Explore past nudges
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Aristotle drew a distinction between two kinds of knowledge that most product organizations collapse into one: *episteme* — the kind of understanding that holds universally — and...
Think of a major product call you made in the last six months that turned out right. How much of what made it right was...
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Ibn Abi Duniya, a ninth-century Baghdad scholar, wrote an entire treatise on silence — arguing that the person who speaks less is not withholding, but accumulating. He observed...
In the last conversation where you felt unheard, how much of it did you spend speaking?
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Aristotle drew a sharp distinction between two kinds of knowledge: knowing facts, and knowing how to act well under pressure — what he called practical wisdom. Most parenting...
Think of a recent moment with your child where you acted differently than you would have advised a friend to act. What...
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Most leaders assume that motivation is something you generate — that with enough willpower or the right morning ritual, you can conjure drive on demand. The 11th-century Persian...
What is one thing you've been postponing until you 'feel ready' — and how long have you been waiting for that feeling?
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Most clinicians are trained to listen for what the patient is saying — far fewer are trained to notice what the patient is not saying, and why the silence might matter more. The...
In your last difficult patient conversation, who spoke more — you or them — and what did that ratio cost?
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The moment you label a colleague 'resistant to change,' you've stopped seeing them and started managing a category. Emmanuel Levinas, the Lithuanian-French philosopher, argued...
Who on your team have you most thoroughly explained to yourself — and when did you last update that explanation based...
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The medieval Icelandic chieftains who built the most durable political alliances had a concept called *drengskapr* — a code of conduct that prized restrained strength over...
Think of a situation this week where you had leverage and used it. What would the outcome have been if you'd visibly...
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Aristotle argued that character isn't something you have — it's something you do, repeatedly, until the doing becomes you. But here's what's easy to miss: he wasn't talking about...
Who in your life consistently brings out a version of you that you actually want to become — and how often do you...
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The medieval Arabic philosopher Ibn Rushd — known in Europe as Averroes — spent decades as court physician in Andalusia while simultaneously writing the most influential...
Name a decision you made in the last week that you later second-guessed — were you physically depleted when you made it?
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Aristotle argued that we don't think our way into new actions — we act our way into new thinking. His concept of *hexis*, translated roughly as 'disposition,' held that character...
What is the opposite of the decision-making habit you rely on most — and when did you last actually use that opposite...
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In medicine, the hardest clinical skill may not be diagnosis but what philosopher Hans Jonas called 'the imperative of responsibility' — the weight of acting under uncertainty on...
When you last felt most uncertain in your work, were you retreating from the patient or actually moving closer to them...
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Plato argued in the 'Republic' that musical modes aren't merely aesthetic preferences — they're moral architectures that shape the soul. He wanted to ban certain scales from the...
If your habitual listening were a philosophical argument being made about the kind of person you should become, what...
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The medieval Islamic philosopher Al-Ghazali argued that music occupies a strange threshold: it bypasses the rational mind and speaks directly to what he called the *qalb* — the...
Is there a piece of music that affected you completely differently at two different moments in your life — and what...
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In medicine, the gap between knowing and doing is one of the most consequential failures we rarely talk about. Aristotle called this 'akrasia' — acting against one's better...
Where in your medical practice or health decisions do you *know* the right course of action but consistently find...
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The ancient Greek concept of 'mousike' — which encompassed not just music but all arts governed by the Muses — was understood by Plato in the Republic as a form of moral education...
If the music you consumed most this week were a set of values, what would those values actually be?
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