At The Little Middle School, students usually have a period of discretionary time each day in which they can work on any assignment for any subject or pursue their own projects.

Part of the benefit of this format is that we can directly teach students how to pace and structure their work time. Don’t you wish someone had shown you how to do that when you were twelve?

Interestingly, to make Discretionary Time successful, the adults have to recalibrate their own understanding of what it looks like to be working.

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I’m building a new business, and I’m finding it hard to shake the feeling that I need to be moving faster.

In the past, when I’ve created a new offering, it was often accompanied by the desire for a quick return on investment. I wanted to launch a thing because I needed some money coming in.

But now, despite COVID, things are more stable. I’m creating something new because I want to, not because I’m desperate and digging myself out of a hole. And that means I can take my time. However, I still feel that underlying sense of urgency. And this urgency carries a cost.

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I recently returned to Instagram after some time away.

I generally dislike social media, but after months of pandemic life, I really missed those casual connections with friends and the glimpse into their lives afforded by the platform.

Everything was going fine — “fine” meaning that I was able to view others’ posts without going too far down the rabbit hole — when I downloaded a routine update.

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Across the United States and the world, institutions that rose to prominence over the last century or two are still enjoying their ubiquity.

Humans have always sought power and freedom. But it must also be true that we seek someone to lead us. How else would those who have sought power have been able to wield it so successfully, even when goals were nefarious?

It used to be a lot easier to get people to do what you wanted them to do. All you have to do is limit their education and indoctrinate them instead. The culture becomes self-perpetuating as they indoctrinate each other, everyone playing their required role.

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In the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers and his sidekick, Vanessa Kensington (played by Mike Myers and Elizabeth Hurley, respectively) are operating a steamroller for reasons I don’t recall. Meanwhile, a security officer stands in the path of the slow-moving steamroller, facing his inevitable death.

The gag, of course, is that this guy has all the time in the world to get out of the path of the steamroller, but he doesn’t.

I think of this bit surprisingly often because it is the perfect metaphor for most of the poor decisions I’ve made. While I was doing the thing, however well-meaning it was, I knew I shouldn’t have been doing it. I saw a mile away that it wasn’t going to be a good idea, and yet I didn’t course correct.

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