Field Notes · by Kristen Tolbert

If we're not creating anything original, are we really thinking at all?

Someone says something fluent, well-organized, and entirely borrowed, and everyone in the room — including them — treats it as thinking. Is it though? They've read the thing, they can restate t...

Field Notes · by Kristen Tolbert

People study entrepreneurs like they're zoo animals. Something to be observed, analyzed, maybe even envied. A curiosity. A puzzle to solve. What makes someone choose this life?

It's true, we're wired differently. Our drivers, our non-negotiables, our definitions of...

Reclaiming confidence and self-trust

In the effort to make the "right" choice or avoid failure, it's common to reach outward — to seek validation or guidance for our decisions, our thinking, even our feelings. Input from others is genuinely valuable, and no one should decide everything in isolation...

Trying to eliminate our biases doesn't work — the research is clear on that. What works is running a better process. Here's the difference, and why it matters for leaders.

There's a quiet assumption underneath a lot of leadership development: that the goal is to become more objective. Strip out the...

AI can take real work off your plate. It can also quietly take your judgment — not by force, but because you stop exercising the capacity that keeps the judgment yours. The line between the two is worth knowing precisely.

Every powerful new tool arrives with the same question attached: does it ampl...