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Like a helium balloon

Papa Notes
Young children have no problem letting things go. It's a flaw built up over time, and it takes us years to unlearn it as adults. To correct a behavior, parents intuitively reprimand them when...

Dealing with frustration

Papa Notes
Living with an 18-month-old is never boring. My son, Lucas, swings from one mood to another in less time than it took me to write the end of this sentence. One moment, he's happy reading a book....

Parenting is improv theater

Papa Notes
Parenting is as live as improv theater. The rest of the troupe is here, the audience is here, and there's only one take. When I started my job as a dad, I thought I'd always be able to give it my...

It's fixable

Papa Notes
It was super windy last weekend, and I was a bit agitated. I was on my way out to join my family at the playground. But as I was stepping past the wooden gate (I built it myself, and I'm a bit...

The best $4 ever spent

Papa Notes
Kids get excited about things that are very different from those of adults. You probably remember your kid's first birthday. The members of the extended family all wanted to spoil her. They...

Everybody struggles

Papa Notes
Life is tough. Most weeks come with their share of issues. From a tiny aggravation to an enormous problem. Human beings have been trying to find ways to accept it since... well, probably since...

Giving up parenting

Papa Notes
Today's essay is a bit tongue-in-cheek. It's meant to achieve one thing and one thing only: to relieve you and me from a specific parenting guilt. It's for all of us dads who feel slightly ashamed...

Throw them a proper parade

Papa Notes
I don't know about you, but some days, it feels like all I do is tell my kids not to do stuff. Or to be careful with stuff. Or to do stuff. Most adults implicitly know to abide by the etiquette...

Instill enthusiasm

Papa Notes
Winston Churchill famously said that success is "the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." No one ever cruised through life without facing challenges, hardships,...

Men don't hug their kids

Papa Notes
I remember this weird story my mum shared with me. When I was a baby, my father's mother got really upset because my dad was changing my diaper. To her, this was something a dad did not do. It was...

Vacation expectations

Papa Notes
The moment you became a dad, you waved goodbye to your old way of vacationing. I recently talked to Jamie about vacationing with kids on the Papa Notes Conversations podcast. One thing stood out:...

Like looking in a mirror

Papa Notes
You are flawed, and so am I. We carry our defects of character into fatherhood. But there's hope. Before we get kids, it's easier to ignore some of these flaws. People who care about us might give...

Good dads are researchers

Papa Notes
Each of us adheres to an education principle that will act as a north star. This principle is often modeled after or against how we were raised. To some, this principle emphasizes the authority in...

You can't filter it all out

Papa Notes
Humans are controlling animals. They try to shape everything to their liking. The environment, themselves, and the people around them. Especially their offspring, whether they admit it or not. As...

Bonding took time

Papa Notes
Some events in life anoint you with a mission. You experience tragedy, luck, forgiveness, or grace, and you know that you won't be allowed to shut up about it. You have now inherited a...

Talking to strangers

Papa Notes
Most adults don't like interacting with strangers. Some don't know how to open the conversation or are afraid to bother the person. Others live in a past trauma of being ridiculed at school as a...

You will NEVER not worry

Papa Notes
My friend looked me in the eye and said: "Now that you have a kid, you will NEVER not worry." Sophie, my daughter, was just a few weeks old, but I had already experienced more worrying for someone...

Announcing Papa Notes

GG Notes
If you've been following this blog for a while, you probably noticed that more and more of my content includes anecdotes and teachings from my fatherhood. I used to say that having kids turned my...

Why you need to waste time

GG Notes
There's a comic strip that circulates in entrepreneur communities. It's about a character who starts a new hobby. But before long, his entrepreneurial mind takes over and pushes him to turn the...

Find your group of dads

Papa Notes
Being a father is an incarnated experience. You can explain what you are going through or share your emotions with guys who don't have kids yet. But they won't get it. It takes living the...

You will never be done

GG Notes
In the business world, work frequently happens within a project. Success depends on completing all the tasks on time and budget. And a project has a beginning and an end. At work, we are...

Unscheduled time off

GG Notes
I took an unscheduled week off. Not a vacation per se, but a week AFK. Away from the keyboard. I didn't answer emails. Not even the ones that would normally prompt me to reply right away. Not even...

Hi, I'm Greg.

GG Notes
I'm an independent consultant and a digital artisan. I specialize in problem solving and innovation using code, design, process and mental models. I act as a trusted advisor. Over the past 22...

Sacred ideas

GG Notes
The following is a republish of an old article from 2016. We live in an era where ideas are so powerful we sacralize them. They appear almighty: Get the right idea and succeed; get the wrong idea...

The glassmith tactic

GG Notes
The perceived value of your product is about to take a nosedive. Here's how to save it using the glassmith tactic. A glassblower blows air into a pipe. A beautiful vase appears from what was...

Finding joy in the mundane

GG Notes
There is a secret that parents know but only discuss with other parents. A few days ago, I met with an old friend of mine. He's not a parent, but he likes kids. When asked if he'd like to be a dad...

Progress is a journey

GG Notes
We are often caught up in thinking of progress as a static event. Or at least something that is the result of actions and decisions taken in the recent past. Take the example of a race. Our...

Background noise stress

GG Notes
Last weekend, my family and I decided to take a drastic rest day. We stepped out from the connected world to focus on being together. No phone, no work. An initiative that was part of practicing...

How to get lucky

GG Notes
Openai's CEO Sam Altman wrote: “give yourself a lot of shots to get lucky” is even better advice than it appears on the surface. Luck isn’t an independent variable but increases super-linearly...

Enthusiastic participation

GG Notes
How can you participate more enthusiastically in building the culture? Over 15 years ago, when I was younger and didn't know the first thing about personal development, a friend shared an essay...

Using calmer language

GG Notes
"If the software crashes during the demo, it's game over for us!" This is something I'm still guilty of: using hyperbolic, epic language. Part of me probably believes that this increases...

CEOs and coaches

GG Notes
Did you know that only a minority of CEOs are coached? As I was looking through my notes, I found an article about coaching for CEOs. I figured this is something you might find interesting too....

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