This month's philosopher: Bernie Zipprich WG’16
To learn more about Bernie, click here.
Column Editor: Z. Colette Edwards, WG’84, MD’85
To learn more about Colette, click here.
Life Lessons:
If I knew then what I know now, I would have:
...studied more math and computer science.
If I knew then what I know now, I would not have:
...I genuinely don’t know. I think life is about growth, learning, and discovery. Yes, I might have made some decisions differently in retrospect. But I also recognize that I am who I am today as much because of the mistakes and detours, as the forward progress and success.
Favorite Quotes:
- “Even the tiniest little bit of reminding ourselves that ‘this is it,’ that we are alive now, that we are already here, can make a huge difference. For in fact, as we have seen, the future that we desire to get to — it is already here. This is it!” ~ Jon Kabat Zinn, Mindfulness for Beginners
- “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”~ Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
- “Love your neighbor.” ~ Scripture
Recommended Reading:
-
How Will You Measure Your Life, by Clayton Christensen, HBR (2010).
- Great questions and considerations for anyone who cares about having a career with purpose and impact.
-
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (2016)
- Terrific read about the transformative technologies remaking tomorrow’s economy, and the implications for business, society, and policy
-
Give and Take, by Adam Grant (2013)
- Why paying it forward is a better philosophy for work and life, and the best strategy for long term success.
Contact Bernie at: [email protected]