General

Reading Time: < 1 min We all know people that view the world through different lenses. Some see the positive side in everything, others see the negative. While some of that is due to circumstance (you lost a job, lost a spouse, etc), most of it is just a choice. Kevin Kelly suggests in his latest book that you should […]

Reading Time: 2 min If you read much from the stoics (which I’ve done a bit, but not a lot so far), they tend to focus on a few key concepts. One is to let your decisions be led by logic instead of emotions, but they also push you to take a long world view. I stole part of […]

Reading Time: 2 min Some of us are born into more privilege than others. This could be related to race or gender, but it also can be greatly affected simply by who your parents are. You can certainly see this if someone is child of Bill Gates or Elon Musk, but I see it happen on much smaller scales […]

Reading Time: 2 min Defining yourself based on your opinions can make for a tough life, because then changing your opinions (which you should probably do from time to time) becomes much more difficult to do. In his book “Excellent Advice for Living“, Kevin Kelly says: Don’t define yourself by your opinions because then you can’t change your mind. […]

Reading Time: 2 min I recently finished reading the book “Magic Words” by Jonah Berger, and he had some great insights in there. I have other posts to share later, but one big thing that hit me was taking the time to sort out the things you “can’t” do and the things you “don’t” do. In Jonah’s words: Having […]

Reading Time: < 1 min Our company will turn 14 later this year, and it’s a far different company than I might have predicted 14 years ago. I didn’t have a specific plan in mind when we started, so I’ve just been enjoying the journey and I’m very happy with how things have turned out. In Adam Savage’s book “Every […]

Reading Time: 2 min We were recently hiring for a new position at GreenMellen and we interviewed a handful of folks. We’re very thrilled with how it ended up (Amanda is great!), but I noticed something odd along the way. After sorting through the initial pile of resumes, we really had four good candidates, and any of them could […]

Reading Time: < 1 min A common refrain I’ve heard over the past few years is that “people need to stay more informed” with the news, and that’s likely true. However, studies show that people who focus on news too much end up with increasingly distorted views. From her excellent book “I Never Thought of It That Way“, author Mónica […]

Reading Time: < 1 min If you can remain calm in a pressure-filled situation, that calm can be contagious and help everyone stay more level-headed. While some examples in there are about slowing down (walk briskly through your house to a crying child rather than run), sometimes staying calm can actually make you faster. Jeopardy When James Holzhauer went on […]

Reading Time: < 1 min Standing behind the main motivation for a cause can be a great thing, but many times there is a secondary motivation that can be just as effective for some people. In her book “Unsubscribe“, author Jocelyn Glei puts it like this: “In other words, if you’re not motivated to be nice because of the good […]