Wise Bites Memos
Wise Bites: September 7, 2025
Happy Sunday,
Labor Day may feel like yesterday, yet here comes another weekend. The real question: what will you do with your time?
Aristotle once said, “The end of labor is to gain leisure.” He believed you learn more about a person by how they spend their free time than by their job title.
Leisure isn’t just “time off.” It’s the hours outside obligation—the moments you truly control. The Greek word for leisure, schole, is the root of our word school. To the ancients, leisure was where learning, reflection, and growth happened.
So before the weekend slips by—ask yourself: Am I filling my leisure, or is it filling me?
Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos; share them online, and tell a friend!
Wise Bites: August 29, 2025
It’s been a minute since the last WiseBite—but better late than never. This week marks a fresh start: I’m reformatting the Wise Bite Memo to center each edition around a single theme - better thinking.
You’ll still get the bite-sized gems you’ve come to expect—book excerpts, quotes, and thought-provoking finds from across the web—but now I’ll also be sharing more original content, including audio and video.
The goal? To spark your thinking and help you move toward better outcomes in life.
Cogito, ergo sum
Latin for “I think, therefore I am.” Not a Billie Eilish lyric, but the famous declaration from 17th-century philosopher René Descartes in his Discourse on the Method (1637). This idea shaped centuries of thought—and it sparks a question for us today:
If who you are is shaped by your thoughts, how do you improve yourself? Can you become a better person by improving the quality of your thoughts? And beyond that, what about the quality of your thinking itself?
These questions have fueled my own journey: sharpening, challenging, and elevating the way I think. Along the way, I’ll be sharing what I’m learning—and I hope it inspires you to strengthen your own thinking too.
I look forward to sharing more content starting next week.
Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos; share them online, and tell a friend!
Wise Bites: April 23, 2021
Make it stand out
Greetings,
Are you ready to bring your best self to the week’s challenges? If not, what will it take to rise to the occasion? One way to position yourself to help others reach their potential is to invest in your own growth and development. So take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
This week, I highlight a great book to help you bring out your best self. Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy explores how to harness confidence and achieve personal empowerment. Cuddy, a social psychologist and TED speaker, delves into how we can use body language, mental framing, and "power poses" to project and cultivate a stronger sense of self. Drawing on psychological research and personal stories, she shows that adopting a "presence" mindset can reduce stress, increase resilience, and improve performance in high-stakes situations. The book emphasizes authenticity and encourages readers to bring their authentic selves into challenging moments, ultimately leading to greater success and satisfaction.
Quotes
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. -Aristotle
The person who asks questions is more helpful than the person who offers advice. -James Clear
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Wise Bites: April 16, 2021
Greetings,
Are you ready to bring your best self to the week’s challenges? If not, what will it take to rise to the occasion? One way to position yourself to help others reach their potential is to invest in your own growth and development. So take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
This week, I decided to highlight the book, The Right to Write, by Julia Cameron. The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron encourages readers to embrace writing as a natural, accessible form of expression for everyone, not just professional writers. Cameron, known for her influential book The Artist’s Way, dismantles common misconceptions about writing and offers exercises to help people connect with their inner voice. Through personal anecdotes and practical advice, she reveals that writing can be therapeutic, empowering, and joyful. The book inspires readers to approach writing as a tool for self-discovery, creativity, and personal growth, and to recognize that everyone has the right to write.
If you are looking to incorporate more writing in your personal or professional life, or aiming for ways to get more out of life through passion and creativity, you should grab a copy of The Right to Write by Julia Cameron.
Quotes
Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company. -Booker T. Washington
Do something every day that you don't want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. -Mark Twain
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Wise Bites: April 9, 2021
Happy Friday,
How was your week? Did you meet your goals, make a difference, or learn something new? If you answered yes, congratulations! If you answered no, don't worry. In that case, you can make up for it today by taking a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
This week, I decided to revisit a leadership book on a true American hero, Abraham Lincoln, that I had previously read and written about (Lincoln on Leadership: A Book Review for School District Leadership) a couple of years ago. With so much written about President Abraham Lincoln, it is sometimes hard to see him in a new way. However, Phillips presents the president's leadership traits from a fresh perspective in his book, Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times. Phillips highlights several of Lincoln's letters and quotes throughout the book and uses Lincoln's actual words to illuminate and validate his claim that Lincoln possessed modern leadership traits applicable in today's business and workforce environments. His book organized Lincoln's leadership abilities and his book into four sections.
In the first section, Phillips outlines Lincoln's critical strategy for building meaningful relationships with subordinates. In his second section, he highlights how Lincoln's stringent policies of honesty and integrity won over many of the strong personalities he confronted. Phillip notes in his third section that Lincoln encouraged innovation and sought generals who craved responsibility and were willing to take risks. In the final section, he puts President Lincoln's charm and masterful communication style on display to emphasize the power and importance of Lincoln's effective communication.
You can never learn enough about Lincoln or leadership, and Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times is one book you should read.
Quotes
Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows. -Michael Landon
Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone. -Billy Cox
Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos; share them online, and tell a friend!
Wise Bites: April 2, 2021
Happy Friday,
How did we get to April so fast? As you prepare for a beautiful weekend, take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
This week, I want to share a book segment review from The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. In this short read, Stanier distills the most critical habits of coaching into seven transformative questions that every leader should ask to improve their work and help others improve theirs.
The Kickstart question - “What’s on your mind?” - This question is an excellent start to any conversation. It is the perfect balance between being focused and open that invites people to what is most important to them.
The Awe question - “And what else?” - This self-management question opens the door for more insight and self-awareness and sets the stage for the rest of the questions.
The Focus question - “What’s the real challenge here for you?” - This question slows down any rush to action and helps you address the real problem.
The Foundation question - “What do you want?” - This question helps you to get at the heart of what matters most.
The Lazy question - “How can I help?” - This powerful question is a time saver question for you as it forces those you are working with to make a clear and direct request and keeps you from making assumptions about what would be best.
The Strategic question - “If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?” - This complex question is a time saver question for those working with you, as it helps them clarify their commitments.
The Learning question - “What was most useful for you?” - The bookend question helps you create a space for those that you work with to have learning moments, and it connects back to the kickstart question.
Stanier wisely advises us to ask one question at a time when implementing the coaching habit. He shares that rolling out a string of questions, regardless of our motivations or intentions, could make people defensive and undermine our goal of helping others get better.
Quotes
Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work. -Gustav Flaubert
Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. -Seth Godin
Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos; share them online, and tell a friend!
Wise Bites: March 26, 2021
Happy Friday,
Congratulations, you have completed another work week! Hopefully, you have finished it as a better version of yourself than when you started it on Monday. Now you can ride that wave into the weekend.
Take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
This week, I want to share a book segment review from Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell seamlessly weaves scientific research findings from diverse fields into an anecdotal style that prompts readers to see ordinary things in new ways. In this work, Gladwell introduces the field of rapid cognition to help us better understand what lies behind our ability to make quick decisions. The three major concepts that I learned about were:
The benefit of quick decisions - decisions made quickly can be every bit as good as those made cautiously and deliberately.
Instinct Management - you need to know when to trust your instincts and when to be wary of them.
Snap Judgment Control - you can refine the efficiency of your judgment through a process called “thin slicing”, which is the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on narrow slices of experience.
Quotes
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. -Zig Ziglar
Don’t let schooling interfere with your education. -Mark Twain
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Wise Bites: March 13, 2021
Happy Friday,
Whether you are completing your Spring Break week or are preparing for one next week, I hope your time off is beneficial. Now that you are ready to transition to the weekend let me help you get ready for the best week ever.
Take a moment to consume an illuminating segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
This week, I want to share a book segment from Ruth Whippman’s New York Times Bestseller from 2016, America the Anxious. In this delightful analysis of American culture, Whippman raises insightful questions about our understanding of happiness and the impact of our efforts to obtain it. As a British expatriate living in California, she exposes America’s seemingly obsessive and at-all-costs quest for happiness with humor and freshness, giving the reader the unique opportunity to reflect on his investment in happiness as a first-hand observer. Throughout the book, Whippman shares her experiences and reflections with charm and compelling innocence as she takes a pilgrimage through American culture to discover authentic contentment and happiness on this side of the pond. In Chapter Seven, “I’m Not a Happy Person, I Just Play One On Facebook,” Whippman’s sharp wit and cutting social commentary are on full display when she shares that,
Facebook is a parallel universe in which everyone is either stratospherically successful in their career, married to the ‘best guy ever,’ ‘enjoying every moment of motherhood,’ or in a state of single childlessness for which the only descriptive adjective permitted by the Social media authorities is ‘fabulous’.
Later, she gives a spot-on analysis of how social media has infiltrated our understanding of happiness when she posits that “in a culture that both insist that we have complete control over our happiness and too often equates unhappiness with inadequacy, social media gives us an unprecedented ability to craft and present a happy front.”
Are you happy? Are you as happy as you want to be? What would make you happier? Have you pondered these questions before and are now looking to take action to answer them? In that case, you should consider reading Ruth Whippman’s insightful and hilarious journey through America’s infatuation with happiness, America the Anxious. I am sure you will find this book a joy to read.
Quotes
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. -Eleanor Roosevelt
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. -Marcus Aurelius
Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos; share it online; and tell a friend!
Wise Bites: March 12, 2021
Happy Friday,
Few things are more satisfying than coming to the end of a whole work week. Hopefully, your week has been one worth celebrating. Now that you are ready to transition to the weekend, take a moment to consume an illuminating segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
This week, I want to share a segment from the book Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol. As a former NASA employee turned law professor, Varol successfully presents a business and personal development book in a nontraditional format. Think Like a Rocket Scientist is a fresh presentation of work-life problem-solving strategies, often in the context of mind-tantalizing “rocket science” examples. In keeping with his NASA roots, Varol structured his book in three parts: “Launch,” “Accelerate,” and “Achieve.”
The key idea I would like to spotlight for this week's Wise Bites comes from Chapter 2: Reasoning from First Principles. Varol posits that knowledge informs us and creates frameworks that help us make sense of the world. He unpacks how knowledge can sometimes be a vice rather than a virtue. The structures provided by knowledge give us productive, cognitive shortcuts that are sometimes beneficial and, at other times, distort our vision. To clarify how knowledge often leads us to repeat the same actions ineffectively, Varol explains the concept of path dependence: what we’ve done before shapes what we do next, and the past often drowns out the future. One of his examples of path dependence is the way QWERTY keyboards were designed during the era of mechanical typewriters to prevent jamming. Today, we know that there are more efficient keyboard formats that improve typing speed and ergonomics, but they have not been adopted because of our comfort with the QWERTY format.
Varol offers the counter approach to path dependence: first-principles thinking. He shares that “Aristotle defined [first-principles thinking] as the first basis from which a thing is known.” Descartes described it as “systematically doubting everything you can doubt until you’re left with unquestionable truths.” This approach means you don’t accept the status quo as an absolute. Instead, it allows you to drop existing assumptions, leaving only the fundamental components.
If you are working to revamp your thinking to achieve breakthroughs at work or in your life, I highly recommend the book Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol. It is an easy read with insightful anecdotes that simplify cerebral concepts, hold your attention, and stimulate your curiosity.
Quotes
A dull mind gets bored easily. A curious mind expands forever. -Maxime Lagacé
If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully. -Maya Angelou
Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos, and tell a friend!
Wise Bites: March 5, 2021
Happy Friday,
I hope you're off to an excellent start for March and getting ready for Spring (not considering allergies).
I routinely share an illuminating review from a book segment, a few quotes that captured my attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet—small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.
Book Segment
I dove into Show Your Work this month! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon. In this follow-up to his first New York Times bestseller, Steal Like an Artist, Kloen shares ten strategies that creatives can employ to get their work out into the world and build an audience around it. Throughout the book, he shares quotes, pictures, and very straightforward gems of practical wisdom and inspiration designed to help you focus more on your process than your product. The key segment I want to spotlight in this week's Wise Bite comes from Chapter 4: “Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities.” In that chapter, Kleon encourages creatives to maintain a collection, physically or mentally, of our curiosities - books, music, places, people, or any source of wonder. He also shared that our collection forms our taste, and our taste influences our work. One of my favorite quotes from Chapter 4 is, “Your influences are all worth sharing because they clue people in to who you are and what you do, sometimes even more than your own work.”
Quotes
If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get. -Frank A. Clark
There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up. -Booker T. Washington
Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos, and tell a friend!