HeyJaredUnlikely Things with Bill Clarke
Welcome to Unlikely Things, a newsletter about what happens when we stop waiting for the perfect conditions... and start combining the unexpected.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 13
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- Sep 28, 2026
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- Jul 17, 2026
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Become a Permanent Beginner (opens the original)
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I recently heard about a music class built around an unusual idea. The instructor had created the instruments himself. They weren’t guitars or pianos or anything students might have spent years learning. They were unfamiliar instruments that required everyone in the room to figure out how they worked. And just as people started getting comfortable, the instructor introduced another one. Everyone was a beginner. Permanently.Someone with musical training might have understood rhythm or composition
An Expert Is One Who Tries (opens the original)
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I use an exercise in workshops that asks people to reconsider what it means to be an expert. The word carries considerable weight. We associate it with mastery, credentials, confidence, and the ability to answer questions other people cannot. An expert is someone we turn to when we need to know. Somewhere in that understanding, though, we can lose sight of how that person became someone worth asking.The history of the word offers a useful reminder. Expert comes from the Latin expertus, meaning “
Recovery Is a Leadership Skill (opens the original)
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A leader I coach was describing her first week of school: difficult student interactions, a medical issue, and a transportation problem. A demanding start by any measure. But what caught my attention was how she talked about it. She could explain what happened, how she responded, and where things stood. She had acted quickly, communicated clearly, and kept the situations from consuming the opening of school. There was concern in her voice, but also perspective. The week had tested her without ta
Vision Is a Hypothesis (opens the original)
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When I’m deciding whether someone is the right leader for an organization or an effort, there are two things I want to know. First: What do you see? Where do you believe this organization could go? What could it become that it is not today? But then I would want to ask a second question: What would cause you to change your mind?Those two questions get at something I’ve named V²: Vision and Vulnerability. I want leaders with a strong enough vision to see possibilities that are not yet obvious, an
The Unlikely Thing: All Communication Is Negotiation (opens the original)
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When we think about negotiation, we tend to picture a particular kind of conversation. Someone wants a higher salary. Two organizations are working through a contract. A buyer and seller are trying to agree on a price. There are positions, competing interests, and, hopefully, a point where everyone can agree. Negotiation seems like a specialized skill we bring out when something important is at stake.But I think we might have that backward. Negotiation may be the most relevant skill in communica
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