You can be good at Twitter in about five minutes a day. Spending ten minutes doesn't make you twice as good... in fact, there's probably little measurable improvement. To be great at Twitter might take five hours of daily effort.... | Continue reading
A quick look at Yelp reviews will show you that NY restaurants are not quite as good as those in some suburbs. This, of course, makes no sense. New York is insanely competitive, with a ton of turnover and a... | Continue reading
You might need help to turn an idea into a project. Most of the time, though, project developers walk up to those that might help and say, "I have a glimmer of an idea, will you help me?" The challenge:... | Continue reading
Are there any other options for people who seek to innovate? | Continue reading
Sort by price is the dominant way that shopping online now happens. The cheapest airline ticket or widget or freelancer comes up first, and most people click. It's a great shortcut for a programmer, of course, because the price is... | Continue reading
When something goes wrong, how do you respond? When you own assets, when your position feels secure, when you're playing the long game, a bump in the road is just that. "Well, that was interesting." You can learn from it,... | Continue reading
You can disdain gravity all you want, call out its unfairness, seek to have it banned. But that's not going to help you build an airplane. | Continue reading
If you watch a well-directed film with the sound turned off, you'll get a lot out of it. On the other hand, it takes practice to read a screenplay and truly understand it. It's worth remembering that we lived in... | Continue reading
A large, freshly-paved parking lot has no boundaries. You can drive in any direction, free to speed to your destination. But once there's more than a few cars driving, traffic stops. It's too risky, there are too many uncertainties. A... | Continue reading
Easter Island was the home to a thriving community, thousands of people living good lives. One by one, though, the trees on this isolated island were cut down. They were cut down for fuel, or to make tools, or boats.... | Continue reading
People talk about bike riding when they want to remind us that some things, once learned, are not forgotten. What they don't mention is how we learned. No one learns to ride a bike from a book, or even a... | Continue reading
Cooks know that a sharp knife is less likely to cause injury, because it goes where you point it. It does what you tell it to do, which means you can focus on what you want the outcome to be.... | Continue reading
More opportunities come knocking than we know what to do with. They often come enshrouded with hassle, perceived risk and the need to overcome inertia. It's easier to just say no. And so no becomes the default, a habit, it's... | Continue reading
“This is all the pie I received, but that’s okay.” “I have a small piece of pie, but others have an even smaller piece, so I’m sharing mine.” “I want all the pie.” “I don’t want all the pie, just... | Continue reading
Predict the weather Read an X-ray Play Go Correct spelling Figure out the P&L of a large company Pick a face out of a crowd Count calories Fly a jet across the country Maintain the temperature of your house Book... | Continue reading
There are very few fences that can stop a determined person (or dog, for that matter). Most of the time, the fence is merely a visual reminder that we're rewarded for complying. If you care enough, ignore the fence. It's... | Continue reading
Everyone asks themselves this question. And everyone looks for different clues and cues to answer it. It's primordial. We've been doing it for millions of years, because nothing is more important to our survival. The thing is, almost no one... | Continue reading
Waking up a sleeping bear is difficult. People hibernate too. But it turns out that once activated, people do far more in a short time than you might expect. And so, the week before Christmas sees an insane amount of... | Continue reading
We have a holiday for it, but no good words. Belief in disbelief. The asymmetry between incredulity and credulity. The fact that too often we believe in the wrong stuff, follow the wrong leader and take the wrong medicine. In... | Continue reading
"We owe you nothing." This week, all but one NFL owner voted to let the Raiders leave Oakland for Las Vegas (I'm not a football fan, but bear with me). A nearly perfect example of how one version of capitalism... | Continue reading
No need to shop for a better you, or to work overtime to make bigger promises. Keeping the promises we've already made is sufficient. | Continue reading
The real asset you're building is trust. And even though it's tempting to cut a corner here and there to boost profit per interaction, the real cost is huge. No one will say anything, no one will put up a... | Continue reading
From restaurants to direct mail, there's pressure to be scalable, to be efficient, to create something easily replicated. Which is often used as the reason it's not very good. "Well, we'd like to spend more time/more care/more focus on this,... | Continue reading
Getting someone to switch to you is totally different from getting someone who's new to the market to start using the solution you offer. Switching means: Admitting I was wrong, and, in many cases, leaving behind some of my identity,... | Continue reading
If war has an opposite, it's not peace, it's civilization. (inspired by Ursula LeGuin writing in 1969) Civilization is the foundation of every successful culture. It permits us to live in safety, without being crippled by fear. It's the willingness... | Continue reading
It's tempting to diversify, particularly when it comes to what you offer the world. One more alternative, one more flavor, one more variation. Something for everyone. We get pushed to smooth out the work, make it softer, more widely applicable.... | Continue reading
Professionals take their work seriously. The work matters, the impacts and externalities are real. On the other hand, we can't take it personally. When someone rejects an idea, or if a project doesn't succeed, we've learned a valuable lesson about... | Continue reading
Here's the original ad for Coca-Cola: French Wine Coca is indorsed (sic) by over 20,000 of the most learned and scientific medical men in the world . . . . . . Americans are the most nervous people in the... | Continue reading
Thirty years ago, Fleischmann and Pons announced that they were able to create fusion at room temperature. Scientists around the world began work in this new field, only to discover that they couldn't replicate the reported results. It turns out... | Continue reading
If you have to serve chili to 1,000 people, holding back just one bean from each person means you end up with a tidy savings, and almost no one is going to notice. If you run a call center and... | Continue reading
Get smarter. Hurry. Learn something new and difficult and valuable. Learn it today and continue learning it tomorrow. Solve interesting problems. Ignaz Semmelweis saw the same problem that others saw. But he took responsibility and solved it (worth a read).... | Continue reading
Some people show up when they need something. Some people show up before they need something, knowing that it will pay off later, when they need something. And some people merely show up. Not needing anything, not in anticipation of... | Continue reading
Fear runs deep. Fear used to keep our ancestors alive. Fear keeps you from taunting a saber tooth tiger. The thing is, most of us don't have to deal with tigers any longer. But the fear still runs deep. We... | Continue reading
How long does it take to forget how frightening it was? You fell off your bike and really skinned your knee. How many months or years go by before you're willing to ride a bike again? The stories we tell... | Continue reading
It's nice to think that the reason that people don't do what you need them to do, or conform to your standards, or make good choices is simply that they don't know enough. After all, if that's the case, all... | Continue reading
The efficacy of a technology, a shortcut, a medicine, a tool, a method—you get the idea—is directly related to how difficult it is to obtain. Placebos work because our brain picks up where our belief begins. Without some sort of... | Continue reading
There are institutions, professionals and organizations that would like you to believe that you don't have much choice in the matter. They want to take away your agency, because it makes their job easier or their profits higher. But you... | Continue reading
When we join an organization and become part of something, collisions happen. Standards change. Sometimes, these tribal affiliations push us to become better versions of ourselves. We take a long-term view, check our selfish impulses and work hard to meet... | Continue reading
Most of us can agree that picking a great team is one of the best ways to build a successful organization or project.The problem is that we're terrible at it. The NFL Combine is a giant talent show, with a... | Continue reading
We spend a lot of time talking about celebrities and how attractive they are. Paul Newman's blue eyes, how tall is Jake Gyllenhaal, how fast is Usain Bolt... Most of the time, though, our success is based on something we... | Continue reading
Movie reviewers, food critics, the people who write about wine or stereo equipment... they write most of the review before they even encounter the final product. Because, of course, they experience it before (you/they/we) think they do. They've seen the... | Continue reading
Just a few decades ago, there were only three TV channels to watch. Worse, it was pretty common for people to continue watching the same channel all night, rather than checking out the two alternatives. The 8 pm lead in... | Continue reading
The first rule is that you follow the rules. That's the mantra of the obedient organization. And there are many of them. You follow these rules, restrictions and systems. Not because they're up-to-date, effective or correct, but because that's what... | Continue reading
If you want a hot shower, you'll need to turn on the hot water a bit before you step inside. It can take a while for the hot water to rise up and clear the cold water from the pipes.... | Continue reading
About eight months ago, I launched a project to publish a giant book, an 800 page, 17 pound illustrated collection of the last four years of my work. We called it What Does It Sound Like When You Change Your... | Continue reading
Organizations that want to increase their metrics either invest in: Creating more value for their customers, or Doing just enough to keep going, but for less effort and money. During their first decade, the core group at Amazon regularly amazed... | Continue reading
Of course, when you hear this, it's almost never true. It's just a nice way of saying you didn't get the job. But, in a project-oriented universe, smart organizations work hard to make sure they've got a file of essential... | Continue reading
That's most of us. You can work really hard to get a little more talented. And you can also work to get a little less lazy. It turns out that getting less lazy, more brave—more clear about your fears, your... | Continue reading