HeyJaredFacing the Wind with Shannon Huffman Polson
Dispatches on ancient wisdom, modern leadership, and the courage to live without apology. Paid memberships activate The Grit Institute Masterclass and give you access to parts of the book in progress!
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 7
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- Sep 18, 2026
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- Jul 9, 2026
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“Scarcely stopped short of massacre” (opens the original)
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“The response of the audience to what it heard scarcely stopped short of massacre,” reads the 1940 program notes of Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 Rites of Spring debut in Belle Epoch Paris. Later scholarship clarifies– there was no massacre– no riot, even, but there was general horror and disruption and the audience at times was so loud one could not hear the music. Accustomed to lyrical ballets in a more classical tradition, Stravinsky’s composition seemed to break every rule, a ballet not of grace bu
What I’m doing in the face of AI annihilation (opens the original)
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It’s everywhere: a greater than 10% chance that AI will destroy us all. Even Cal Newport is starting to take it seriously (I like Cal’s work, but he held out for a very long time that these fears were overstated.) As a member of the human race, and as a mother of two incredible young men, this is not good news. What are we supposed to do about it?Here’s what I’m doing today.First: exactly what I had already planned to do. Also, I’m learning to row. I’m working on my book. I’m talking to clients.
Remembering 9-11: a suic*de mission, a candle (opens the original)
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Heather “Lucky” Penney was a young F-16 pilot on duty in Washington DC on the morning of September 11, 2001. She was just 26 years old, and had recently graduated from flight school. The F16s were not armed, but she and her commander had to scramble to take off and be ready— be ready to fly their jets into any other jet that might threaten the United States. “I’m going for the cockpit,” her commander said, “you take the tail.”“Roger that,” she said. You’ll read her story in The Grit Factor, but
Future-Proofing Your Job. Your Career. Your Company. Your Self. (opens the original)
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What do you need to know from a biologist about future proofing your job, your career, your company— your self (separation intentional)? Quite a lot, it turns out. Olivier Hamant is not a social scientist. He is not an organizational behavior expert. He’s a biologist and a biophysicist, and the Director of Research for France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment— as well as holding prestigious teaching positions.In another newsletter, I mentioned Ilia Delio’s s
Anti-optimizing: What it means to make something (opens the original)
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Management may include optimization, but leadership is creative, and leaders should be, in the best cases, anti-optimization.So much of clickbait now leads to supposed hacks or optimization, and this essay is not about that, and in fact, it’s about not doing that. In fact, it’s about doing the opposite, and what leaders might learn from an old folk tradition if they’re willing to slow down, and take the long way.Isaac Asimov, the prolific American writer (and professor of biochemistry) is known
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