It seems like our take on culture is that we’re right. We shake hands properly, use a napkin properly, speak up at events problerly and even greet one another on the street properly. When I&#… | Continue reading
It’s the new part. “How am I supposed to use this?” is the common question. You’re supposed to have a certain tone in your tweets, a certain format to your Facebook posts. Y… | Continue reading
Why do smart people trade away so much money and freedom for just a little convenience? We do it all the time. We take the easy path, the simple shortcut or the long-term bad deal simply because it… | Continue reading
Most people try to win. The real question is, “at what?” If you focus your sights on winning the local bowling league, the effort can consume you, and you will be aware of your progress… | Continue reading
The list of reasons is nearly endless. We need all of them to explain the shortcuts, phone-ins and half-work that we’re surrounded by. All of them are pretty good reasons too. We’re in … | Continue reading
Loosen the constraints on a system and the system will almost always do better in the short run. That’s if we define better as the visible outputs of what the system does. And short run as, &… | Continue reading
Accountability is done to you. It’s done by the industrial system, by those that want to create blame. Responsibility is done by you. It’s voluntary. You can take as much of it as you w… | Continue reading
Best I can tell, most of the folks in the organized crime industry care a lot more about the ‘organized’ part than they do the ‘crime.’ Organized as in: who’s up and w… | Continue reading
If you start a book, you will do better if you have a plan for finishing your book. If you take the time and spend the money to go to college, it’s worth considering graduating as well. Areth… | Continue reading
Civilization depends on the apology. When humans interact and something goes wrong, the apology builds a bridge that enables us to move forward. But apologies are failing more often. Two reasons: F… | Continue reading
It’s not that they don’t know the truth (they might, if they stopped to think about it.) It’s not that they want to know the truth, either. Information is available if they looked… | Continue reading
It’s the blockbusters that get all the hype. The home runs, the viral videos, the hits. It’s the sudden shifts, the ideas that change everything, the fell swoops. Fell swoops seem like … | Continue reading
With enough top-down energy, it feels like the creator of an idea can broadcast it, anytime and anywhere. That enough hype/promo/media/leverage ought to allow a major publisher or network or candid… | Continue reading
“You do it like that?” Every day, we’re at our machines, clicking and swiping and typing. And it’s entirely possible that the methods you’ve developed are costing you … | Continue reading
We have so many forms of “this will only take a minute” inputs. We have Slack, which is optimized for, “yep, I saw that.” We have email, which is optimized for, “I cle… | Continue reading
In 1995, Bo Diddley released his first record. It became a #1 bestseller. The name of the track? “Bo Diddley.” It was a song about a singer and his work. That’s what it sounds lik… | Continue reading
There’s the forever of discomfort. Sasha Dichter taught us about this. The feeling we get during a temporary situation that feels like it’s going to last forever. It’s one thing t… | Continue reading
“Gravity’s not just a good idea, it’s the law.” A truth is a useful, reliable statement of how the world is. You can ignore it, but it will cost you, because the world won&#… | Continue reading
It might be the biggest misconception in all of advertising. The Super Bowl has reach. Google has reach. Radio has reach. So? Why do you care if you can, for more money, reach more people? Why woul… | Continue reading
It lives right next to lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is the mindset of possibility. It is built on the idea that we can grow if we simply show up, ready to learn. Lifelong learning is never … | Continue reading
Industrialism is based on scarcity. So is traditional college admissions. In fact, much of the world as we know it is based on hierarchies, limited shelf space, and resources that are difficult to … | Continue reading
The incoming is coming to you because a while ago, you did something brave and generous and risky. Incoming is great. It’s a reward for your impact. It’s a chance to serve and to make a… | Continue reading
Innovation is essential, but it’s rarely true that we do something that’s truly never been done before. And that means that our work is toward something. We’re making decisions, t… | Continue reading
If you’re imagining your future and then looking back at today through a rear-view mirror, it can wear you out. Writing a book (all caps, WRITING A BOOK) or preparing for a TED talk (already … | Continue reading
You can’t be great at everything. None of us are. The question is: What will you do about it? What will you do about the areas where you don’t have the commitment, time or skill to be e… | Continue reading
There are people in your inner circle who trust you. Family members, close work colleagues, college alumni, dear friends–they will give you the benefit of the doubt. Think twice before turnin… | Continue reading
Maybe. Improvability is a choice. You can build a society, an organization or a family with improvement in mind. Either things are static or we’re putting effort into making them better. Here… | Continue reading
While a high-status college admission confers a measure of status, it doesn’t automatically grant a great education. Sometimes, a student gets both, but not always. Because learning is taken … | Continue reading
The ‘might’ in “this might work.” The ‘might’ of making a generous assertion, one that you can’t be sure of. Might, might, might. It adds up. | Continue reading
The problem with A/B testing is that people don’t like to fail. So they test option A against option B, where both options are quite similar. Blue boxes vs. green boxes. $199 vs. $205. Why no… | Continue reading
It might be that you’re losing money on every sale (Which means that each and every item you sell, every service you perform, costs you money. Bigger won’t make you better…) Becau… | Continue reading
It might be that you’re losing money on every sale (Which means that each and every item you sell, every service you perform, costs you money. Bigger won’t make you better…) Becau… | Continue reading
If your habit is to clear your throat, apologize a few times, minimize the quality of the work you’re about to share and in general, apologize for the assertions you’re about to make… | Continue reading
John Cage pointed out they’re different processes. Doing one will interfere with the other. What will you create today? You can analyze it tomorrow. | Continue reading
The bar is dark and dingy, well-used, with a bit of danger in the air. The sort of bar that wouldn’t be out of place in a Clint Eastwood movie. The anecdote has been through a lot. There̵… | Continue reading
The bar is dark and dingy, well-used, with a bit of danger in the air. The sort of bar that wouldn’t be out of place in a Clint Eastwood movie. The anecdote has been through a lot. There̵… | Continue reading
You might be surprised at your company’s reimbursement policy for education. Not only can you expense that book that will change the way you do your job, but you can probably take a course on… | Continue reading
If you participate in a database about people or their work, the first rule is simple: it should be as simple to fix an error as it is to make one. If you mischaracterize something, get a digit wro… | Continue reading
There’s a button on my email program that allows me to postpone an incoming email to a future day. Sort of like a snooze button. The snooze button is a trap. It’s a trap because not onl… | Continue reading
Wouldn’t it be great if we always had a map? A set of step-by-step instructions on how to get from here to there, wherever we were and wherever we wanted to go… Steve Pressfield relates… | Continue reading
Short-term profits are a lousy way to build a sustainable community. There’s always a shortcut, a rule to be bent, a way to make some more money now at the expense of the people around us. Th… | Continue reading
The throughline of the last twenty years of tech has been new ways to speak up and connect. We’ve built platforms for email, video, writing, short fiction, daily updates, chat, discussion, cl… | Continue reading
Charisma is a magical power. It enables humans to hotwire connection and build bridges long before the facts on the ground are clear. Charisma creates rock stars, powerful scientists and con men, t… | Continue reading
“I followed the recipe exactly, and it failed.” That’s how many reviews of online recipes begin. Then the poster explains that he replaced the sour cream with yogurt (it’s w… | Continue reading
The paradox of choice is real, and it gets worse when the choices aren’t even multiple choice. Confronted with the unlimited selection offered by any music streaming service, people choke. Th… | Continue reading
What ever happened to details? The red sole of a Louboutin shoe, or the elegant tag on a pair of Tom’s? The sweeping fenders of a Porsche 911 or the needless complications of a fancy watch… Today, … | Continue reading
Wouldn’t it be great if we always had a map? A set of step-by-step instructions on how to get from here to there, wherever we were and wherever wanted to go… Steve Pressfield relates th… | Continue reading
Some people say that marketing doesn’t work on them. That all they want is a good product, a fair price, and they’ll be on their way. But that’s a marketing story as well. Who dec… | Continue reading