The fog at Austerlitz did not just cover the fields. It covered certainty. In the cold hours before dawn on December 2, 1805, Napoleon stood with his marshals and listened to the same argument leaders hear in every era: take the obvious advantage, hold the high ground, look strong, and do not invite risk. The … Read more
Most leadership frameworks are built for stability. They assume: But real leadership rarely happens there. It emerges at the moment when plans collapse, certainty evaporates, and fear begins to dictate behavior. In Reasoned Leadership, this moment is called the Adversity Nexus—the point where uncertainty, pressure, and consequence converge, demanding a decision without guarantees. Few real-world … Read more
Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 adaptation of Frankenstein reimagines Mary Shelley’s classic as a deeply emotional story about creation, consequence, and the long shadow of fathers and sons. The film stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the Creature, with Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz in key roles. It premiered at Venice, played … Read more
For decades, game theory has helped leaders, economists, and military strategists understand human cooperation and conflict. One of its most famous models: the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, illustrates a simple truth: when individuals cooperate over time, everyone benefits; when they defect or betray, everyone suffers. But what happens when cooperation itself loses value? What happens when … Read more
Leadership is not simply about authority or expertise, it is about trust. People look to leaders as anchors in uncertain times, and when leaders lose control of their emotions, they erode the very foundation they are supposed to provide. While passion and humanity are necessary in leadership, unchecked emotion is not strength; it is weakness. … Read more
In the modern information environment, the human mind has become the battlefield. Psychological operations, commonly shortened to psyops, are not relics of Cold War intelligence manuals or obscure military jargon. They are active, evolving strategies designed to shape perception, manipulate emotions, and influence behavior. Originally developed in military contexts, psyops now exist at the intersection … Read more
The most useful leadership idea you can steal this year is simple and demanding. Systems do not fail because leaders stop caring. They fail because success hardens into safety, safety dulls curiosity, and then an outlier event resets the game. Dr. David Robertson calls this the Adversity Nexus. It is a repeating cycle: Adversity creates … Read more
There’s a certain comfort in a label. In a world that feels chaotic, it’s tempting to reach for anything that offers clarity: an identity, a framework, a name. Personality tests, attachment style quizzes, Enneagram types, Myers-Briggs profiles, even the flood of TikTok “Which Disney Princess Are You?” filters. These tools seem to promise that if … Read more
Few figures in history have captivated the imagination like Alexander the Great. Born in 356 BCE, he ascended to the throne of Macedonia at just 20 years old and within a decade forged one of the largest empires the world had ever seen. His campaigns stretched from Greece through Persia and into India, reshaping cultures … Read more
I grew up a punk rock kid.Skateboards. Beaches. Summers filled with salty air and busted Converse. I was the kid with a pocket full of sand and a Walkman full of Ska, Punk, and alt-rock: Blink-182, Green Day, Less Than Jake, Bad Religion, NOFX, Rancid. I wore Vans like armor. Rebellion was the anthem, and … Read more
