Forget about New Year’s resolutions. We all know how those turn out.
Instead, let’s focus on many small additions that can improve how we live, work, and learn. Micro decisions can have macro effects.
Scroll down for a story about tiny mistakes with catastrophic consequences, and for a list of seven books, accounts, and content to enrich your daily life in the year ahead.

I am Avy Leghziel, an organizational consultant and trainer with a knack for unorthodox ideas. This is Masters of Babel. Here, I play with the ideas that transform how we work, learn and manage.

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Two ideas worth exploring

01 • When Boeing went Crash. What can we learn about tiny mistakes?

About a year ago, a Boeing 737 Max 9 had to make an emergency landing in Alaska. The inspections found that one of the panels of the airplane was missing four bolts.

Four missing bolts caused a plane to make an emergency landing. This, in the same year that AI proved it can develop entire applications, giant chopsticks caught a landing rocket booster, we found a malaria vaccine, and took ultra-detailed pictures of the cosmos.

The bolts were missing because of human error during the aircraft's assembly.
Some would argue this is yet another reason to hand technical jobs over to machines—and they’re probably right. I did a quick search and found that, at the moment, there’s no technology capable of performing this specific task instead of humans. We can trust technology to photograph the cosmos and diagnose cancer, but not to handle some simple manual tasks.

This shift will likely happen when cost-effective technology is developed. In the meantime, let’s reflect on this: a long-standing, reputable corporate giant like Boeing—with highly structured workflows, thousands of managers, two proprietary safety and quality assurance protocols (the “Quality Management System - QMS” and the “Safety Management System - SMS”)—still suffers from micro problems with macro consequences, like missing four bolts on an airplane. And this isn’t an isolated incident, as there have been several similar mishaps involving Boeing over the past year.

What causes a company built on operational excellence to decline so dramatically? The tougher question: what managerial interventions are needed in a company this massive to cleanse teams, workflows, and management practices to the point where this kind of errors are eliminated?

Others have already written about what we can learn from this story in terms of risk management, organizational culture, and engineering ethics. Here, I’ll raise just one point: human errors on a microscopic scale can lead to disastrous consequences for both customer safety and the company’s well-being.

This isn’t a call for micromanagement, but rather a reflection on the importance of having zero tolerance for individuals and teams misaligned with the values critical for the company to thrive (in Boeing’s case, safety, attention to detail, etc.).

Even the most advanced organizations are chaotic ecosystems of interdependent parts, where failures rarely result from a single catastrophic event. Instead, they often emerge from subtle breakdowns in the connection between professionals and the tasks at hand. One professional with the wrong approach can be enough to shake the entire foundation.

02 • Unorthodox recommendations

I saw others do it first (Austin Kleon probably wrote the best one I saw) and decided to follow suit: a list of the recommendations for the year ahead, based on what I believe are my most valuable discoveries of the past year.

Staying true to the usual Masters of Babel vibe, I’ll share nine recommendations you likely won’t find elsewhere. None of this is sponsored or affiliated.

1. The most challenging non-fiction book I read was, without a doubt, Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature by Francesco Faggin. Faggin, a physicist, entrepreneur, and developer, ventures into almost spiritual hypotheses about how quantum physics impacts our daily lives. Mind-expanding stuff.

2. The app that changed my habits is Voicenotes. Until recently, I dismissed voice notes as unnecessary clutter. But with an app that transcribes and edits them seamlessly, I’ve started using them even more than written notes. It’s the ideal tool for capturing clarity in chaos.

3. This past year, I lost faith in most mainstream news outlets. The one channel that restored some of it is The Free Press. It’s a modern take on journalism that avoids both the bias of mainstream outlets and the superficiality of many alternatives.

4. The strangest podcast I discovered is Paul Giamatti’s Chinwag with Stephen Asma. Paul Giamatti (the guy from Billions) dives into deeply unconventional topics with philosopher Stephen Asma. They manage to explore them with a rare intellectual depth. Giamatti’s giggling makes it difficult to stop listening.

5. This might be the least unorthodox pick: Not Boring by Packy McCormick. McCormick’s newsletter provides deep analysis of trends in society, culture, and technology without pushing an agenda or radical ideology—only a much needed dose of optimism.

6. The ultimate work soundtrack for me is This is Andrea Vanzo—a playlist featuring a young Italian composer. It’s my go-to for staying focused while working.

7. Despite the general outrage toward Twitter/X, I still find it a source of interesting ideas—if curated properly. My favorite discovery is Koenfucius, an account that shares cultural and scientific insights in simple, intelligent terms without dumbing things down. (Here’s my curated feed of interesting follows if you want more.)

8. The most interesting person I’ve come across online is David Hieatt. Hieatt is a creative mind who founded the DO Lectures, started a jeans company in the small town where he grew up and still lives, and shares simple yet sharp ideas about making, creating, and finding the extraordinary in the mundane.

9. The one physical product I recommend is Aer backpacks. I spent hours searching for a bag that’s both professional and comfortable. After evaluating countless options, I landed on one of theirs. It’s been a fantastic purchase for both daily use and travel.

10. Unorthodox novel recommendations? Not this time. I read a lot of excellent books this year (special shoutout to N.K. Jemisin for restoring my faith in sophisticated fantasy). But nothing that’s wildly under the radar.

I hope at least one of these recommendations will make your next year a little better! And if you’ve got a great recommendation for me—don’t overthink it, just reply to this email and let me know.

Unrelated

Online content keeps on getting more fast-paced, even though we just discovered that our puny human brain is quite slow.

Also, this is one of the reasons why it’s getting even slower.

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If you are dealing with an organizational/strategic challenge, or you are searching for an out-of-the-box training for your team, we should talk.
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