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302: Questions Give Answers
Dear Friends You know that from time to time, I segue into art and wine. Well, jazz too, and sometimes classic cars, and architecture, and cute critters, and, well, anything…

301: Dan Wang’s Breakneck
Dear Friends I initially read Dan Wang’s Breakneck with a simple objective – to deepen my understanding of the world’s largest economies, the US and China. I got that. Unexpectedly, I…

300: A Figure That Has Never Varied
Dear friends We are back. Thank you for allowing me my writing break. If you joined strategy, soul & self during August I apologise for my silence. I have paused…

299: The Nvidia Story: Stephen Witt’s The Thinking Machine
Dear friends You’ll remember, I hope, that this year’s newsletter schedule is a little different: it arrives weekly for three months, then doesn’t for a month. That is because I…

298: Inventing Peace
Good morning, dear friends /strategyMany of you will know Kevin Kelly’s pretty famous 2008 blog post, A 1,000 True Fans. He argues, “To be a successful creator you don’t need millions.…

297: No sooner do we make sense of the world than that sense is out of date
Dear friends Let us start today with some whimsy. These occasional starting segues may seem like a distraction, but, in truth, they’re an expression of an important truth: everything is…

296: We Bake Brownies to Hire People
Good morning dear friends “All acts of kindness are lights in the war for justice.” These words are part of Joy Harjo’s Reconciliation, A Prayer included in How We Became…

295: Lebo Diseko’s The House at 6001
Dear Friends Last week I said we would visit Lebo Diseko’s memoir The House at 6001, and that is where soul and self will go. /strategy Two weeks ago,…

294: Ek speel net vir julle: Abdullah Ibrahim reminds us of what’s what
Dear friends I woke on Tuesday to the news that the great Abdullah Ibrahim had passed on the day before. False Bay was wind-whipped; the Cape howling its grief. Bruised…

293: Remembrance via Langston Hughes
Dear friends Today is quieter. The other day, I remembered your wide smile and short dreads, the dreads that disappeared with age and title. Then, I remembered you are no longer…

292: How We Murder Our Dreams
Dear Friends For several years, I have told you to buy Banele Vakele’s Tembela wines. Despite my wine vocabulary consisting of yum, meh and never again, it appears my advice is…

291: Executive Transitions: From Zhuangzi to Michael Watkins
Dear Friends Thank you for your generous messages after last week’s letter. If you enjoyed it, you might also appreciate The Power of the Powerless, Self-Doubt and Success or Being…
