Courses

Barry Brownstein

Professor

University of Baltimore

Barry Brownstein is professor emeritus of economics and leadership at the University of Baltimore. He is the author of The Inner-Work of Leadership. He delivers leadership workshops to organizations and blogs at BarryBrownstein.com, and Giving up Control.

Blog Posts

How the government makes natural disasters so much worse

September 11, 2017
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Government

Many of the most expensive flood and storm disasters in US history have occurred in recent decades. The glib response is to blame the severity of these catastrophes on climate change, but are we looking in the wrong direction? Almost 20 years ago, the National Wildlife Federation issued a report on this subject, Higher Ground. It argued, among other things, that federal flood insurance was amplifying the impact of storms by encouraging Americans to build and rebuild in areas prone to flooding. Higher Ground revealed a home in Houston that was valued at $114,480, but which had been flooded 16

If you want to be free, it's time to break through your own resistance.

August 14, 2017
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Uncategorized

Every morning when I sit down to write, I face what Steven Pressfield calls “Resistance,” a force that has knocked me down more times than I care to admit.In his book The War of Art, Pressfield describes Resistance as “a repelling force. It's negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.” Beginning a new diet or exercise program? Starting a new career? Start a new business? Taking a principled stand? Researching graduate programs or finishing your dissertation? Learning about liberty? Resistance arises, Pressfield explains, whenever you attempt “any

What you don’t know really can’t hurt you, but coercion can.

July 14, 2017
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Uncategorized

Seven percent of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by the Innovation Center for US Dairy. That may sound horrifying, but ignorance about how food is produced is nothing new. On April Fool’s Day, 1957, the BBC broadcasted “a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland,” as Hoaxes.org states. The “documentary” explained that the bumper crop was due to “an unusually mild winter and to the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.” The television audience “watched

No, you can’t multitask. To succeed, you need to focus.

June 22, 2017
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Uncategorized

If you want a great career in the 21st century, you need to stop trying to multitask and start doing “deep work.”That’s one of the big ideas from Georgetown University computer science professor Cal Newport. He urges us to be aware that “there are different types of work and some types have way bigger returns than others.”In his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Newport explains the difference between deep work and shallow work. You are doing deep work when your professional activities are “performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push[es]

Forget about your passion. (Advice for new grads)

May 25, 2017
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Uncategorized

Popular culture teaches that finding your passion is a major ingredient for career success. When Marsha Sinetar published her 1989 book Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow, she probably had no idea of the millions who’d come to see her book title as solid career advice. What if that advice is wrong? It is not hard to find people in college or already working who are troubled because they have no passion."] It is not hard to find people Psychologist Robert Vallerand conducted a study of Canadian college students with the aim of learning if they were passionate about work or education. His

What Charles Koch could teach United Airlines

May 1, 2017
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Free Markets and Capitalism

There is no need to repeat the widely known details of Dr. David Dao’s violent removal from a United Airlines flight. It is hard to imagine a worse series of decisions made by employees of a major corporation, decisions that may permanently impact the brand image and value of United. What was behind the poor decision-making on the part of the crew of United Airlines? In his books, Good Profit and The Science of Success Charles Koch explains the use of Market-Based Management (MBM) at Koch Industries, Inc. Market-Based Management, explains Koch, is “a philosophy that enables organizations to

Are Americans getting too much healthcare?

April 2, 2017
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Healthcare

During policy debates on healthcare most people assume that more healthcare leads to better outcomes. What if that assumption is false? In a 2010 essay in the Atlantic, Myth Diagnosis, Megan McArdle cites research by Richard Kronick of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. Kronick found that even when a “disease was particularly amenable to early intervention” there was no “significantly elevated risk of death among the uninsured.” Dr. Atul Gawande writes in his essay “The Cost Conundrum,” “Americans like to believe that, as

Who makes the mountain paths? Freedom and the embrace of uncertainty.

March 1, 2017
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Free Markets and Capitalism

The hike to the summit of Mount Lafayette in New Hampshire’s White Mountains climbs a steep and rugged 3550 feet over 4 miles. The winter snows bury the rocks; and after a storm, snowshoed hikers pack the snow into an almost-smooth “herd path” that others can then hike with light crampons. Step off that herd path and you’ll find yourself stuck knee-deep or even waist-deep — in snow. I was hiking this path on a pristine winter day when a fit young couple, well outfitted for the cold, passed me. For a while we hiked in earshot. They were certain the wonderful conditions on the packed trail

Commerce is pointing the way to a more peaceful and prosperous Cuba.

January 23, 2017
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Free Markets and Capitalism

I choked up with emotion as I scanned the Southwest departure screen at Florida’s Ft. Lauderdale airport. I was looking for the status of my flight home; to my surprise, among the many domestic flights leaving Florida that day were flights to Havana and Varadero, Cuba. Why the emotional response? I am not Cuban; I am not of Latin American ancestry. Yet I experienced something universal, something more powerful than mere pride from identity based on ethnic ties. The long-suffering Cuban people now had tangible prospects for a better life. The engine of this better life is commerce and the outcomes