Finding Your Tribe
Where do you find your people? I know I’m still looking for mine, and perhaps you are too.
What often happens is that there’s an initial “rough sort”, where you get thrown in with other people with similar labels. It’s happened to me a bit recently. I’ve spent time with people who are in the coaching space, and time with people who are in the author space, and time with people who are in the management thinkers space.
But that’s just the start of it. Now, your job is to find your people in amongst these other people. People who … well, what? How do you know? I realize that I keep looking for people who make me think and make me laugh. So, I have to set up conversations with people where they have that opportunity.
And, of course, sometimes “your people” don’t need to be found. They just have to be rediscovered. They’re already there, waiting for you to reach out to them and say hello.
📕 My Guest: Willam David Ball
David is a law professor with articles published in the Columbia Law Review, Yale Law & Policy Review, the American Journal of Criminal Law, and many more. His full name is W. David Ball, but I know him as my friend Dave, someone I met when we were newly minted Rhodes scholars at Oxford in the early 1990s.
🎧 The Light and the Dark of a Hungry Heart: A Conversation with W. David Ball
David reads two pages from Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
In our conversation we discuss:
Authenticity and Resistance to Received Wisdom
The importance of authenticity and resisting received wisdom. The value of deep, connected conversations and being drawn to people who challenge the status quo, which is essential for meaningful interactions.
Non-Conformist Career
Embracing an unconventional journey, including independent filmmaking and improvisational comedy, before becoming a law professor. Disdain for conventional success metrics and a commitment to a unique, personally meaningful path define this approach to life.
Incarceration Alternatives
Work in Santa Clara County, California, centers on practical, localized change rather than prestigious, broadly cited theories. Impactful, on-the-ground work is considered more important for meaningful reform in the criminal legal system.
Creative Legal Scholarship
Using unconventional approaches like the "Peter Parker Problem" to address complex issues in the criminal legal system. This blend of creative thinking with scholarly work demonstrates a unique and innovative approach to academia and reform.
Emotional Openness
Reflecting on the relationship with the poem "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, emphasizes themes of restlessness and human connection. The value of everyday interactions and the importance of being present in relationships for personal growth and emotional well-being are highlighted.
Read the Interview
If you’d rather read than listen, no worries.
Thanks for listening and being part of 2 Pages with MBS.
You’re awesome and you’re doing great.
"Death closes all but something ere the end, some work of noble note may yet be done, not unbecoming men that strove with gods." I can relate -- as I still look for my tribe. You are a candidate, David. Look at just one thing, but related to everything, as all things are: "This could be a game changer": https://substack.com/home/post/p-109109205..
I graduated summa cum laude adn was Phi Beta Kappa at NYU. Not my tribe.
Some jottings of mine:
Although we aren’t wild animals, when we misbehave we are put in cages. So it has been since humanity settled down after hunter gathering. We should rethink that now.
There is a fundamental distinction among criminals. The ones with wild animal vestiges do need to be kept from hurting others. But, white collar criminals, and people who commit crimes of passion, and others whose hurting days are over are something else, yet it's cages for them, too. We don't even think about it, and we should. Even just to be practical, given the expense to society for someone in prison, we could sentence harmless people to service to humanity, without allowing them financial gain. Get people to be productive instead of vegetative, where they are an asset to society and not a drain on it. Imprisoning harmless people is akin to torturing them and deserves rethinking.
Our violent proclivities are being served over our humanitarian ones, and a leap society needs to take, into becoming a cooperative world, could be inspired by a radical change in our criminal justice system.