Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

Archives for July 2025

Reverse Mentoring: How a Younger Advisor Can Propel You Forward

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Reverse Mentoring: How a Younger Advisor Can Propel You Forward Mentorship once meant absorbing polished advice from someone with gray hair, a Rolodex thick with gatekeepers, and the power to open doors. Age conferred authority. Experience granted relevance—and access.

Then Jack Welch flipped the script. In the late ’90s, with digital disruption looming, the General Electric CEO formalized Reverse Mentoring. Younger employees coached senior leaders in digital fluency. GE didn’t gesture at change—it pursued it. That fluency helped the company stay competitive.

Today’s youth sets the pace for innovation. They drive trends, build platforms, and shape culture. Older generations decode emojis like cryptic puzzles. Staying relevant demands engagement. Professionals who tune out drift into nostalgic irrelevance.

The shift reaches beyond the workplace. One founder I worked with saw this play out in real time. He turned to Jane, a junior colleague, for help understanding younger users of a tech feature. Unexpectedly, he gained clarity about his own daughter. Jane could interpret the daughter’s concerns about life with an ease rooted not in experience, but in proximity. Her fluency in generational nuance helped my client rewire how he reached out—replacing bewilderment with connection. She simply spoke the language he’d missed. It wasn’t therapy. It was perspective.

Idea for Impact: Wisdom belongs not only to those with tenure but to those with perspective. Reverse mentoring amplifies that wisdom—without the cliches or the campfire. The process confronts comfort. It demands humility—a resource many C-suites fail to stock. But the payoff endures: less noise, more signal, and leadership that listens.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Even the Best Need a Coach
  2. An Underappreciated Way to Improve Team Dynamic
  3. Could Limiting Social Media Reduce Your Anxiety About Work?
  4. A Guide to Your First Management Role // Book Summary of Julie Zhuo’s ‘The Making of a Manager’
  5. Five Ways … You Could Elevate Good to Great

Jeju Air Flight 2216—The Alleged Failure to Think Clearly Under Fire

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How Situational Blindness Caused the American Airlines-Black Hawk Fatal Collision Near Reagan National Airport Yet another preliminary report from a fatal airline accident leaves crucial details unresolved and continues to fuel debate—echoing the intense scrutiny surrounding the Air India 171 crash.

In December 2024, Jeju Air Flight 2216 crash-landed at South Korea’s Muan International Airport. The Boeing 737–800 aircraft touched down without deploying its landing gear, overshot the runway at high speed, and struck a concrete structure supporting the Instrument Landing System (ILS) localizer beacon. The resulting fire claimed 179 of the 181 lives on board, marking South Korea’s deadliest aviation disaster in recent decades.

A leaked version of the initial findings indicates that both engines were hit by birds during final approach. The right engine suffered extensive damage, emitting flames and thick black smoke, while the left engine maintained sufficient thrust. Despite this, the flight crew allegedly shut down the left engine. No mechanical faults were found in the aircraft or its engines. Investigators also noted a critical data gap: both the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) ceased functioning approximately four minutes before impact, leaving key questions about the crew’s decision-making unanswered. The preliminary report avoids definitive conclusions regarding crew actions, citing limitations in scope.

Aviation experts have expressed frustration over the absence of conclusive evidence about the crew’s decisions—particularly given the missing CVR and FDR data. Shutting down a functioning engine dramatically limits aircraft control and reduces the chance of executing a go-around or controlled landing. The report has also drawn criticism for downplaying airport infrastructure flaws. The structure the aircraft collided with was made of non-frangible material—contrary to international safety standards, which recommend breakaway designs to mitigate impact severity. If it emerges that the emergency landing was skillfully executed, the aircraft might have skidded further and come to a natural stop. A final, more comprehensive report is expected next summer.

If early findings are confirmed—especially the shutdown of the less-damaged engine—this accident may serve as another tragic example of cognitive overload under intense stress. Pilots in high-pressure situations can experience “narrowing of the cognitive map,” a phenomenon where tunnel vision compromises situational awareness and hinders sound decision-making. Inattentional blindness may also cause individuals to miss vital environmental cues—a pattern I’ve observed in numerous other aviation incidents covered on this blog.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. “Fly the Aircraft First”
  2. Lessons from the World’s Worst Aviation Disaster // Book Summary of ‘The Collision on Tenerife’
  3. How Stress Impairs Your Problem-Solving Capabilities: Case Study of TransAsia Flight 235
  4. What Airline Disasters Teach About Cognitive Impairment and Decision-Making Under Stress
  5. How Contributing Factors Stack Up and Accidents Unfold: A Case Study of the 2024 Delta A350 & CRJ-900 Collision

Inspirational Quotations #1112

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Instinct is untaught ability.
—Alexander Bain (Scottish Philosopher)

Hope is the poor man’s bread.
—Common Proverb

Every well-written book is a light for me. When you write, you use other writers and their books as guides in the wilderness.
—Kate DiCamillo (American Children’s Author)

The tourist who moves about to see and hear and open himself to all the influences of the places which condense centuries of human greatness is only a man in search of excellence.
—Max Lerner (American Author)

When life doesn’t meet your expectations, it was important to take it with grace.
—Patricia Briggs (American Writer)

A scholar who loves comfort is not fit to be called a scholar.
—Confucius (Chinese Philosopher)

All who joy would win must share it,—happiness was born a twin.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (English Romantic Poet)

Being a famous writer is a little like being a tall dwarf. You’re on the edge of normality.
—John Updike (American Author)

Boredom is what you fight. Constant, ever-present boredom. So you learn to look forward to small things. Sunlight glimpsed through a cloud, an extra piece of pie or candy, good thread to sew your blouse, a ribbon to wear in your hair.
—Valerie Wilson Wesley (American Mystery Author)

Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you.
—Margaret Bourke-White (American Photographer)

Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.
—Joshua L. Liebman (American Rabbi)

Why can’t peace be a single overriding common purpose: why do we wait for a crisis to pull us together? Let’s pull together for peace.
—Rita Mae Brown (American Writer, Feminist)

To Know Is to Contradict: The Power of Nuanced Thinking

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Beyond Heroes and Villains: The Power of Nuanced Thinking The tendency to divide humanity into heroes and villains, saints and devils, is a habit more of the primitive mind than of the reflective one.

A telling measure of a person’s cognitive sophistication is how they assess polarizing figures—be it Elon Musk, Greta Thunberg, Marine Le Pen, or Jacinda Ardern. Each is a nexus of contradictions, a repository of both virtue and folly. To apprehend this is not a mark of indecision, but of discernment.

The capacity to speak about them with nuance signals more than finesse—it stands as a quiet rebuke to simplistic thinking. It suggests a willingness to resist the pull of reductive narratives, to hold conflicting truths, and to embrace complexity over convenience.

Idea for Impact: True understanding lies not in easy answers, but in the ability to recognize and reflect on the layered realities others prefer to flatten. That, ultimately, is the mark of a mind equipped to navigate a complicated world.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Charlie Munger’s Iron Prescription
  2. How to Handle Conflict: Disagree and Commit [Lessons from Amazon & ‘The Bezos Way’]
  3. One of the Tests of Leadership is the Ability to Sniff out a Fire Quickly
  4. Realize the Truth Yourself
  5. Overcoming Personal Constraints is a Key to Success

Lessons in Leadership and Decline: CEO Debra Crew and the Rot at Diageo

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Lessons in Leadership and Decline: CEO Debra Crew and the Rot at Diageo Another heavyweight in consumer goods, Diageo, has entered a state of churn. CEO Debra Crew exited last week in a “mutual agreement”—a phrase that barely disguised the inevitability of her departure. It wasn’t a shock, but a slow unraveling: a tenure marked more by erosion than evolution.

Leadership is often a hostage of timing. Crew’s two-year stint was defined as much by strategic drift as by the lingering shadow of her predecessor’s legacy. She rose to the top in June 2023 following the sudden death of Sir Ivan Menezes—who had built Diageo’s fortunes on “premiumization,” a strategy that padded margins during the pandemic’s home-drinking boom. That success, however, ossified into institutional bloat.

Her term began with a bruising profit warning in November 2023. A nosedive in Latin America—blamed on distributor overstocking—exposed a startling disconnect from ground-level dynamics. Crew’s attempts to localize the crisis at a capital markets day rang hollow. The Times later described the company’s consumer blind spot as having “the whiff of incompetence.”

By early 2024, Diageo’s valuation had halved from its pandemic highs. CFO Lavanya Chandrashekar resigned in May. Months earlier, Crew had abandoned the company’s 5–7% medium-term growth target, citing tariff uncertainty and posting a 0.6% sales decline. Chair Javier Ferrán—long a patient steward—stepped down soon after. His departure, followed by the arrival of Sir John Manzoni, left Diageo’s leadership in flux just as the ship was listing and she had asked the board to quell speculation about her job.

Perhaps Crew was less a culprit than a proxy. Every leader is bound by the winds of their season. Spirits makers now face a hostile cocktail: Gen Z’s waning interest in alcohol, the rise of weight-loss drugs, and renewed risk of tariff whiplash. Pernod Ricard and Rémy Cointreau have suffered even steeper stock slides.

This episode offers another case study in how leadership narratives flatten complexity. Good times are hailed as proof of executive brilliance; bad times, as evidence of personal failure. The truth is messier: prosperity often arises from external tailwinds—technological shifts, market cycles, latent consumer trends—already in motion. Leaders rarely engineer them. They inherit them.

The trouble with leadership is that it is most praised—or punished—when least responsible. Strategic decisions marinate across fiscal years. Today’s success often echoes yesterday’s bets, while macroeconomic forces—unpredictable, impersonal, indifferent—reshape the field faster than any executive can pivot. Yet our mythology demands heroism. We cast leaders as masterminds of triumph or scapegoats for collapse, forgetting that most simply ride the wave.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Lessons from Tito’s Leadership of Yugoslavia
  2. Lee Kuan Yew on the Traits of Good Political Leaders
  3. Heartfelt Leadership at United Airlines and a Journey Through Adversity: Summary of Oscar Munoz’s Memoir, ‘Turnaround Time’
  4. Book Summary of Donald Keough’s ‘Ten Commandments for Business Failure’
  5. FedEx’s ZapMail: A Bold Bet on the Future That Changed Too Fast

Consumer Power Is Shifting and Consumer Packaged Goods Companies Are Struggling

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Consumer Power Is Shifting and Consumer Packaged Goods Companies Are Struggling The much-whispered unraveling of Kraft Heinz underscores a broader sector-wide malaise: the steep, stubborn erosion of organic growth across consumer staples. Giants like PepsiCo, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and India’s Tata Consumer Products face similarly constraining headwinds.

Saturated demand is the culprit. Consumers are maxed out on toothpaste, detergent, packaged snacks, and syrupy fizz. As categories mature and volume plateaus, traditional growth levers feel obsolete. Intensified global competition tightens the vise—especially from nimble, cost-efficient regional brands that operate hyper-locally across developing markets.

Consumer behavior is bifurcating. Price-sensitive shoppers are gravitating toward store-label substitutes: affordable, dependable, brand-agnostic. Meanwhile, high-intent buyers seek premium offerings reflecting health priorities, sustainability values, or cultural identity. Together, these forces compress mid-tier incumbents from both ends.

To recapture relevance, legacy players are pivoting—acquiring smaller, health-forward, culturally attuned brands with traction. This isn’t experimentation. It’s survival. Growth now hinges on swift, intentional entry into wellness-led micro-markets.

Consumer Packaged Goods Companies are Facing Saturated Demand PepsiCo’s acquisition of probiotic soda brand Poppi and Mexican-American snack label Siete Foods signals a clean-label, culturally conscious shift. Tata bolstered its portfolio with wholesome foods brand Soulfull, fusion brand Ching’s Secret, and Ayurvedic company Organic India. Unilever doubled down with Pukka Herbs, sustainable staple Seventh Generation, and offbeat grooming line Dr. Squatch—plus a stake in Esqa, Indonesia’s first vegan, Halal-certified cosmetics brand. Colgate and P&G followed, acquiring mission-driven favorites like Native, Hello Products, and Billie.

These investments reflect more than market strategy. They mark an ideological realignment. Today’s buyers demand clarity, simplicity, and purpose. With processed goods under scrutiny and marketing spin losing its shine, ethos has emerged as premium currency.

The staples sector isn’t merely evolving—it’s self-disrupting. In place of legacy inertia, a nimble, value-led strategy is taking root. The possible Kraft Heinz breakup embodies that shift.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. When Global Ideas Hit a Wall: BlaBlaCar in America
  2. Why Investors Keep Backing Unprofitable Business Models
  3. The Loss Aversion Mental Model: A Case Study on Why People Think Spirit is a Horrible Airline
  4. How FedEx and Fred Smith Made Information the Package
  5. Your Product May Be Excellent, But Is There A Market For It?

Transient by Choice: Why Gen Z Is Renting More

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Transient by Choice: Why Gen Z Is Renting More A recent WSJ dispatch notes that Gen Z are overwhelmingly renting rather than buying—and with good reason. Home-for-sale inventories are dwindling, prices are soaring, and interest rates continue to bite. Gen Z don’t simply want a roof and four walls; they demand amenities, Instagram-ready design, and a “mini-universe” under one lease—and a leasing experience as frictionless as summoning an Uber. They prize mental health-friendly spaces, chase aesthetic approval online, and above all, dread loneliness—seeking buildings that double as social clubs. Their rents devour a hefty slice of their pay. Add a fear-driven risk aversion amid economic uncertainty, and you have a portrait of a generation stuck in symptom management.

As someone living in one of these Gen Z-centric apartment communities, my anecdotal and empirical observations suggest otherwise. Those symptomatic explanations are somewhat incidental to a deeper current. First, many twenty-somethings aren’t yet at the stage to settle down: they linger longer in self-discovery, shifting careers and relationships at will, cushioned—when necessary—by their parents in what might be called a “slow-life” trajectory. Second, above all, Gen Z refuse to be shackled. With remote and hybrid work, location has lost its grip; hustle culture feels toxic. They regard housing as a subscription, not a possession—why wrestle with mortgages, maintenance and realtor fees when they can rent, pack up at a moment’s notice and chase the next opportunity? In a nutshell, renting isn’t a fallback for Gen Z—it’s a deliberate creed of flexibility in a capricious world.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Beyond Money’s Grasp: A Deeper Drive to Success
  2. The Career-Altering Question: Generalist or Specialist?
  3. The Extra Salary You Can Negotiate Ain’t Gonna Make You Happy
  4. The Great Resignation, The Great Awakening
  5. From Passion to Pragmatism: An Acceptable, Good Career

What the Rise of AI Demands: Teaching the Thinking That Thinks About Thinking

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The Rise of AI Demands Teaching the Thinking That Thinks About Thinking Spellcheck doesn’t create bad spellers; it lets spelling atrophy. Autocorrect and red squiggles do the work, and users stop internalizing rules. Just as GPS dulls a sense of direction, spellcheck erodes linguistic instinct. Remove the tool, and spelling falters—not from ignorance, but from disuse.

Now, AI poses a deeper threat. Its danger isn’t power; it’s passivity. Overreliance produces a generation unprepared for work that demands creativity and critical thought. Intellectual laziness already plagues classrooms, and AI only intensifies it.

To resist that drift, education must evolve. It isn’t enough to teach information—we must also teach metacognition. Students need to examine their own thinking: to ask why they believe something, how they reach conclusions, and where their reasoning fails. AI can assist, but only if used deliberately. It should provoke thought rather than replace it. By offering counterarguments and exposing blind spots, it sharpens cognition.

Idea for Impact: The real danger isn’t AI itself. It’s what we stop doing when it takes over. The spellcheck lesson still holds: unused skills don’t vanish; they decay.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Question the Now, Imagine the Next
  2. Overcoming Personal Constraints is a Key to Success
  3. The Solution to a Problem Often Depends on How You State It
  4. Defect Seeding: Strengthen Systems, Boost Confidence
  5. Finding Potential Problems & Risk Analysis: A Case Study on ‘The Three Faces of Eve’

Conscience is A Flawed Compass

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A Reflection on Why Conscience is a Flawed Moral Compass: Example of Jefferson and Slavery Conscience isn’t as reliable a guide on moral questions as it’s often made out to be. Consider Thomas Jefferson’s advice to his impressionable 11-year-old daughter, Martha:

If ever you are about to say anything amiss or to do anything wrong, consider beforehand. You will feel something within you which will tell you it is wrong and ought not to be said or done: this is your conscience, and be sure to obey it. Our Maker has given us all this faithful internal monitor, and if you always obey it, you will always be prepared for the end of the world, or for a much more certain event, which is death.

Yet despite publicly opposing slavery, Jefferson conveniently owned enslaved people to support his lavish lifestyle and even fathered children with an enslaved woman.

This stark contradiction highlights a critical truth: even a informed and discerning conscience does not guarantee consistently virtuous action, particularly when self-interest is at stake.

And that’s the great paradox of conscience—the inherent tension between the powerful, felt imperative to obey one’s inner moral sense and its demonstrated fallibility and subjectivity and inconsistency.

Moral consistency is a myth.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Ethics Lessons From Akira Kurosawa’s ‘High and Low’
  2. The Streisand Effect: When Trying to Hide Only Makes it Shine
  3. Of Course Mask Mandates Didn’t ‘Work’—At Least Not for Definitive Proof
  4. Virtue Deferred: Marcial Maciel, The Catholic Church, and How Institutions Learn to Look Away
  5. Why Incentives Backfire and How to Make Them Work: Summary of Uri Gneezy’s Mixed Signals

Inspirational Quotations #1111

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Mythology is the religious sentiment growing wild.
—Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (German Philosopher)

Art is art. Everything else is everything else.
—Ad Reinhardt (American Abstract Painter)

God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard.
—Aeschylus (Greek Playwright)

What students lack in school is an intellectual relationship or conversation with the teacher.
—William Glasser (American Psychiatrist)

Fame is the sum of misapprehensions that accrue around a name.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (Austrian Poet)

If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.
—David Viscott (American Psychiatrist, Author)

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.—Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
—Epicurus (Greek Philosopher)

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource which human beings have available to them for blowing their minds.
—Susan Sontag (American Writer, Philosopher)

Every man is, no doubt, by nature, first and principally recommended to his own care; and as he is fitter to take care of himself than of any other person, it is fit and right that it should be so.
—George Goodman (American Economist)

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come; you have to get up and make them.
—Madam C. J. Walker (American Entrepreneur)

The ignorant man marvels at the exceptional; the wise man marvels at the common; the greatest wonder of all is the regularity of nature.
—George Boardman the Younger (American Clergyman)