Paying attention to what matters most is harder than ever—and just as important as it always has been.
Author: stsampson
Writer, husband, father, drummer, and would-be wise old wizard--not necessarily in that order. Founder of Better Word Partners LLC.
Sometimes the Deep Magic Prevails
Reflections from a wedding on a Blue Ridge mountainside.
Ode to a Woman and a Civil Servant
My mother taught me that to be a decent human you have to despise cruelty. And she was right.
Read Closely, Listen Actively, Lead Wisely
Do whatever it takes to let yourself fully engage—to read and think and write back. The right people will love you for it.
What My Daughter’s Drawing Taught Me About Words
Language is a maker, not a mirror. And continuing to use it creatively is now more important than ever.
What AI Will Never Know About Ice Cream, June 1981, and Everything Before or Since
Despite regular claims to the contrary, AI Does Not Have Access to All of Human Knowledge — and It Never Will
You Gotta Help
It is not your job alone to save the world. But it is your job—it is all of our job—to help.
7 Basic Plots and How to Use Them
Stories are ubiquitous in human life, from the time we begin to make sense of the world to our final sentences. So learning how to tell them--and why--is essential.
Public Discourse in a Peekaboo World
All that glistens isn’t necessarily good During a recent vacation, I re-read Neil Postman’s classic of media criticism, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. I found it remarkably relevant on multiple fronts, especially regarding a challenge we all grapple with daily: the deluge of disconnected, decontextualized information. I would …
Beware the Curse of Knowledge
Expertise can be its own worst enemy.
