Why Timeless & Timely?
Welcome! As you poke around here, you’ll find more than a single newsletter.
It’s a family of publications, all centered around the notion that great ideas and concepts are worth exploring and re-exploring. Choose the publications that work for you:
In brief, this is:
Timeless & Timely: a weekly newsletter about leadership and communication that connects the past to the present
A fortnightly podcast:
Timeless Leadership: an interview show on leadership virtues
Off the Clock: a quirky semi-weekly Saturday newsletter on fun with words and history
Classic Style: an ad hoc section on elements of classic style
An expression of many of the topics from my speaking and consulting practice.
Why does this matter?
This is where the past, as found in great literature, philosophy, and history, can give us pause. Maybe to help us realize that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
“Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know.” — Leo Tolstoy
And that’s the goal here. To extract the most important knowledge and apply it to today, so that leaders of all stripes can learn from others.
I tend to write about whatever inspires me. One week I may be inspired by something I saw outside on a walk; another, from a television show; and more often than not from a book or article that I was reading.
But they all relate to the human condition and how it applies to leadership.
In The Paris Review, E.B. White captured my approach to writing this newsletter:
“A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter. I feel…a responsibility to society because of going into print: a writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.
The writer’s role is what it has always been: he is a custodian, a secretary…a writer must reflect and interpret his society, his world; he must also provide inspiration and guidance and challenge.”
Such is the hope here on Timeless & Timely.
How to think about this site
Look around, kick the tires. You can choose which of the following sections you subscribe to.
Main Newsletter
Timeless & Timely is an essay that arrives weekly, and every other week I include timeless and timely links and recommended books and podcasts to enhance the topic of the week.
Leadership Podcast
Timeless Leadership, now in its third season, explores the principles and virtues of successful and admirable authors, entrepreneurs, and executives.
And Now, For Something Completely Different
On Saturdays, there’s a fun entry called Off the Clock, where we marvel at words or other quirky topics of history or popular culture.
Et Alia
And Classic Style covers things like fountain pens, manners, grooming, sartorialism, and food and drink, whenever the urge strikes me.
You have the option of subscribing to as many or as few of these sections as you prefer. It’s as close as your account settings.
Thanks, and I’ll see you on the internet.
Oh, did I mention that I like Sherlock Holmes?