Mac Ling

Essays

Writing, when there is something worth saying.

Short essays on attention, uncertainty, perception, and the interior work underneath leadership and change. Not a newsletter. Just the ideas that hold up.

Mac Ling writing at the kitchen table

Feb 2026

Living in the Question

We have outsourced the space between not-knowing and knowing to a search bar. What gets lost when every question is answered before it has had time to become interesting.

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Mar 2026

The Wrong Lens

Most problems persist because someone is looking through a construct they have stopped seeing as a construct. Thought experiments as a way of finding the seam between assumption and truth.

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Apr 2026

What the Eye Invents

Two people can look at the same thing and see different realities, and both are telling the truth. What visual illusions teach us about the limits of our own certainty.

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May 2026

A Centering Practice

Anxiety lives in the future. Depression lives in the past. A short practice for coming back to the only place either one can actually be worked with: now.

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Jun 2026

Built by Our Improvisations

No one hands you a script for the moment that matters most. What jazz musicians, surgeons, and a vaudeville comedian understand about preparing for what you cannot predict.

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Stay close to it

New essays arrive slowly, and only when there is something worth saying.