I was going to write about interdependence this month — felt right for the 250th. Then two conferences in May changed my plan.
At ATD in LA, Zack Kass said something I didn’t need to write down, because it stuck: optimism isn’t naive, it’s a moral obligation.
And in Athens at the House of Beautiful Business, Rachel Goslins offered a metaphor about lazy eyes: we fix one by patching the strong eye so the weak one is forced to track. That reframed the whole question for me. If we only ever feed the eye drawn to chaos and crisis, the eye for a hopeful future atrophies. And we can’t build a future we can’t see.
So July’s theme is Optimism: not the toxic-positivity version we’re (rightly) irritated by, but what we can subtract to make it a tool that actually works — for us, our teams, and the moment we’re in.
This week’s Subtraction Session (the video above) walks through why, how, and where I’ll be thinking and writing about Optimism.
The written (and audio) version, complete with the etymology rabbit hole, the honest tension with toxic positivity, and the five questions I’m carrying into the month, lands Monday in the Subtraction Scenario.
Til then, keep on rollin’, happy birthday ‘merica, and stay cool!
Nell
