Brian Allain

From “Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business, and Life Against All Odds” by Mark W. Schaefer Since Merton’s original paper debuted more than 50 years ago, the Matthew Effect is also more commonly referred to as Cumulative Advantage.  The most accepted description of this idea is that the advantage of one

From “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success” by Adam Grant If politics can be fertile ground for givers, it’s possible that givers can succeed in any job. Whether giving is effective, though, depends on the particular kind of exchange in which it’s employed. This is one important feature of giving to keep

From “How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion” by David McRaney As the decade came to a close, a New York Times op-ed titled “The Age of Post-Truth Politics” argued that democracy itself was now in danger because facts had “lost their ability to support consensus.” The New Yorker examined “Why

From “Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life” by Luke Burgis Mimetic desire tends to move in one of two cycles. Cycle 1 is the negative cycle, in which mimetic desire leads to rivalry and conflict. This cycle runs on the false belief that other people have something that we don’t have and

From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer But if I am to let my life speak things I want to hear, things I would gladly tell others, I must also let it speak things I do not want to hear and would never tell anyone else! My