How you interact

When a bad cup of coffee is made, a junior barista might instinctively think it’s the bean. Conversely, a more experienced barista might first question what could make sense to do differently: maybe the coffee needs to be coarser or the water temp needs to be lowered or the coffee bed needs to be agitated a little less. Blaming the circumstance is one way to stagnate (or, in this case, to keep drinking bad coffee). Adjusting how you interact with the circumstance—titrating the parameters of your engagement in different directions—is one way to ensure you create something different and instructive the next time, and the time after that, and the time after that. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit williamliao.substack.com