This is the final installment of my series on The Matrix. Have you seen Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 yet? Neo’s meeting with the Oracle is quite built up, so we share Neo’s disorientation when he walks into a shabby kitchen and meets who looks like a mitten-knitting grandmother when we’re…
Last week in part 3, of the series on The Matrix, we discussed how Neo learns he must let go of his sense of control in order to find the truth. We’ve touched on the idea of the mind prison, wherein we trap ourselves by believing our thoughts are us. Inside this prison, we’re compelled…
This is part three of my series on the Matrix, which was released 20 years ago. If you haven’t already read Parts One and Two, you might want to review those first. Perhaps the most famous scene from The Matrix is when Morpheus asks Neo to choose between the red pill and the blue pill.…
Today we’re going to talk about Whataboutism, one of the most popular ways people deceive you. Early last year, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word whataboutism to its catalog: “The technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counter-accusation or raising a different issue.” Whataboutism is the perhaps…
One of my favorite movies is the cult classic, “Office Space” written by Mike Judge, the nefarious creator of Beavis and Butthead. In the film he portrays management as being so incompetent that it’s comedic. But it’s easy to miss the powerful lessons amidst the caricature. Let’s unpack one of the most-loved scenes to learn…
What if there were a way to instantly get the results you want? More money, more time, better employees—whatever you want? I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t that the result of hard work?” “Don’t I have to change as a person?” “What if I haven’t earned those results yet?” You’re thinking too small! You may…
In part one of this series, I deconstructed the infamous, “There is no spoon” scene from The Matrix to begin our celebration of the film’s twenty year anniversary. Next, I want to examine two important, and opposite choices in the movie that represent aspects of the human psyche: the choice Neo makes to leave the…
This spring marks the 20th anniversary of the release of The Matrix, one of the most spiritually significant mainstream films of our time. It’s a movie about waking up, and it brilliantly uses some ancient zen wisdom that I thought I’d unpack in a series of articles. Part of the genius of The Matrix is…
Question: How do you know if you can push your people further? Answer: They will tell you, if you know how to listen. Recently I was messaging with a Clear and Open member, let’s call him Andy. It went like this. This is a good example of the power of asking questions. Josef: “Relook at…
I grew up in the historic town of Concord, Massachusetts, a couple miles from Thoreau’s Walden pond, the site of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, and a dozen other things that would probably bore you as much as they did me as a kid. In third grade, my class took an intrepid field…