Vantage Point with Eli Amdur

Eli Amdur
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Philosophy

This is … VANTAGE POINT The podcast for critical thinkers. Where we make sense of – and excel in – our lives, our jobs, and our world. We’re not political, just critical. **************** Thanks for joining in the first of our inaugural episodes. I’m your host, Eli Amdur. VANTAGE POINT, the podcast for critical thinkers, will bring you: 1. One major commentary. 2. Timely, relevant observations and advice. 3. Eli’s aphorisms – short, pithy, and insightful. 4. Thoughts from great minds in history – and a question to ponder. 5. “What if?” Exciting contemporary ideas. Additionally, from time to time we’ll interview exciting thought leaders from many fields. VANTAGE POINT has one objective: To help make you better, more competitive, and more fulfilled by constantly improving your critical thinking.

  1. 3d ago

    The Ethics of Progress

    Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers. Every invention humans have ever made, from flight to dynamite to penicillin, has been put to both constructive and destructive use. Now AI is moving faster and reaching farther than anything before it. Eli's warning: the greatest challenge of this century isn't technology. It's ethics. In this episode The ethics of progress versus the progress of ethics, the three dimensions of change, and six leadership lessons, plus 2 of Eli's aphorisms and Cicero and Andrew Carnegie from great minds. Eli’s Aphorisms “We fail only because we allow ourselves to fail.” “When you make plans, tomorrow is more important than today. When you take action, it's just the opposite.” “If something becomes possible, it becomes expected.” “With a set of deeply held principles, you will never have to make a decision. Good decisions make themselves.” “Making no decision is worse than making a bad one.” From Great Minds “What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?” — Cicero This episode is supported by Vantage Point's Executive Sponsor, Stephen Bozer, SVP of Human Health at Flavine. Also supported by Major Sponsor Bergen Volunteers, neighbors serving neighbors across 70 towns in Bergen County since 1966. Also supported by Major Sponsor Kardam Consulting, strategic counsel for the business of making medicine. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. More at eliamdur.com.

  2. 5d ago

    Are You Really Listening?

    Vantage Point with Eli Amdur

  3. Oct 1

    When Does Determination Beat Exhaustion?

    Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers. On May 26, 1953, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans came within 328 feet of the summit of Everest - about a football field - and turned back, citing exhaustion. Three days later Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made it. Same mountain, same weather, same supplies. Eli argues the difference was never exhaustion but determination, and what Hillary meant when he said it is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. In this episode • How close Bourdillon and Evans came to the summit of Everest - and why they turned back • Why the same climb ended differently for Hillary and Norgay three days later • What Hillary meant by "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves" • The difference between exhaustion and a lack of determination • How determination, once it pays off, becomes a habit • Aphorisms on attitude, delivering the cargo, and responsibility for the future Eli’s Aphorisms “A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You're going nowhere until you change it.” “Don't tell me about the storm. Did you deliver the cargo?” “We must have infinite gratitude for all things past, infinite service for all things present, and infinite responsibility for all things future.” From Great Minds “If you don't know something well enough to explain it to a six-year-old, you don't know it well enough at all.” — Albert Einstein “One of the great problems with communication is the illusion that it has occurred.” — George Bernard Shaw This episode is supported by Vantage Point's Executive Sponsor, Stephen Bozer, SVP of Human Health at Flavine. Also supported by Major Sponsor Bergen Volunteers, neighbors serving neighbors across 70 towns in Bergen County since 1966. Also supported by Major Sponsor Kardam Consulting, strategic counsel for the business of making medicine. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. More at eliamdur.com.

  4. Sep 28

    Is AI Really Going to Kill Us All?

    Vantage Point with Eli Amdur

  5. Sep 23

    The Greatest Non-Decision Ever Not Made

    Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II sent an email over ARPANET. The United States Postal Service - an organization whose entire business was carrying messages - watched the future arrive and did nothing. Then it handed out free AOL discs on its own counters, letting customers walk in to mail a letter and walk out with the tools to stop needing one. Eli traces the most expensive failure of critical thinking in modern business, and closes with the man who built the web and gave it away: Tim Berners-Lee. In this episode ['Why the US Postal Service missed the email revolution', 'How Queen Elizabeth II became the first head of state to use email', 'The story behind Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web', 'What happened when the post office gave away free email kits', "The financial impact of the postal service's failure to adapt", 'Aphorisms on letting go of who we are to become who we might be'] Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. More at eliamdur.com.

  6. Sep 21

    Hire for Traits, Not Skills

    Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers. Anyone can learn Excel. The superstar you hire today could be your CEO by 2050 — and hire the CEO who leads your company into the 22nd century. So why are we still hiring for skills, when it is traits that will decide who is in the driver's seat? In this episode A hard look at hiring for traits instead of skills, plus 3 of Eli's aphorisms, Benjamin Franklin from great minds, and a "What If?" about Thomas Paine to ponder. Eli’s Aphorisms “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.” “Price, quality, speed: select any two. You can never get all three.” “Some things in life are no more complicated than this: get up, dress up, show up.” From Great Minds “In wine there is truth, in beer there is freedom, and in water there is bacteria.” — Benjamin Franklin What If? What if there had been no Thomas Paine? Ask a room of a hundred people who he was and most hands would stay down, yet any list of the ten most important people of the Revolutionary period has to include him. An immigrant from England and an exceptional thinker and writer, he was a pamphleteer — we don't have pamphleteers anymore; we have podcasters, which is pretty much the same thing. "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country." His pamphlets sold in numbers that were astonishing for the size of the colonies. Somebody was going to do it? Stuff that good doesn't go to just somebody. As the saying from the period has it: without the pen of Thomas Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain. That is one hell of a what-if. This episode is supported by Vantage Point's Executive Sponsor, Stephen Bozer, SVP of Human Health at Flavine. Also supported by Major Sponsor Bergen Volunteers, neighbors serving neighbors across 70 towns in Bergen County since 1966. Also supported by Major Sponsor Kardam Consulting, strategic counsel for the business of making medicine. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. More at eliamdur.com.

  7. Sep 16

    What Happens When You Hire Somebody You Shouldn't

    Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers. Would you hire this candidate? Eli runs the hiring thought experiment an executive search committee would use for the biggest job on the planet, to show how we keep making the same bad call, no matter which side of the aisle it comes from. In this episode • Why do we make decisions that work against our own best interests • What would happen if you hired a CEO with no relevant qualifications • What are the six elements of a real leader • Why is inspiring people better than motivating them • Why do some people resent the idea of being woke • How do cuts to public education kill critical thinking • Which states rank highest in educational achievement and why it matters This episode is supported by Vantage Point's Executive Sponsor, Stephen Bozer, and by Major Sponsor Kardam Consulting. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. More at eliamdur.com.

  8. Sep 14

    Why You Should Hire the Liberal Arts Kid

    Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers. An open letter from a liberal arts graduate makes her own case, point by point, for why you should hire her — and then Eli tells you what actually happened when a real hiring manager read it. In this episode A definition and a hard look at the episode's theme, plus 4 of Eli's aphorisms, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway from great minds, and a "What If?" to ponder. Eli’s Aphorisms “If what you're willing to do exceeds what you want to do, anything is possible — when attitudes change, results change.” “There are times when one cannot overestimate the great satisfaction of remaining silent.” “Never miss an opportunity to shut up when it matters most.” “Never let a conclusion be the place where you just got tired of thinking.” From Great Minds “asked by a constituent why he'd just given such a long speech in Parliament, he said: "Because, madam, I didn't have time to write a short one."” — Winston Churchill “asked the secret to writing a good book, said it comes down to a good beginning and a good ending, kept as close together as possible.” — Mark Twain “argued that all great American literature starts with one book, Mark Twain's *Huckleberry Finn*.” — Ernest Hemingway What If? Charles Dodgson — an unknown writer working under the pen name Lewis Carroll — brought the publisher Alexander Macmillan a manuscript good enough to print as-is. Macmillan pushed back anyway: it needed illustrations, and Dodgson's own weren't good enough. Get John Tenniel, London's premier illustrator, he said — but making that introduction wasn't Macmillan's job. Dodgson found his own way to Tenniel, in 1863, through a now-forgotten go-between named Tom Taylor. The two worked together for eleven months on the book. Published in 1865 as *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*, it has sold more copies over 160 years than any book in history except the Bible. What if Tom Taylor had never made that introduction? This episode is supported by Vantage Point's Executive Sponsor, Stephen Bozer, SVP of Human Health at Flavine. Also supported by Major Sponsor Bergen Volunteers, neighbors serving neighbors across 70 towns in Bergen County since 1966. Also supported by Major Sponsor Kardam Consulting, strategic counsel for the business of making medicine. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. More at eliamdur.com.

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About

This is … VANTAGE POINT The podcast for critical thinkers. Where we make sense of – and excel in – our lives, our jobs, and our world. We’re not political, just critical. **************** Thanks for joining in the first of our inaugural episodes. I’m your host, Eli Amdur. VANTAGE POINT, the podcast for critical thinkers, will bring you: 1. One major commentary. 2. Timely, relevant observations and advice. 3. Eli’s aphorisms – short, pithy, and insightful. 4. Thoughts from great minds in history – and a question to ponder. 5. “What if?” Exciting contemporary ideas. Additionally, from time to time we’ll interview exciting thought leaders from many fields. VANTAGE POINT has one objective: To help make you better, more competitive, and more fulfilled by constantly improving your critical thinking.

Information

  • Creator
    Eli Amdur
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Vantage Point with Eli Amdur
  • Show Website
    Vantage Point with Eli Amdur