The big picture and the long view. Assembling knowledge, experience and capabilities into unique personal assets.
It’s not about what you have, it’s about what you do with it. Insights and ingenuity come from the intention to discover something unique and real that’s buried beneath the surface. rrealpath articles aim to do just this. We explore mainstream narratives and question the hidden assumptions to reveal a different kind of truth.
Basing the long view on the predictions of mainstream narratives is equivalent to moving with the herd. Nothing extraordinary ever comes from it. Building the big picture is about penetrating analysis, alternative perspectives and challenging the tidy consensus. It is about being wide open to contrarian points of view, and about trusting the discipline of your own analytical process.
AI Adoption and What the Stats Conceal
AI Insights — October 2026
Substitution or augmentationPast 50% adoption, or under 16%Why the human never leaves the loopHarnesses and the Early AdoptersAI as a tool of leverage
A three-part history
The Origins of Coaching
How Business Coaching Was Discovered
The Origins of Coaching. Part I of a three-part history.
Before there was a nameThe birth of the ideaWhere coaching originatedThe beginnings of the profession
How Coaching Became a Mainstream Profession
The Origins of Coaching. Part II of a three-part history.
How coaching slowly achieved critical massCoaching is a credence goodGrowth through supply, legitimacy and proofThe birth of coaching schools and certification bodiesBeing coached shifts from stigma to statusToday's new scarcity
Coaching Today and Where It Goes Next
The Origins of Coaching. Part III of a three-part history.
Job insecurity is the baselineKnowledge is abundant and freeTrust built on demonstrated workAI as the first stopThe commoditised middle of the marketWhat still needs a trusted relationship
A three-part series
The Cross-Cultural Laboratory
A Third-Culture Childhood in Thailand
The Cross-Cultural Laboratory. Part I of a three-part series.
Cross-cultural experiences from my own lifeThe forms, the etiquettes, the do's and the don'tsThe mainstream path to cross-cultural successA German-Anglo-Indian born in ThailandMy parents met on an Air India flight from Chicago to LondonWhat does it mean to be multiculturalWhat does it mean to be Look KruengForeigners that succeed in ThailandActs of kindnessGratitudeHierarchical society
Why the Cultural Rulebook Is Just the Starting Point
The Cross-Cultural Laboratory. Part II of a three-part series.
The value of social-science researchThe challenge of a neutral perspectiveThe challenge of a mutually relevant perspectiveGoing beyond the forms, the etiquettes, the do's and the don'tsThe cross-cultural journey of the individualLeaving ThailandReturning to ThailandEarly experiences running a companyWhat growing up in Thailand did not teach me
The Real Amazing Thailand
The Cross-Cultural Laboratory. Part III of a three-part series.
The past 30 years have seen improvementsPeople still nod in agreement when they don't understandWhere Thailand stands outThe embodiment of compromiseA deep and lasting sense of gratitudeInherently tolerantHumility in abundanceA country that has never been colonisedTwo paths: do-it-yourself and apply-the-formatPatience in the face of cultural exclusivity
Thinking Clearly in the New Media & Technology Bubble
AI Insights — June 2026
What we learned in the 90sWhat is intelligenceDoes the name artificial intelligence inform or misinformWhat is a large language model (LLM)How does an LLM behavePresent-day euphoriaSocial transformation through LLMsHow do market dynamics affect the growth of LLMs
Why Every Decision Is Bounded by What We Cannot See
The Availability of Critical Information in Decision Making
Reasoning is an exercise in probabilityDecision is the art of eliminationLack of knowledge constrains decision-makingConsequences of a decision are not all understoodWhat we don't know harms usWhat makes a network effectiveWhen information is sharedWhen information is actively withheldInformation in complex environmentsInformation and powerMisinformation
Overcoming Inertia and Beating the Odds through Knowledge, Language and Leverage
What Makes a Leader Sufficient
Most careers are built on a set of skillsWhat traits make someone sufficientTrue leadership is unleashed through contextHow a leader knows himselfOutcomes are contingent on languageLanguage and leadership are inseparableA leader applies leverageA lever works by abstractionWhat a leader provides often resists analysis
How Attention and Energy Influence the Way We Interact
The Real Pathology of Everyday Relationships
The conservation of energy is at the heart of every relationshipWe have relationships with people and with ideasA fully-formed relationship is energy efficientIt has a unique set of attributesUnresolved issues consume energySo does resetting one
How Proximity, Pace and Scale Shape Our Perception of Reality
What You Can't See and How It Undermines You
The closer you are to something, the harder it is to see it clearlyTo see clearly, we must consider the right distance to keepThe faster we move, the farther forward we set our sights — onto a path already pre-establishedWhen a business spans divisions, entities and locations, not seeing becomes an accepted norm of how leaders operate
Why Do I Need a Coach
The 3 most compelling reasons for choosing to work with a coach.
Crisis and Opportunity are 2 sides of the same coinWhether it's crisis or opportunity, business takes us into unfamiliar territoryWhether we're stuck within ourselves, or whether we have worked ourselves into business dead ends, stuck is stuckThe opportunity cost of staying stuck is to live a life of survivalStuck is a softer yet discernible precursor of crisis/opportunityHow the end of a cycle frequently escapes diagnosis