Reading Time: < 1 min I shared a few weeks ago that being calm can be contagious. If there is a hectic situation, your ability to keep calm will be seen and felt by others, and will hopefully inspire them to do the same. Related is the idea that keeping a cool head is generally more advantageous than simply showing […]
General
Is your decision a one-way door or a two-way door?
Reading Time: < 1 min We face a lot of decisions in life, and putting a framework around them can be helpful. Some decisions need to be carefully thought through, where other decisions only require a moment’s thought. It’s like Chidi’s constant indecision in the show “The Good Place”: An episode of “The Long and The Short Of It” podcast […]
It’s the strong swimmers who drown
Reading Time: < 1 min In some facets of life, focusing on simply being “not stupid” is your best bet. Striving to get ahead can be good in many places, but knowing when to pump the brakes and just keep things on track can save a lot of heartache. Charlie Munger has based much of his investing career on this, […]
Who should you accept criticism from?
Reading Time: < 1 min Whenever you do something in public, from writing to speaking to sports, critics will find you. When should you listen to them and when should you ignore them? In his book “Limitless“, author Jim Kwik makes it really simple: “Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.” There are a lot of people […]
The odds don’t feel right
Reading Time: 2 min There are times in our lives when it feels like something should happen more often than it does, but the math proves that it’s actually on track. For example, the Atlanta Braves made it to the postseason 14 straight times (1991-2005) but only won the World Series once. It feels like if you make it […]
Chance still counts when you win
Reading Time: < 1 min Last summer, I wrote about how luck and chance are two different things. Chance is out of our control. Luck includes a degree of chance, but also is affected by our curiosity and hard work. When something goes wrong, it’s easy to blame chance for it — and you might be right! If you can […]
Say something – or not
Reading Time: < 1 min In the book “Seeking Wisdom“, author Peter Bevelin talks about the misjudgement of “say-something syndrome”, which he describes as: “…feeling a need to say something when we have nothing to say” George Eliot put it similarly, saying: “Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.” If […]
What do you notice?
Reading Time: < 1 min A few weeks ago, Seth Godin wrote about “The things you can’t see“, talking about small everyday items that only some people are able to notice. One example he gave is the alignment of moldings in a house, which is something I almost certainly wouldn’t notice (but a good builder would). That made me think […]
Go headlong into difficulties
Reading Time: < 1 min Facing a challenge is rarely a fun thing to do, but it’s also the place where you can grow the most. By seeing where your shortcomings are, it gives you a much better picture of where you need to put in the work. For example, Michael Jordan failed to make the varsity basketball team during […]
Randomness doesn’t mean equal distribution
Reading Time: 2 min This quote came up in my notes a few days ago, and it felt similar to a post I had recently written about how infinite numbers don’t include everything. If you have a system that generates random output, there is no guarantee that the results will be perfectly distributed. If you output something random 1,000,000 […]