Writing – Erich Stauffer

Authority, Winning, and the Cost of Staying Adjacent

This morning clarified something I’ve been circling for years but never named plainly: I have optimized for system impact, not personal authority.…

January 27, 2026

A year of learning to stay instead of restart The Pattern I Finally Saw For most of my adult life, I’ve been…

December 30, 2025

After I got laid off from my last job, I started working full time on my consulting business while applying for jobs…

August 14, 2023

I spilled coffee on my Field Notes. It went everywhere. Something so simple as setting down a cup of coffee caused an…

August 13, 2023

I read #donutrunbecausehappy as “don’t run because you’re happy” and I was like, ‘that’s the old me’, but then I realized that…

June 2, 2021

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not…

December 19, 2016

My mom wrote this recently when the power was off. She had, “no WiFi, & time to reflect.” Power is off and…

June 4, 2016

I remember it like it was yesterday: March 28, 2015, the day Ready Player One and its corresponding virtual reality (VR) game,…

April 10, 2016

When my kids were teenagers I used to wonder why they spent all their time on Snapchat, Peach, and Tinder, but it’s…

March 16, 2016