In his book “Lying”, Sam Harris makes a compelling case for why we should always strive to tell the truth.Here are three takeaways and some supporting quotes from the book that I think are relevant to consider at work and, frankly, all other aspects of life. 


It is simpler to tell...

The first time I heard “work hard, play hard” was when a couple of friends were describing the ethos of their respective fraternities — one comprising of dedicated business students, another comprising of ambitious pre-med students looking to become the future of medicine. 

My initial reaction to this description...

Some details matter more than others: 

What your team is meeting about probably matters more than how long or how often you’re meeting.  A well-written communication probably matters more than whether you pick Georgia or Times New Roman typeface. 

Showing up to the gym regularly probably matters more...

On the first day of my 11th-grade English class, my teacher wrote in large letters on the dry-erase board “SO WHAT?” and proceeded to lecture us on how answering that question was the single most crucial skill that we could develop for our careers. 

Every writing assignment we submitted...

Becoming a successful marathon runner starts with being able to run a solid mile. 

Becoming a strong powerlifter starts with learning the basic mechanics of each powerlifting movement.
  Becoming an effective project manager starts with learning the basic project management principles and applying them to progressively more complex projects. ...

Some thoughts are helpful: 

The belief that you can grow — i.e. growth mindset a la Carol Dweck— is helpful. 

The belief that the challenge in front of you and your team is solvable is probably helpful. 

There’s another class of thoughts, however, that are inconvertibly unhelpful: ...

The belief that there is a problem tends is usually followed by a resource-intensive effort to either solve or mitigate the problem. 

A project that feels like it’s on the cusp of failing might trigger several mitigating behaviors from the team, including reaching out to the project sponsor and...

Virtually everything requires some energy from us in the form of time, effort, and emotion. 

Your hobbies require energy. 

Your personal and professional relationships require energy. 

Your projects require energy. 

At some point, everyone is humbled by the fact that their energy isn’t an infinite trove...

On some level, problems are immutable: 

A broken faucet is a broken faucet. 

A challenging professional relationship is a challenging professional relationship. 

An underperforming quarter is an underperforming quarter. 

On the other hand, you have a great deal of freedom when it comes to the thoughts...

Every winter, a pothole develops on the road I take to get to the grocery store. 

Every spring, someone reports the pothole to the city, and the pothole gets fixed.

This has been going on for as long as I can remember. 

If you consider how much it...