Today is launch day for my new book. Thanks to fast-clicking readers and alumni, it’s already a bestseller. You can check out some of the advance reviews. And the Financial Times picked it on… | Continue reading
If you share a pizza with a large crowd, no one will be very satisfied. But if you share an idea with a group, it creates cultural impact and becomes more valuable as it spreads, not less. Most of … | Continue reading
Not groggy, not zoned out, not hyper, merely awake. Aware of what’s around us. Present. Seeing things clearly, hearing them as if for the first time. How often are we lucky enough to be awake… | Continue reading
The unanticipated but important memo has a difficult road. It will likely be ignored. The difficult parts: a. no one is waiting to hear from you b. you need to have the clarity to know who it’… | Continue reading
Perhaps it’s time to do something else. Not a new job, or a new city, but perhaps a different story. A story about possibility and sufficiency. A story about connection and trust. A story abo… | Continue reading
Filling up a bucket might not be fast or easy, but you can easily measure your progress. Patience isn’t difficult, because you can see it getting filled. Most of what’s important to us,… | Continue reading
Perhaps it’s time to do something else. Not a new job, or a new city, but perhaps a different story. A story about possibility and sufficiency. A story about connection and trust. A story abo… | Continue reading
There are two good reasons to do random testing. The first is that you’re working with a homogenous or expected distribution, and the cost of letting something defective slip through is prett… | Continue reading
On almost every issue that divides the electorate (in the US and abroad), the group that gets out the vote will win. In most elections, the more some candidates spend, the more disillusioned the el… | Continue reading
Your car may have a powerful engine, but if the steering wheel is out of whack, it’s probably a mistake to simply drive faster. And putting in premium gas and removing the muffler doesn’… | Continue reading
Your car may have a powerful engine, but if the steering wheel is out of whack, it’s probably a mistake to simply drive faster. And putting in premium gas and removing the muffler doesn’… | Continue reading
Persistence is sort of annoying. Consistency, on the other hand, is the happy twin brother of persistence. Consistent with your statements, consistent in the content you create, consistent in the w… | Continue reading
Twelve years from now, your future self is going to thank you for something you did today, for an asset you began to build, a habit you formed, a seed you planted. Even if you’re not sure of … | Continue reading
The answer to your quandary is right there, in front of you. It’s just that it involves more work, more risk or more trade-offs than you were hoping for. | Continue reading
It seems as though the opposite of “careless” ought to be “careful.” That the best way to avoid avoidable errors is to try harder, to put more care into the work. This means… | Continue reading
It seems as though the opposite of “careless” ought to be “careful.” That the best way to avoid avoidable errors is to try harder, to put more care into the work. This means… | Continue reading
For years, I’ve been explaining to people that daily blogging is an extraordinarily useful habit. Even if no one reads your blog, the act of writing it is clarifying, motivating and (eventual… | Continue reading
…doesn’t mean it isn’t true. …doesn’t mean it isn’t important. If we spend our days ignoring the things we don’t understand (because they must not be true … | Continue reading
It doesn’t make any sense to spend your life proving them wrong, it’s a losing battle. Far more effective is the endless work of building connection, forming alliances and finding the v… | Continue reading
Skeptical non-donors often point to the amount a charity spends on non-direct spending as a reason to hesitate in contributing. It’s easy to imagine that a cause that spends 90% of what it ra… | Continue reading
Anthropologists have found that we’re very motivated to divide into teams, and once on a team, we’ll work hard to degrade the other team. Over the smallest differences. For the smallest… | Continue reading
There’s a term in copyediting called “stet.” That’s what you write when you want the copyeditor to not make the indicated change. It’s probably Latin for, “leave… | Continue reading
It’s worth picking a philosophy that’s self correcting. The antidote to junk science is more science, good science. Science is a self-correcting process, where transparency leads to imp… | Continue reading
We spend so much of our time keeping promises, fretting about promises, whittling down promises… that we rarely put the effort into creating better ones. More generous. More urgent. More pers… | Continue reading
There are two interesting ways to solve a problem, find a startup or even write a blog post. You can lump two previously disparate categories into one. Or you can split a previously coherent catego… | Continue reading
It’s irrational to buy a lottery ticket. And yet, millions do, even more when the prize is huge. The odds of winning the $1.6 billion MegaMillions lottery are vanishingly small. You’re … | Continue reading
A naive dream is that it’s possible to go on a long bike ride–and enjoy the journey going downhill in each direction. Newton had it right… you’re going to need to go uphill … | Continue reading
When your ideas are spreading, when your work is remarkable, when your organization has built a social ratchet that works, one of the side effects will be a significant social media presence. Peopl… | Continue reading
A trigger prompts a cycle. And a cycle might go on longer than it should. The first spoonful of ice cream can trigger a cycle of binge eating that you regret later. The silence of walking into an e… | Continue reading
Fewer than 1% of our population works hard to divide us. To pit people against one another for their selfish aims. These are the pundits, divisive politicians, media companies and short-term trolls… | Continue reading
That’s the actual title for my new book. Or maybe it’s, “people like us do things like this.” It’s technically called, “This Is Marketing.” It’s abou… | Continue reading
Capitalism is fueled by choice. It’s choice that drives suppliers to do better work, because they know you can pick a competitor. Choice moves power from the supplier to the customer. Softwar… | Continue reading
Capitalism is fueled by choice. It’s choice that drives suppliers to do better work, because they know you can pick a competitor. Choice moves power from the supplier to the customer. Softwar… | Continue reading
No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all… | Continue reading
It’s certainly possible. But it’s unlikely you could learn to ride a bike by watching a lot of videos about it. Or teach a toddler to walk. In fact, it’s unlikely that you could l… | Continue reading
We all say that to ourselves. The question is: when do you say it? Do you say it when you're being rejected, failing, stuck, panicked, overwhelmed or alone? Or do you say it when you're e… | Continue reading
When you see someone walking down the street with new sunglasses on, do you stare at them? Really stare at them, from every angle? If you're fortunate enough to have a selfie with President Ob… | Continue reading
Culture is changed by design, and design by culture. There are things that look ‘right’, and others that don’t. We notice the mistyped word, the straight quote, the lousy kerning.… | Continue reading
We find knowledge (and express it) by dividing the world into grids and segments, and explaining how this organization works. The periodic table is a useful construct. Useful constructs are replica… | Continue reading
In the traditional world, most things are organized so you can find them when you’re looking for them. That’s why you keep your tools in your tool chest and the forks in the silverware … | Continue reading
Not as a way to make big dollars (blogging didn’t do that either). But as a way to share your ideas, to lead your community, to earn trust. Podcasting is a proven technology that is still in … | Continue reading
Not as a way to make big dollars (blogging didn’t do that either). But as a way to share your ideas, to lead your community, to earn trust. Podcasting is a proven technology that is still in … | Continue reading
Landlords are notorious for having a bias toward raising the rent. They’re in it for the long haul, they’ve seen downturns before, and while they’re quick to raise rents in good t… | Continue reading
Raising too little. And raising too much. The typical go-go small business goes out and raises $200,000 or $400,000 in equity, usually from friends, family and amateur investors. Maybe a bit more o… | Continue reading
If you want to cherry pick to make an argument, no doubt, you'll be able to find some cherries. And if you want to pick a fight, no doubt you'll find someone (or something) to have a figh… | Continue reading
Doom is inevitable. Gloom is optional. Gloom has no positive effects on ameliorating doom. Doom happens. Gloom is a choice. | Continue reading
Road 1: I can learn from you and make things better Road 2: You’re an important customer and I can bring empathy and care to this moment to strengthen our relationship Road 3: I can teach you… | Continue reading
If you want a process to go faster, it's tempting to focus on the straightaways. Get your delivery drivers to go faster on the highway. Get your development team to take fewer breaks during a … | Continue reading