Paying attention to what matters most is harder than ever—and just as important as it always has been.
Author: Steve Sampson
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 everyone's 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
Much of what we perceive about the world now reaches us through a multiplatform game of informational peekaboo–and we rarely stop to think about the weirdness of this fact.
Beware the Curse of Knowledge
Expertise can be its own worst enemy.