Hi Reader,

Friday is when I share a few leadership ideas, interesting discoveries and questions that caught my attention during the week.

In case you missed the earlier Newsletters this week, you can find them here:

• On Monday, we talked about Lies vs. Mistakes and began our conversation about the challenges of admitting our mistakes in How Often Have You Heard, "The Coverup Is Worse Than The Crime"?​
• On Wednesday, I shared The 6 Powerful Benefits of Admitting Your Mistakes to help you overcome our shared reluctance in admitting our mistakes by learning the value of doing just that.

Golden Gate Park? The Biggest?

Nope — but to almost everyone's surprise, it's about 20% bigger than New York's Central Park — and because it's bigger than Central Park, people figure it's the largest park in the country. (It is the 3rd most visited urban park in the U.S. with an estimated 24 million visitors annually.)

Not by a long shot. The South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona, is over 16,000 acres, while the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia and Griffith Park in Los Angeles are both more than 4,000 acres.

If you broaden the definition to include state and regional parks within metropolitan areas, the numbers get ridiculous. The largest one will surprise you as it did me.

It's gigantic and guess where? Chugach State Park is mostly within the Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska, covering just under 500,000 acres.

Car Radios are kinda newish?

Not really. Car radios have been mass-produced for just under 100 years, starting with the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in Chicago in 1930.

The first one cost $110, helped the struggling company nearly break even in its first year of sales and gave birth to the Motorola name — changing the way we drive in cars forever.

Qualia?

Is there such a thing?

Yes. It refers to the subjective qualities of our experience — as Quanta Magazine defines it — what it’s like for Alice to see blue or for Bob to feel delighted. Qualia are “the ways things seem to us,” as the late philosopher Daniel Dennett put it.

It's also the name of a column in Quanta and recently carried an article, Is ‘Attention’ the Essence of Intelligence, which describes the challenges of translating languages at scale.

It discusses these challenges as a precursor to the "AI economy" inaugurated with the 2022 release of ChatGPT. The example is translating French to English and back, something I learned that is far more complex than I realized.

I've read it several times trying to understand the term "attention," which is a bit messy, but read the comments on this article which help to clarify it — if your brain can stand it.

The Basilica of the Sagrada Familia

My wife and daughter visited this monumental structure while visiting Barcelona, Spain on a school trip many years ago. It was under construction then — was under construction long before then — and is STILL under construction.

It is the tallest church in the world, designed by Antoni Gaudí with construction beginning in 1882 — yes that's an "18" in front of that number. Finally, the Tower of Jesus Christ was completed earlier this year and blessed by Pope Leo XIV in June.

But there remains at least another decade of construction ahead before the basilica is finished.

Why do I mention this? In part because it is such an amazing architectural monument, often described as "the most extraordinary interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages" — but because LEGO has now created a replica model for a favored person in your life to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death.

A great project to keep you off the streets for many days/weeks, most likely months. It will cost $800 with a staggering number of over 12,000 pieces, available on November 1. You can find it here.

Last week, I mentioned several TV shows including Reacher and its offshoot, Neagley.

If you enjoy novels in the Mystery-Thriller-Suspense genre, you couldn't have missed the Jack Reacher series from Lee Child.

There are 30 books in the Jack Reacher series starting with The Killing Floor , published in 1997. Chain Reaction , the 31st novel in this series will be out later this month.

Reacher is a former U.S. Army Military Police Major who might be termed a "nomadic vigilante" traveling wherever the direction suits him.

He's also a bit of a strange duck - tough and not one to back down from a fight — but he has no home, no suitcase, no cell phone or credit card. He travels with cash and a toothbrush — and when his clothes get dirty, he buys new ones and throws away the old. The epitome of minimalism.

The books have sold over 100 million copies and generated over a billion dollars in global book sales across 49 languages and 101 territories.

And, if you’re asking, I discovered this series when it first started, and yes, I’ve read them all. Years ago, I had a chance to sit down one-on-one with Lee Child.

The series is a worthy and safe substitute for wanting to kick someone's ass — and not get yours kicked!

Another English Comedy Skit

Last Friday, I shared a ridiculously funny English skit about statements you might hear in both the kitchen and the bedroom.

If you enjoyed that, you'll be flummoxed by this British support group discussing phobias.

By now, you know I love a great Flash Mob and this one is a classic.

You may have seen Oz Pearlman, known professionally as "Oz the Mentalist," but some of the stuff he does is mind-blowing. Check out his visit with the New York Giants football team.
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A Couple Things to Leave With

From The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone profiling the rise of Amazon:

Finally, remember this:

Don't Stop Leading!