Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz

!tags:: #litāœ/šŸ“°ļøarticle/highlights
!links:: leadership,
!ref:: Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz
!author:: fs.blog

=this.file.name

Book cover of "Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz"

Reference

Notes

Quote

Why is it so often that the best people are stuck in the middle and the people who are running thingsā€”the leadersā€”are the mediocrities? Because excellence isnā€™t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering. Kissing up to the people above you, kicking down to the people below you. Pleasing your teachers, pleasing your superiors, picking a powerful mentor and riding his coattails until itā€™s time to stab him in the back. Jumping through hoops. Getting along by going along. Being whatever other people want you to be, so that it finally comes to seem that, like the manager of the Central Station, you have nothing inside you at all. Not taking stupid risks like trying to change how things are done or question why theyā€™re done. Just keeping the routine going.
- No location available
- leadership, hierarchy, conformance, favorite, career advancement,
- [note::This seems like a very pessimistic view of career development (but I don't doubt it's a well-practiced strategy in certain industries)]

Quote

We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but donā€™t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but donā€™t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether theyā€™re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of expertise. What we donā€™t have are leaders.
- No location available
- leadership,

Quote

Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other peopleā€™s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube.
- No location available
- favorite, thinking, creativity, innovation, boredom,

Quote

the great German novelist Thomas Mann said that a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. The best writers write much more slowly than everyone else, and the better they are, the slower they write.
- No location available
- writing,

Quote

Itā€™s not that my students were robots. Quite the reverse. They were inĀ¬tensely idealistic, but the overwhelming weight of their practical responsibilities, all of those hoops they had to jump through, often made them lose sight of what those ideals were. Why they were doing it all in the first place.
- No location available
-

Quote

When you expose yourself to those things, especially in the constant way that people do nowā€”older people as well as younger peopleā€”you are continuously bombarding yourself with a stream of other peopleā€™s thoughts. You are marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom. In other peopleā€™s reality: for others, not for yourself. You are creating a cacophony in which it is impossible to hear your own voice, whether itā€™s yourself youā€™re thinking about or anything else. Thatā€™s what Emerson meant when he said that ā€œhe who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing, reading, and writing in the daily, time-worn yoke of their opinions.ā€
- No location available
-

Quote

Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to yourself is by talking to another person. One other person you can trust, one other person to whom you can unfold your soul. One other person you feel safe enough with to allow you to acknowledge thingsā€”to acknowledge things to yourselfā€”that you otherwise canā€™t. Doubts you arenā€™t supposed to have, questions you arenā€™t supposed to ask. Feelings or opinions that would get you laughed at by the group or reprimanded by the authorities.
- No location available
-


dg-publish: true
created: 2024-07-01
modified: 2024-07-01
title: Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz
source: hypothesis

!tags:: #litāœ/šŸ“°ļøarticle/highlights
!links:: leadership,
!ref:: Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz
!author:: fs.blog

=this.file.name

Book cover of "Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz"

Reference

Notes

Quote

Why is it so often that the best people are stuck in the middle and the people who are running thingsā€”the leadersā€”are the mediocrities? Because excellence isnā€™t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering. Kissing up to the people above you, kicking down to the people below you. Pleasing your teachers, pleasing your superiors, picking a powerful mentor and riding his coattails until itā€™s time to stab him in the back. Jumping through hoops. Getting along by going along. Being whatever other people want you to be, so that it finally comes to seem that, like the manager of the Central Station, you have nothing inside you at all. Not taking stupid risks like trying to change how things are done or question why theyā€™re done. Just keeping the routine going.
- No location available
- leadership, hierarchy, conformance, favorite, career advancement,
- [note::This seems like a very pessimistic view of career development (but I don't doubt it's a well-practiced strategy in certain industries)]

Quote

We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but donā€™t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but donā€™t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether theyā€™re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of expertise. What we donā€™t have are leaders.
- No location available
- leadership,

Quote

Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other peopleā€™s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube.
- No location available
- favorite, thinking, creativity, innovation, boredom,

Quote

the great German novelist Thomas Mann said that a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. The best writers write much more slowly than everyone else, and the better they are, the slower they write.
- No location available
- writing,

Quote

Itā€™s not that my students were robots. Quite the reverse. They were inĀ¬tensely idealistic, but the overwhelming weight of their practical responsibilities, all of those hoops they had to jump through, often made them lose sight of what those ideals were. Why they were doing it all in the first place.
- No location available
-

Quote

When you expose yourself to those things, especially in the constant way that people do nowā€”older people as well as younger peopleā€”you are continuously bombarding yourself with a stream of other peopleā€™s thoughts. You are marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom. In other peopleā€™s reality: for others, not for yourself. You are creating a cacophony in which it is impossible to hear your own voice, whether itā€™s yourself youā€™re thinking about or anything else. Thatā€™s what Emerson meant when he said that ā€œhe who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing, reading, and writing in the daily, time-worn yoke of their opinions.ā€
- No location available
-

Quote

Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to yourself is by talking to another person. One other person you can trust, one other person to whom you can unfold your soul. One other person you feel safe enough with to allow you to acknowledge thingsā€”to acknowledge things to yourselfā€”that you otherwise canā€™t. Doubts you arenā€™t supposed to have, questions you arenā€™t supposed to ask. Feelings or opinions that would get you laughed at by the group or reprimanded by the authorities.
- No location available
-