Arena Intelligence

The battle for mindshare is fierce —competing with a cacophony of voices, channels, devices, and platforms, many of which are motivated by capturing and holding the learner’s attention, commenting, and critiquing rather than adding value, insight, and perspective. It is the person in the arena that you should seek and learn from. As Teddy Roosevelt, it is the authentic actor in the arena that matters:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Teddy Roosevelt [i]

Note that language in the quote is not something an AI could even envision – an example of what authentic represents.

[i] From Teddy Roosevelt’s Citizenship in a Republic, 1910. [https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/TR-Encyclopedia/Culture-and-Society/Man-in-the-Arena.aspx]