When the world was small, our understanding of ‘reality’ was consistent, which is why a good April Fool’s joke felt right. It tweaked the normal just enough to cause us to wonder … | Continue reading
“The sun is trying to break through the clouds.” “The virus doesn’t like it when people stay home and isolate.” “The computer didn’t expect you to type tha… | Continue reading
Normal is the thing many don’t notice. Until it changes. And then we can’t unsee how much we had failed to pay attention to. Who’s on the short list for consideration, who is give… | Continue reading
This screwdriver, what’s it for? The one with with black oxide non-slip tips, tri-lobe ergonomic handles, and a special “Speed Zone” at the base of the handle, which allows for fa… | Continue reading
Why are some paintings so valuable? Works by Rothko or Matisse are worth millions. The Mona Lisa is truly priceless. There are four reasons, all working together, all quite relevant today as we rem… | Continue reading
You have a choice to make. There are four quadrants, and the thing you offer can fit into one of them. Perhaps you make a low-priced treat, something that people want. Wrigley’s gum or Heinz … | Continue reading
You have a choice to make. There are four quadrants, and the thing you offer can fit into one of them. Perhaps you make a low-priced treat, something that people want. Wrigley’s gum or Heinz … | Continue reading
Traditional con men do their work one person at a time. It’s a laborious process, earning trust and the benefit of the doubt before ultimately ripping someone off. Toward the end of my dad… | Continue reading
There’s a desire to celebrate our “authentic” self. But perhaps our considered self, the one that shows up when we’re doing our best to be consistent, generous and professio… | Continue reading
Certainty: Resolute in the face of criticism and implacable when confronting evidence to the contrary. ‘Never in doubt’ is more important than being right. The need to prove strength an… | Continue reading
The public markets can offer a company quite a bit: Cash right now. Liquidity for the future. A currency to help recruiting and retention. And public companies come with a giant caveat: They are ow… | Continue reading
“I’m sorry that your cat died,” does not mean that I killed your cat. But, “I’m sorry that I stepped on your foot,” does mean that I stepped on your foot. In cre… | Continue reading
When does this rule apply? It doesn’t apply to anyone we’ve ever hired. It doesn’t apply to anything we’ve ever purchased. It doesn’t apply to any project we’ve … | Continue reading
More than ten, actually. Millions of books will be published this year and for good reason. People rarely regret the effort. Everyone has their own, but here are some of the reasons to get you star… | Continue reading
The world is going to change, and resilience is our best response. It’s not about building things that always turn out the way we expect. Bulletproof is too expensive, too rigid and requires … | Continue reading
When distribution is scarce, the hits are powerful indeed. AM Top 40 radio meant that if you made that list of 40 hits, you were going to sell a huge number, and if you didn’t, you were gone.… | Continue reading
When distribution is scarce, the hits are powerful indeed. AM Top 40 radio meant that if you made that list of 40 hits, you were going to sell a huge number, and if you didn’t, you were gone.… | Continue reading
“What’s a fax machine?” There are people working today who don’t know. In the 1980s, I produced a book about VCR tapes and video stores that’s so obsolete, you canR… | Continue reading
If you’re used to a messy desk, cleaning it will probably be a temporary measure. Credit card companies have discovered that if a person carries $2,000 in debt with a $3,000 credit limit, the… | Continue reading
Not education, learning. Education is a model based on scarcity, compliance and accreditation. It trades time, attention and money for a piece of paper that promises value. But we learn in ways tha… | Continue reading
“What’s a fax machine?” There are people working today who don’t know. In the 1980s, I produced a book about VCR tapes and video stores that’s so obsolete, you canR… | Continue reading
Business models rework the world. Organize assets. Add labor. Sell something for enough money that you get to do it again, but more. That’s how we ended up with a $5 chicken in many pots, a c… | Continue reading
It’s true, at least for now, that there are plenty of fish in the sea. And it’s also true that shooting fish in a barrel is pretty easy if there are enough fish and the barrel is small … | Continue reading
The hall of fame, any hall of fame, is an odd thing. On one hand, it celebrates the status quo and scarcity. On the other, it’s a mark of transitions, evolution and diversity. The people indu… | Continue reading
The 16-foot canvas Prospector canoe made by the Chestnut Canoe Company is not the fastest or the lightest or the cheapest canoe but it is an elegant canoe. Practical elegance is something that is a… | Continue reading
A common writer’s trick is to introduce a new term by telling you its origin or what the initials stand for. SMERSH, KAOS, THRUSH, UNCLE, GIF, NFT, SCUBA, CIA, NSA… you get the idea. Bu… | Continue reading
Of course it does, you made it. If you shipped it to the world (or even showed it to a colleague) it might be because you liked it. You made it for yourself. But if your music, your graphic design,… | Continue reading
When each car is separate, they’re dumb, and they break one at a time. When they are part of a networked system, one software glitch can break them all at once. If we use power off the grid, … | Continue reading
Humans differentiated themselves 100,000 years ago by developing the ability to have a detailed memory. Not just “where did I hide the acorns” but rich and diverse memories about people… | Continue reading
Like most traps, they’re mysterious and then appealing and then it’s too late. An NFT is digital treasure chest, a status symbol and an apparent item of value. Like a Pokemon card, or a… | Continue reading
Like most traps, they’re mysterious and then appealing and then it’s too late. An NFT is digital treasure chest, a status symbol and an apparent item of value. Like a Pokemon card, or a… | Continue reading
Like most traps, they’re mysterious and then appealing and then it’s too late. An NFT is digital treasure chest, a status symbol and an apparent item of value. Like a Pokemon card, or a… | Continue reading
We see it all the time, and not just in the store, with a catalog or on a website. You can tell the committed students from the ones who are simply skating by. You can figure out who’s readin… | Continue reading
Who decides the rhythm of your day? When are you at your best, when do you drag? In the old days, when we worked on the assembly line or even in sync at the office or at school, there were good rea… | Continue reading
As I write this, they’re laying a brick wall outside of my window. Each brick weighs about five pounds. There are a thousand bricks in this wall. And every brick is moved, one by one, from th… | Continue reading
Harvard, Dartmouth and Stanford are always full. The value of their degree is largely based on scarcity. There are always more people who want to get in than they will allow. That’s intention… | Continue reading
We often send metaphorical letters to our past selves, berating the choices we’ve made. We express regret about missed opportunities or past mistakes. It’s easy to blame our younger sel… | Continue reading
The perfect avocado… Sometimes they’re too hard, and often, they’re rotten. But every once in a while, you’ll nurture an avocado until it’s at the peak state of flavor… | Continue reading
That’s the opposite of, “count me out.” Either you seek to unite and be part of it. Or to divide and watch it go away. Whatever ‘it’ might be. We can seek to trigger t… | Continue reading
The windmills aren’t the problem, it’s the tilting. In Cervantes’ day, ’tilting’ was a word for jousting. You tilted your lance at an enemy and attacked. Don Quijote w… | Continue reading
If you put the jelly on before the peanut butter, the sandwich will fail. And if you try to spread the peanut butter on the plate and then add the bread, it will fail even worse. Like so many thing… | Continue reading
If you put the jelly on before the peanut butter, the sandwich will fail. And if you try to spread the peanut butter on the plate and then add the bread, it will fail even worse. Like so many thing… | Continue reading
We might be settling scores or we might be opening doors. It’s up to us. Grievance and possibility have confusing roots. Grievance isn’t about grieving. In fact, it’s the opposite… | Continue reading
Weight is a useful measure. 10 pounds is twice as much as 5 pounds. Measuring things and then ranking them effectively enables us to make better choices and to scale up our operations. Sometimes, t… | Continue reading
For most products and services, we rate them on a curve. Of course the seat on the discount airline was cramped, but that’s okay because it was cheap. Of course this Camry doesn’t look … | Continue reading
“Where do you get your ideas?” The thing is, everyone has ideas. All the time, every day. Having ideas is part of the human condition. The right questions might be: Are you exposing you… | Continue reading
Because wishes don’t always come true, but wishing takes a lot of time and energy and focus. What you wish for determines how you’re spending a juicy part of your day. If you wish for s… | Continue reading
The phone company didn’t care what sort of conversation you were having. The call was the call. Same is true for cable–what you watched didn’t matter to them. The reason retail ba… | Continue reading