Life is full of suffering, and every day is a miracle, and both are always true. Man, it’s hard to remember that last part.

Ears cleared for takeoff. Body not going anywhere.

OUT NOW: The 75th issue of my monthly newsletter, with... • A personal essay (on going home) • A post from my archives (from 2006(!)) • Recommended reading (from 1991) • A short video of the natural world • Miscellany: a "sculpture farm" us6.campaign-archive.com/?u=…

TUESDAY: The 75th issue of my monthly newsletter, with... • A personal essay (on going home) • A post from my archives (from 2006(!)) • Recommended reading (from 1991) • A short video of the natural world • Miscellany: a "sculpture farm" Sign up here: edbatista.com/newsletter-arc…

Well worth a read.

<taps the sign> edbatista.com/2020/01/the-un…

I don't know this gentleman, but I started following him for his incredibly joyous photos of his dogs. He's now shepherding the one pictured here through a fatal illness with equally incredible grace and humor. If the fates ask the same of me, I hope I do as well by Buster.

Twenty years of @edbatista's writing, a post a week, no AI in mind. Today it's Ed Bot: a free conversational coach, 100k+ conversations, and one @Medium's CEO says he's used in three difficult moments. I built it.

Leaders: Wow, this really is a lonely job. Nietzsche: Few are made for independence--it is the privilege of the strong. And he who attempts it, having the completest right to it but without being compelled to, thereby proves that he is probably not only strong but also daring to the point of recklessness. He ventures into a labyrinth, he multiplies by a thousand the dangers which life as such already brings with it, not the smallest of which is that no one can behold how and where he goes astray, is cut off from others, and is torn to piece limb from limb by some cave-minotaur of conscience. If such a one is destroyed, it takes place so far from the understanding of men that they neither feel it nor sympathize--and he can no longer go back! He can no longer go back even to the pity of men! (Beyond Good and Evil, Ch. 29)

After some (very rare) time apart, Buster and I are back where we belong: together in my office!

I finished Emily Wilson's translation of "The Odyssey" yesterday, and it was wonderful. I'm glad my client recommended it, as I wouldn't have taken it up otherwise. I don't know anything about Wilson or her other work, so I'm somewhat baffled by the controversy surrounding her translation, which seemed quite straightforward to me and not politicized. I imagine there's a larger context that I remain ignorant of, and I'll leave that to greater minds than mine. My experience of the work itself is that it was simple and direct, and in no way dismissive of Odysseus. He was, and remains, "complicated," and that strikes me as a fine description. I still think of Fagles as the more lyrical, poetic translation but Wilson's approach is simply different, neither better nor worse.

A couple of weeks ago, @edbatista and I were invited by @Medium to speak about AI, writing, and the future of coaching. After 100k conversations in the custom rag we call Ed Bot, I’m publishing the full story of building it - what worked, what broke, and what we’ve learned along the way. In this clip, Ed asks when I first saw the possibility of turning twenty years of his writing into a virtual coach. This was my answer. More from our conversation and the case study later this week!

No comment on Amazon, Safeway or Whole Foods. But we knew Gus and his wife Georgia when we lived in the Haight, and they ran a very special business. He was friendly to regulars and took no shit from anyone. He gave out homemade brandied cherries at Christmas time and made San Francisco feel like a village. RIP sir.

Moms are the best.

Great thread, and Matt has much expertise to share on founder relationships. I'd add here that money is typically important to us as a vehicle to achieve Power, Safety or Freedom. When we better understand our needs in these domains, we have a healthier relationship with money.

OUT NOW: The 74th issue of my monthly newsletter, with... • A personal essay (on 40th anniversaries, and health, and 11,000 coaching sessions) • A post from my archives (on caregiving) • Recommended reading (from 1982) • A short video of the natural world • Miscellany: A favorite song (from 1991) us6.campaign-archive.com/?u=…

A dilemma that comes up regularly in my practice is the inadequacy of our shared mourning rituals when it comes to the kinds of losses that aren't deaths but still evoke grief: Shutting down a business. The end of a career. The dissolution of a marriage or a long-term relationship. When we face a loss like this we have to construct our own mourning rituals and invite others to join us. This starts with reaching out to people we trust who are good listeners and finding the right way to tell them our story, which will evolve over time. This doesn't mean that leaders should bare their souls to the team--that's rarely useful for anyone. But pretending to be invulnerable isn't useful either (or sustainable.) edbatista.com/2019/05/mourni…

A Windows update removed the non-subscription copy of Office that I paid to have installed when I bought the laptop in 2020, an apparent ploy to force me onto a 365 subscription plan. So I got Open Office--it's free, but CDs are $14! It's very liberating. openoffice.org/

Perhaps "May we meet again in the afterlife" is just how we should conclude all social encounters. It would seem to solve a lot of problems.