I’m currently reading Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About The Sixties, a memoir of ideological disillusionment by David Horowitz and Peter Collier. Coincidentally, Horowitz passed away last week at 86 years old, which has me reflecting more deeply on the themes in the book. For me, it’s also personal. Peter Collier was my boyfriend’s father. I’ve long been fascinated by the arc of these two men—once darlings of the radical left, editors of the infamous Ramparts magazine, and close allies of the Black Panther Party. Years later, they became some of the most influential voices in American conservatism.
That kind of transformation doesn’t happen because someone presents a compelling counterargument. It happens because of lived experience. Over time, Horowitz and Collier began to question the ideology they once championed. What they saw behind the scenes didn’t match the values they thought they were fighting for. Slowly, the gap between their beliefs and their reality widened. Eventually, it broke.
That’s what struck me most. People don’t change because they’re told to. They change because something happens that makes them stop and reconsider. In politics, in life, and yes—in workplace culture too—beliefs aren’t rewritten through strategy memos or motivational speeches. They’re rewritten through moments that hit hard. A breakdown. A breakthrough. A realization that the old story no longer fits.
Horowitz and Collier didn’t just evolve. They revolted. First against the establishment. Then against their own revolution. They weren’t afraid of second thoughts. They embraced them. They even started what they called the “Second Thoughts” movement, urging others to rethink their own ideological roots.
That’s what makes their story so powerful. Not where they landed, but how radically they questioned where they began. In the corporate world, second thoughts are often treated like red flags. Leaders worry that changing direction makes them look uncertain. But what if it makes them look wise? What if credibility grows when you show people that you’re still learning?
The best cultures get this. They leave room for reflection. They don’t require perfection or punish doubt. When cultures become rigid—whether political or organizational—they stop evolving. When people feel they can’t question the path, they don’t stick around. They burn out. They break away.
What stays with me most is that this transformation didn’t erase who Horowitz and Collier were. It sharpened who they were. They didn’t lose their intellect or conviction. They redirected it. You can change everything you believe and still be fully yourself. Change doesn’t blunt your edge. Sometimes, it hones it.
So if you’re leading a reorg, launching a new initiative, or navigating resistance, remember this. Belief doesn’t shift on command. It shifts through experience. And second thoughts aren’t a threat to transformation. They’re how it begins.
Elsewhere In Culture
The days of free lunches and ping-pong tables aren’t over, but they’ve been overshadowed by something else—pressure. A new Business Insider article breaks down how companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta are rewriting the rules of performance management, replacing soft perks with hard accountability. Google is scaling up rewards for high performers while quietly reducing compensation for the rest. Microsoft is offering under performers a 16-week severance or a last-chance performance plan that comes with a rehire ban. Meta has gone even further, cutting its bottom 5% and maintaining internal blocklists to prevent return hires.
What we’re seeing is a recalibration of what performance means in the post-AI, post-growth-at-all-costs world. For leaders, this raises the question: is your performance management system aligned with your values—or just your earnings report? Cultures that lean too hard on consequences risk losing trust. But cultures that avoid accountability stagnate. The real opportunity is to create systems that reward not just output, but ownership.
https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-employees-werent-working-hard-ceo-steve-huffman-said-2025-5
I have been an avid reddit user for over a decade having just celebrated my 14th cake day. I remember when we had to come up with a code for real life… “The narwhal bacons at midnight” was a phrase you could use out in the real world to find other like-minded Reddit sub culture users. Back then Reddit was underground and hardly serious. Since then, Steve Huffman hasn’t just brought Reddit back from stagnation—he reshaped its cultural DNA. In a new interview, the CEO reflected on the company’s early years, calling out what he saw as a lack of discipline. “We were idealistic,” he said, “but we weren’t working hard.” That changed when Huffman returned to the helm. He infused the company with urgency, raised expectations, and began treating Reddit like the business it had always aspired to be. The result? A $21 billion valuation and a 61% revenue jump in a single year.
But Huffman’s comments hit on something deeper. He called out the broader Silicon Valley culture for being more focused on copying competitors than building something meaningful. He made the case that entitlement and laziness had crept in—and that Reddit’s turnaround came from demanding more. Not just output, but intent. For any leader reading this, the message is clear: culture isn’t what you say in the all-hands meeting. It’s what people believe you expect of them, every day.