On April 6, four astronauts watched the moon eclipse the sun. For fifty-four minutes, the moon was between them and the sun.
On Earth, totality lasts a few minutes. From where they were, it lasted nearly an hour. And in that hour, they saw what was always there.
Venus, a steady silver point to the left of the moon. Mars. Saturn. Stars. The sun’s corona, fanning out from behind the dark disc in what the crew called “baby hairs.” The glow of Earth lighting the lunar surface from behind them.
All of it had been there the entire flight. The entire drive to the launch pad. Their entire lives.
It just couldn’t be seen because the sun was in the way.
The sun is the reason any of this is possible. And it’s what made it impossible to see the rest of the sky.
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Most leaders, managers, and professionals have a voice in their head. This is normal as long as we’re not speaking it out loud.
This voice narrates, rehearses, corrects, and judges. It runs the meeting before the meeting. Writes the email, reads the email, revises the email, rereads the sent email.
Most of us don’t think of this voice as thinking. We think of it as us. And now we have AI.
AI scales what you bring to it. Bring clarity, it scales clarity. Bring the rehearsing narrator, it scales the narrator. But now it’s faster, more eloquent, and can share more widely. It amplifies what you bring to it faster than ever before.
The voice in your head is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is what’s making it impossible to see the rest of the sky.
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Four astronauts spent fifty-four minutes behind an eclipsed sun and were mesmerized by what they saw there.
“I don’t think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we were looking at,” one of them said afterward.
“I’m going to need to invent some new ones,” said another, trying to find adjectives.
Likewise, many who have learned how to see beyond the voice in the head have struggled to find the right adjectives to help others comprehend it.
On April 30, a group will gather for fifty-four minutes of shared seeing. The sun gets out of the way when we’re together.
— Bill
Image: NASA / Artemis II, April 6, 2026
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