Reading Time: 3 min Our family recently spent a week in New York, and one of those days we spent with Adam Guy of “I Know a Guy” to be our personal tour guide for the day. Him and my wife had talked quite a bit in the weeks leading up (where we want to go, what we’ve already […]
General
Pay attention to what you pay attention to
Reading Time: < 1 min Attention is likely the greatest asset in the world. If you want to sell products, sell ads, lead an organization, or lead a movement, you need people to pay attention to you. There are ways to do it well, and there are ways to do it unethically, but this post is more about watching our […]
The step between an event and a reaction
Reading Time: < 1 min In Daniel Kahneman’s famous book “Thinking, Fast and Slow“, he describes the two types of thinking that we can do: While being slow isn’t always good, us humans tend to go with the “fast” response far too often. In Ward Farnsworth’s “The Practicing Stoic“, he has a similar comparison by explaining how the “slow” system […]
The silence is the question
Reading Time: < 1 min A trait of mine that I continue to work on is to let conversations breathe. I tend to jump in quickly to keep things moving along, to the extent of sometimes trying to finish someone else’s sentence. It’s not good, but it’s getting better. Better still, though, is allowing some silence to exist in a […]
Why am I talking?
Reading Time: < 1 min One of the best things I’ve done over the past few years (though it’s still a work in progress) is to be more quiet during meetings. If I want to open my mouth, I always try to have the thought of “why am I talking?” before I start. A while back, Pete and Jen talked […]
Accept the inevitable
Reading Time: 2 min There are things in this world that we can and should choose to fight against — improving the climate, housing the homeless, and uncovering cures for various diseases. We might not win all of these fights, but they’re good ones to take on. On the other hand, some things are inevitable, mostly related to technology, […]
Cooperation wins, even if you lose every time
Reading Time: 2 min The most famous problem in game theory is called “The Prisoner’s Dilemma“, and you’ve likely seen it play out in game shows over the years. In game shows, it often comes down to the final two players with a secret vote to split the pot or try to take more for themselves, and the logic […]
Character is more than your personality
Reading Time: < 1 min Over the years I’ve seen ones character compared to reputation, personality, and other related areas. Different sources have slightly different takes on what each one means, but I love how Adam Grant separated “character” and “personality” in his book “Hidden Potential“. He had two good thoughts that I really liked. The first one was: “Character […]
That’s a great question
Reading Time: < 1 min When I’m in a group or doing a Q&A after a talk, and someone asks a question I’ll often respond with “that’s a great question” as I begin to unpack it. However, in Michael Port’s book “Steal the Show“, he thinks that’s a very bad idea: Never say, “That’s a great question!” I rarely say […]
Just do it
Reading Time: < 1 min As time goes on, I’m finding it easier and easier to “just do” things rather than considering whether they should be done today or tomorrow. This blog is a good example; I don’t even consider whether I’m going to publish each morning, I just do it. The same goes for studying Anki cards, working on […]