus curated links and stories, and audio and book recommendations every Friday.<br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Join the club by signing up below:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://www.timelesstimely.com/embed" style="background: white; border: 1px solid #EEE;" width="480"></iframe><br /></div></div>

How Much Is Enough?

The Tantalus of Today  by J.S. Pughe, 1897 (public domain - Library of Congress) Timeless & Timely has audio versions of the posts for ...

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Smoke and Mirrors

<h4 style="text-align: center;">Leaders need to act in accordance with their values</h4><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RZe6jS2rAGE/YUONyJxI4eI/AAAAAAABV8w/eRvxwdPDmB8TbHJkDXHbJSFRHaKJNkFjACLcBGAsYHQ/s800/Edward%2BBird%2B-%2BThe%2BCheat%2BDetected%2B1814.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="800" height="508" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RZe6jS2rAGE/YUONyJxI4eI/AAAAAAABV8w/eRvxwdPDmB8TbHJkDXHbJSFRHaKJNkFjACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h508/Edward%2BBird%2B-%2BThe%2BCheat%2BDetected%2B1814.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em><a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-cheat-detected-123948">The Cheat Detected</a></em> by Edward Bird, 1814 (Sir John Soane's Museum - CC BY-NC-ND)</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"%%share_url%%","text":"Share","class":null}"><br style="text-align: left;" /></p></td></tr></tbody></table><div><hr /></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>“The truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.”</strong> — Marcus Aurelius</em></p></blockquote><div><hr /></div><p><br />The camera ought to be listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.</p><p>More than the awe-inspiring Great Wall or the mysterious Machu Picchu, cameras have allowed us to capture and easily manipulate the world around us.</p><p>As early as 1855 in Paris, at the second world fair, a German photographer demonstrated his ability to retouch the negative of a photograph, thus producing a more desired effect.</p><p>This harmless action has evolved into the now-familiar editing features we see in the photo apps on our phones. What was once the capturing of unflinching truth is now subject to our whims and moods.</p><p>Susan Sontag <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/swindle-fraud/funhouse-mirror">observed</a>, “Instead of just recording reality, photographs have become the norm for the way things appear to us, thereby changing the very idea of reality, and of realism.”</p><p>That could almost be the mission statement for Instagram — and of its parent company, Facebook, while we’re at it.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><h2>Facebook’s Reality</h2><p>In a devastating investigation, <em>The Wall Street Journal</em> uncovered the truth behind Instagram (“<strong><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739?st=tfirs5pwfi7lb2o&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show</a></strong>”). But this goes deeper than the typical head-in-the-sand approach that companies like Facebook have taken.</p><p>In this case, it wasn’t third-party research the company chose to ignore. It was <em>the company’s own research</em>.</p><blockquote><p>For the past three years, Facebook has been conducting studies into how its photo-sharing app affects its millions of young users. Repeatedly, the company’s researchers found that Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of them, most notably teenage girls.</p><p>“We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said one slide from 2019, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues.</p><p>“Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,” said another slide. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”</p><p>The research has been reviewed by top Facebook executives, and was cited in a 2020 presentation given to Mr. Zuckerberg, according to the documents.</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>When Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of Congress in March 2021 and was asked specifically if Facebook had studied the effect of Instagram on children, he admitted that the company had.</p><blockquote><p>In August, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn in a letter to Mr. Zuckerberg called on him to release Facebook’s internal research on the impact of its platforms on youth mental health.</p><p>In response, Facebook sent the senators a six-page letter that didn’t include the company’s own studies. Instead, Facebook said there are many challenges with conducting research in this space, saying, “We are not aware of a consensus among studies or experts about how much screen time is ‘too much,’ ” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by the Journal.</p><p>In public, Facebook has consistently played down the app’s negative effects on teens, and hasn’t made its research public or available to academics or lawmakers who have asked for it.</p><p>“The research that we’ve seen is that using social apps to connect with other people can have positive mental-health benefits,” CEO Mark Zuckerburg said at a congressional hearing in March 2021 when asked about children and mental health.</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><h2>You <em>Knew</em></h2><p>In another instance with a media executive, <strong><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4733894/user-clip-knew">Rep. Heather Wilson excoriated CBS president and CEO Mel Karmazin</a></strong> in a hearing on Broadcast Decency Rules in 2004, saying, “You <em>knew</em> what you were doing…because it improved your ratings, it improved your market share, and it lined your pockets.”</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="330" src="https://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4733894/user-clip-knew" width="512"></iframe></p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>Using intentional deception to achieve a desired outcome is nothing new; we’re warned of it in the very first book of the Bible, as Eve is deceived by the serpent. It is one of God’s commandments handed down to Moses.</p><p>It is deeply and inextricably woven into human nature.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>“Men are so simple, and so much creatures of circumstance, that the deceiver will always find somebody ready to be deceived.”</strong> — Niccolò Machiavelli, 1513</em></p></blockquote><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>We’ve seen Facebook’s tactics before. And since Scott Galloway called Facebook leadership “<strong><a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/facebook-leadership-is-lipstick-on-cancer-nyu-professor">a lipstick on cancer</a></strong>,” it shouldn’t shock you that the tobacco industry first used them.</p><blockquote><p>The experts Philip Morris hired work for firms whose scientists regularly contend in medical journals, courtrooms, and regulatory arenas that their clients’ chemical products pose little or no health risks to the public. The firms have been instrumental in delaying new regulations by criticizing the work of other scientists, and emphasizing the doubt inherent in health science. The resultant uncertainty has helped delay attempts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to crack down on ubiquitous chemicals with known dangers, such as formaldehyde, arsenic, and hexavalent chromium. ["<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/low-tar-cigarettes/481116/" target="_blank">Contesting the Science of Smoking</a>," <i>The Atlantic</i>]</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>This aversion to admitting the truth behind scientific studies spans back to the early 1950s, when research linked smoking to lung cancer. The tobacco companies’ response? A secret meeting at the New York Plaza on December 14, 1953 to develop a strategy to twist science and mislead the public about the dangers of smoking.</p><p>In 1964, the Surgeon General released a report of thousands of articles and began requiring cigarette companies to post the Surgeon General’s Warning on every pack of cigarettes. </p><p>The tobacco companies <em>knew</em> of the harm of cigarettes, but they would continue to deny that cigarettes cause cancer for another 35 years, instead relying on filters, low-tar cigarettes, and other innovations that would continue to allow them to rake in the profits.</p><p>In 1999, the United States Department of Justice sued a number of tobacco companies for fraud under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act. Judge Gladys Kessler found that the companies intentionally misled the public about the health risks, nicotine addictiveness, and selling to youths.</p><p>She took a full year to write the 1,652 page opinion of <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Philip_Morris">United States of America v. Philip Morris USA</a></em>, and it was damning.</p><blockquote><p>“In short, [the companies] have marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.”</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"></pre></div><p><br /></p><p>How is Facebook any different?</p><p>Every blue-blooded socialist and every red-blooded capitalist will admit that company executives are responsible for and obsess over profits. There’s nothing inherently wrong with profitability.</p><p>But leaders have the well-being of society to consider as well. Is your product or company doing more harm than good? Do your actions reflect your values?</p><p>If you’re pursuing profits at the expense of your values or the values of a decent society, it’s all just smoke and mirrors.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><blockquote style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></blockquote><p></p><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><hr /></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">👉 Premium Members receive an additional related essay, plus curated links and stories, and audio and book recommendations every Friday.<br /></p><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><p></p><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Join the club by signing up below:</div>

Smoke and Mirrors

Leaders need to act in accordance with their values The Cheat Detected  by Edward Bird, 1814 (Sir John Soane's Museum - CC BY-NC-ND) “Th...

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Travel Restricted? Try Reading

<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gHZzTFRnUAw/YTDP25GbI7I/AAAAAAABV0Q/kn9cgficuwUJRKB1BEGzknOZ9CGxDjLlgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1232/Great%2BBooks%2Bof%2Bthe%2BWestern%2BWorld.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1232" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gHZzTFRnUAw/YTDP25GbI7I/AAAAAAABV0Q/kn9cgficuwUJRKB1BEGzknOZ9CGxDjLlgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Great%2BBooks%2Bof%2Bthe%2BWestern%2BWorld.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">From the author's library</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p><i>A version of this appeared in the <b>Timeless & Timely</b> newsletter that helps you become a better leader, a better communicator, and a better human. <a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe" target="_blank">Get it delivered to you regularly</a>.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><div class="captioned-image-container" data-pm-context="[]"><figure><figcaption class="image-caption"></figcaption></figure></div><div><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong><br />“I have a passport to a far better age,</strong></em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>As close as the bookshelf, as near as a page”</strong> </em></strong></em></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— William Schweikert, 1984 </em></div><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>You like to read, right?</p><p>Well of course you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t subscribe to this little newsletter.</p><p>But have you ever stopped to ask yourself <em>why</em> you read?</p><p>As a child, it was to become a better reader—to learn the language and become more proficient at every field of study that requires reading (all of them, essentially). And, to put it more simply, you read to have fun.</p><p>As an older student, you’d read to become a better thinker, a better reasoner, and more well-informed on topics that interested you. Along with your reading assignments came a healthy dose of essay writing.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>“Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” </strong></em><em>— Annie Proulx</em></p></blockquote><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>If you want to become a better writer (and thus, a better communicator), the secret is to practice by reading more. You’ll be exposed to different styles, a wider vocabulary, and broader ideas. And they’ll rub off on you.</p><p>But what about your reading habit <em>now</em>? Why do you read today?</p><p>It probably goes without saying that you read to continue the process of learning. The best leaders are life-long learners.</p><p>You read to understand your industry and the associated forces that may impact it. You read to fine-tune your craft. You read for self-improvement.</p><p>But shouldn’t there be more?</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>In his letters, Gustave Flaubert wrote:</p><p></p><blockquote><strong>“Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live.”</strong></blockquote><p></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"https://ctt.ac/7_27y","text":"Tweet this quote","class":null}"><br /></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"https://ctt.ac/7_27y","text":"Tweet this quote","class":null}">Read to live.</p><p>Timeless and timely advice, I’d say.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>Books are voyages of discovery. And with them, you can get your passport stamped on destinations around the world and over many centuries.</p><p>See the fog-enshrouded streets of Victorian London, the newly-laid cobblestones of the Via Appia in the second century BC, experience Hemingway’s Spanish bullrings of the 1920s, and Fennimore Cooper’s Mohican country of the 1750s.</p><p>What do we find on these journeys?</p><p>Aside from the sundry settings, to which our senses may be attuned for the first time, we find something more fundamental: we discover ourselves.</p><p>In what we read, we find the present in the past and the past in the present. And in doing so, you discover within yourself the presence of a once and future person.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>“When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.”</strong> — Clifton Fadiman</em></p></blockquote><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>As travel restrictions begin to ratchet up once more (just today <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/01/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html">the CDC advised</a> unvaccinated people to refrain from traveling over Labor Day weekend), we still have the ability to travel in our minds.</p><p>My friend <strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/cspenn/">Christopher Penn</a></strong> is bringing people along with him on his virtual travel adventures. Through an Oculus app, he is able to travel around the world virtually, and he shares his travels on Instagram.</p><p>Perhaps you appreciate books and don’t have as many at hand as you would like. Or you just miss the wonder of a curious mind and a lazy afternoon that accompany browsing the shelves of a library or used book store. Youre in luck: the Internet Archives <strong><a href="https://mymodernmet.com/internet-archive-library-explorer/">Library Explorer allows you to browse 3D shelves by subject, age, date and other sorting criteria</a></strong>.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>“I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, or how lonely the room which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more.”</strong> — Arthur Conan Doyle, 1907</em></p></blockquote><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Don’t let your geographical restrictions limit what you read.</p><p>And please, give your scrolling thumb a rest. Put down the phone and pick up a book instead.</p><p>You might be surprised at how much living you do.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"><br /></pre></div><p>Thanks, and I’ll see you on the internet.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p>I’ll be back on Friday with more thoughts on the physicality of books and what they mean to us, along with some interesting timeless and timely links and recommended items to round out your reading habit. Be sure to sign up for Friday’s updates, exclusively available to Premium members. You can <b><a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/44f59cab" target="_blank">try it for free</a></b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/44f59cab" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="66" data-original-width="273" height="66" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OiyvVhiJn6I/YSeKDEadabI/AAAAAAABVl0/I8f2d7rCmAQU6Cx49OR12YFCxPFaT4B9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/button_day-free-trial.png" width="273" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p>

Travel Restricted? Try Reading

  From the author's library A version of this appeared in the Timeless & Timely newsletter that helps you become a better leader, a...

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