There’s almost no sport or physical activity where that advice isn’t useful. Golf. Ping pong. Dancing. The more likely it is that people are tempted to focus on their hands or feet, the… | Continue reading
It’s the most resilient, most granular technique available for us to figure out what people want. When individuals have the freedom to choose, they often do. At the same time that markets ena… | Continue reading
Advice from people who have gotten lucky is a tricky thing. Perhaps they did x, y and z, and then got lucky. As story telling creatures, it’s natural to assume that x, y or z had something to… | Continue reading
That’s a fun question, but nearly as useful as, “what’s effective?” Pick up a fifteen-year-old copy of Wired, or a business book from 1969 and see what’s still around.… | Continue reading
Phrenology was discredited a long time ago. People who should have known better were sure that by studying the bumps on someone’s head, a trained expert could divine insights about their personalit… | Continue reading
They rhyme, but they have opposite meanings. It’s very difficult to feel both emotions at the same time, and one is far more productive than the other. | Continue reading
An objection is a useful way to understand what someone wants or needs. “I might buy that, but I need one that comes in red,” helps you learn that the color choice matters to this perso… | Continue reading
Errors are preventable. But preventing errors requires an investment. Before committing to an error-free production environment, it’s worth calculating the cost. A typo on this blog is relati… | Continue reading
The second time you rewire a system after finding a hum, it might take two minutes. The first time, the time you figured out what the problem was, it might have taken two hours. Typing a book takes… | Continue reading
The mirror might not lie, but no one looks at you in the mirror more than you do. Your business or project or life story is intimately known to you. You have lived it. But the outside world will ne… | Continue reading
People don’t say yes or change their minds because you persist. That’s because we don’t like to admit we were wrong. If we’re going to go forward, it’s because somethi… | Continue reading
The thing that made you busy might have been the reputation you earned for being reliable. Ironically, that very busy-ness might destroy your reputation. That’s one reason that so many servic… | Continue reading
Perhaps it’s related to what you think you deserve: Kindness. Dignity. A chance to speak up. A fair shot at achievement. The benefit of the doubt. PS today is Juneteenth. | Continue reading
Is this a want or a need? Do you know anyone who has managed to gain control over things outside of their grasp? Honking at traffic serves no purpose other than to express a need to control the unc… | Continue reading
I got a marketing letter from a colleague yesterday. Not a sales pitch, just an update on what they were up to. I was delighted to discover that this mass mailing had a hand-lettered address on it,… | Continue reading
Almost every project comes in a little bit late and a little bit over budget. When things break, the breaks are rarely lucky ones. Part of the reason is that in proposing the project we made our be… | Continue reading
Even when you’re not completely certain. Because we can never be certain about the future. So we show up for the work, do the reading, engage with the problem. The challenge is to find a poin… | Continue reading
They might be difficult to answer, but your project will benefit: What’s the hard part? Which part of your work, if it suddenly got much better, would have the biggest impact on the outcome y… | Continue reading
It’s a pointless form of argument. “This scientist made a careless error in their paper, therefore we need to excuse a con artist who falsified an entire career.” Or, “that … | Continue reading
First: If you’re a frequent flyer on American and haven’t flown in over a year, it’s possible your miles are going to expire very soon. You can fix this by “donating” … | Continue reading
It originally means, “no longer believing in magic.” Humans like magic. It gives us solace and energy and hope. In many ways, the rational era of science and engineering and evidence an… | Continue reading
The right response to feedback is, “thank you.” Or perhaps, “that’s a great point.” Even if it’s not your job to change the system, or not your fault that things… | Continue reading
Slowly, or all at once. Culture shifts slowly. “People like us do things like this.” Seismic events may make newspaper headlines, but they don’t rapidly change the way human being… | Continue reading
It will be a long time before I spell “handkerchief” incorrectly. That’s because in third grade, I lost the entry round of the spelling bee to my friend Elisa because I got it wro… | Continue reading
It’s not trivia unless other people know it too. 42 isn’t the answer unless your friends are able to tell you the relevant question. And trivia isn’t trivial. In fact, it’s … | Continue reading
The gulf between network news of 1968 and cable news of today is dramatic, far more than the shift in, say, a typical sitcom. The Dick Van Dyke show is quaint, but it has a lot in common with a sit… | Continue reading
It’s priceless. When we’re used to it, when it comes along as a result of nothing we did to earn it, we take it for granted. But when you don’t have it, it makes everything more d… | Continue reading
People are culturally wired to want to reciprocate. That’s one of the things that make a community function–someone does something nice for you and you’re inclined to want to find… | Continue reading
For as long as there’s been recorded history, kings and queens have ruled and been celebrated by their subjects. Not everywhere, not all the time, but widely. Not simply the royalty of nation… | Continue reading
Post-production. The most expensive way to adjust a movie is at the end, in the editing room. The most expensive way to please a customer is after they call customer service with a complaint. The m… | Continue reading
Actually, it’s every day. We talk about graduation as if it’s the end of some journey, but it’s the beginning of one. The chance to see the world differently, to contribute, to un… | Continue reading
Here are two policies it might be fun to try for a week: Meeting abstention: Anyone invited to an internal meeting has the power to opt-out. “Send me the summary, please.” If someone ab… | Continue reading
We rarely do or say something intentionally that surprises us. That’s because we are in intimate contact with the noise in our heads–we spend our days looking in the mirror, listening t… | Continue reading
Books are written almost a year before they come out. Tweets take about 24 seconds to launch. Which world would you like to live in, book-world or twitter-world? If you were designing an ad campaig… | Continue reading
It means two very different things. When a person or a marketer takes your time, they’re stealing. Something irretrievable is gone. If your time is taken for selfish reasons, if it’s wa… | Continue reading
In my earlier post, I opened a discussion about how to avoid missing a deadline. But what happens if you can’t avoid it? Projects are always on the frontier, combining elements and ideas and … | Continue reading
Deadlines are valuable, and deadlines are expensive. Organized systems and societies need deadlines. It would be impossible to efficiently build a house if the subcontractors could deliver their go… | Continue reading
This is very different from “someday.” Choose any date you like, as far in the future as you like. But a date, circled on the calendar. By that date, what will you have implemented? Wha… | Continue reading
“Ignore sunk costs” is the critical lesson of useful decision making. The thing you earned, that you depend on, that was hard to do–it’s a gift from your former self. Just b… | Continue reading
Look at that banana, just look at it. Bananas are a modern miracle. They’re cheap, nutritious, and readily available. And just about every banana you’ve ever eaten (if you live in the N… | Continue reading
Attitude follows action far more often than action follows attitude. We change our mood as a result of how we act. If you want to feel a certain way, begin by acting as if you do. On the other hand… | Continue reading
That’s all language is. “Banana” is not a fruit. It’s a word that we use in English to identify a fruit. And code words work beautifully as long as the person you’re s… | Continue reading
Eventually, the culture figures out how much time we’re supposed to spend on something. They call it the “right” amount. How long an education should take, or an RFP. How fast to … | Continue reading
It always does. Perhaps you remember when the most urgent issue of the day was the relationship between the US and Cuba. Or the argument you were having about what flavor the wedding cake should be… | Continue reading
Who’s a better student? The one with a 3.95 GPA or the one with 3.96? Neither or both, actually. These metrics are foolishly and incorrectly precise. The decisions that led to this average ha… | Continue reading
Up close, face to face, in the specific, it’s difficult to dismiss the humanity of others. It’s only when we decide to industrialize the process, to do it all at once, to boil it down t… | Continue reading
Willem de Kooning said, “I have to change to stay the same.” Because whatever system we’re in is changing. Because every step we take changes the ground we walk on. Because while … | Continue reading
When we say this, we might not be as accurate in our description of the situation as we believe. Perhaps we mean, “that’s not what I was hoping for.” Or we might mean, “if y… | Continue reading