About Gleb

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me! I am an Openly Secular activist for reason whose primary vocation is helping people, organizations, and our society as a whole avoid disaster through science-based decision-making and emotional and social intelligence.

Poor decision-making is one of the worst and most damaging problems facing us as human beings, since so many of all our other problems stem from it. People make bad decisions in their everyday lives, which results in them losing money, time, relationships, health, and happiness. People make bad decisions in their workplace that results in their organizations losing money and time, as well as harming the organization’s reputation and employee morale. People make bad decisions in the political, civic, and economic spheres, leading to fundamental challenges and dangerous risks, including catastrophic and existential ones, for our society.

These bad decisions come from faulty wiring in our brains that causes flawed thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns – what the scientific literature calls cognitive biases. Much of our bad decision-making comes from failing to understand the role of emotions in making decisions, which is where research on emotional and social intelligence is invaluable to address the gap. Fortunately, recent scholarship shows we can address these problems by using strategies discovered by scholars in psychology, behavioral economics, and cognitive neuroscience. Unfortunately, much of this research is trapped in dry academic papers in journals read only by other academics.

To me, this situation is intolerable. It is appalling to see these resources that can address the worst problems faced by individuals, organizations, and our whole society be accessible to so few. My knowledge of this situation comes from myself being a scholar specializing in wise decision-making, emotional and social intelligence, goal achievement, meaning and purpose, mental health and emotional well-being, and altruism. I published over 25 peer-reviewed articles in academic venues, as well as a couple of books. Currently, I serve as a tenure-track professor at The Ohio State University in the History of Behavioral Sciences and am a member of the Decision Sciences Collaborative there.

As such, I have the knowledge required to translate and popularize these research-based strategies to a broad audience. I have decided that this is the most worthwhile goal for my life. To do so, I have shifted away from writing books and articles oriented toward other academics, and have oriented toward being a public intellectual spreading these ideas through a number of avenues, including public activism; consulting, coaching, speaking, training; and social entrepreneurship.

Public Activism: Newspapers and Magazines, TV, Radio, Podcasts, Videocasts

• I appear regularly on network TV, such as affiliates of ABC and Fox; radio stations such as NPR, KGO (San Francisco), 700WLW (Cincinnati) Sunny 95 (Columbus), KLRD (Dallas), and others; as well as internet-only media such as podcasts and videocasts.

Caption: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky on an affiliate of Fox TV

• I write articles for well-known, broad-based publications such as Time, Psychology Today, The Conversation, Salon, Lead Change Group, Truthout, Lifehack, Elite Daily, The Plain Dealer, The Dallas Morning News, Sun-Sentinel, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Buffalo News, Skeptical Inquirer, Patheos, AlterNet, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Huffington Post and elsewhere.

• I also popularize these ideas in books, for instance the Amazon best-seller Find Your Purpose Using Science, which helps people make wise decisions about meaning and purpose to have a fulfilling life. I am currently writing other books on other topics within the broad sphere of decision-making. For a full list of my books, popular and academic, see my Amazon author page.

• I also advocate and lobby behind-the-scenes for getting wise decision-making into government policy

Caption: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky and fellow Intentional Insights Co-founder Agnes Vishnevkin with Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio (Photo courtesy of Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office)

• If you are interested in having me appear on your TV program, radio show, podcast, videocast, or write for your publication, please email me at gleb (at) intentionalinsights (dot) org. Please include the audience you reach with your venue in your email, as my time is limited and my goal is to reach the broadest audience possible with my public activism.

• If you are interested in supporting my personal activism, see the bottom of this page for relevant links.

Speaking, Training, Consulting, Coaching

• I frequently give speeches for various organizations, associations, conferences, and civic groups on effective decision-making, goal achievement, emotional and social intelligence, meaning and purpose, mental health and emotional well-being, and altruism. For more information see this page, and to propose a speaking engagement, please email me at gleb (at) intentionalinsights (dot) org.

Caption: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky giving a speech on wise decision-making

• I also offer targeted training on various aspects of these topics for small groups. For more information see this page, and to hire me as a trainer for your group, please email me at gleb (at) intentionalinsights (dot) org.

Caption: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky providing training on emotional and social intelligence

• I offer consulting on these topics for mid-size and large corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and other organizations. For more information and testimonials see this page, and to hire me as a consultant, please email me at gleb (at) intentionalinsights (dot) org.

• I offer coaching on these topics for current and future leaders. For more information and testimonials see this page, and to hire me as a coach, please email me at gleb (at) intentionalinsights (dot) org.

Social Entrepreneurship

• I co-founded and lead, together with my wife Agnes Vishnevkin, a nonprofit that helps people use science-based strategies to make effective decisions and reach their goals with the aim of building an altruistic and flourishing world, Intentional Insights.

Caption: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky and Intentional Insights Co-founder Agnes Vishnevkin (photo courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch from article about Intentional Insights on 7/15/16)

• This nonprofit unites over 60 volunteers from all around the globe to create content popularizing these strategies such as articles, videos, podcasts, books, online classes, and apps. It also collaborates with many other organizations to spread this content to their members through adapting it to the specific needs of each organization.

• If you are interested in learning more about Intentional Insights, you can email info (at) intentionalinsights (dot) org, and to follow its content, you can sign up to the Intentional Insights newsletter, follow this organization on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Tumblr, Delicious, and Pinterest, as well as get its podcast, and its blog RSS feed.  If you are interested in supporting its mission through volunteering or donating, see the bottom of this page for relevant links.

Final Thoughts

I hope you agree that bad decision-making is a fundamental problem facing our society, our corporations and other organizations, and ourselves as individuals. If so, I invite you to take active steps to address these problems.

• First, improve your own decision-making skills. This is the path I myself have followed before deciding to become a public activist, and I continue to focus on improving my mental fitness, for instance through meditation, journaling, and a variety of other exercises. You can learn about these through my writings as well as other sources.

Caption: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky meditating (photo courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch from article about Intentional Insights on 5/21/15)

• Second, share with your friends and acquaintances strategies to improve their decision-making skills. Research shows that spreading information through our social networks is a very powerful method of getting other people to change their behavior, thought, and feeling patterns.

• Third, if you are in a position of influence within an organization of any sort, use these strategies to optimize the organization, as it can lead to a vast improvement in the organization’s performance and output. If you have access to a media venue, use that venue to spread these ideas. Contact me at gleb (at) intentionalinsights (dot) org if you would be interested in getting me involved.

• Fourth, use your resources of time, social capital, and money to support organizations and people serving as the drivers of change in spreading wise decision-making strategies. It is an unfortunate fact that our society does not realize the benefits of improving our decision-making, and does not have structures set up to support these activities. This area is thus very neglected, yet it is one that is of great importance. It is also one that is quite tractable, meaning where change can be brought about relatively easily, as seen through my ability to publish articles in prominent venues. Because of this importance, neglectedness, and tractability, you as an individual can make a big difference through investing your resources into this area. And every dollars matters: as Edmund Burke famously said, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” Don’t let yourself be the one who made a bad decision by making this mistake!

• More specifically, I encourage you to support Intentional Insights by volunteering, buying merchandise, and making a tax-deductible donation to this nonprofit. Supporters are welcome to join the supporters-only Facebook group and email list.

• I also welcome you to support my personal activism. Through doing so, you are enabling me to spend less time on teaching, which is the way I support myself currently, and more time on addressing the fundamental problems of the world through popularizing wise decision-making strategies. Every hour I don’t spend teaching is an hour I can write another article that will be published in Time or Psychology Today, or make a radio or TV appearance.
  • You can support me through Patreon. Patreon is an online platform that allows anyone – such as yourself – to support an individual whose creative activities they appreciate. How it works is that you choose how much you want to pay for each article or video I create – $1, $5, $10 – and what is the maximum amount you want to pay per month. Then, every time I publish an article or make a video, I post it on Patreon, and it charges the amount per article or video that you set, with no more than the maximum amount you set per month. I post around 4-6 articles or videos per month. Thanks to all of you who already do support my activism there!

However you choose to do it, I hope you take active steps to address the fundamental problems and dangerous risks facing our society, our organizations, and us as individuals through helping spread wise decision-making strategies broadly!