Reading Time: 2 min Years ago, I had a Motorola phone that came with a windshield mount that you could use for navigation. This was in the very early days of Google Maps having that support, and the mount held the phone in a landscape position, presumably to resemble GPS units of the time. When I got my next […]
General
Social norms versus market norms
Reading Time: 2 min There’s a weird psychological phenomenon where humans are willing to do things for free (“social norms”) but may turn away if you try to pay them for it (“market norms”). One of the most famous examples of that was Uri Gneezy’s story of the Israeli daycare center. You can read more about it from this […]
Boundaries can create freedom
Reading Time: < 1 min Boundaries can feel like a hinderance, and they often are, but they can bring freedom with them if you see the in the right light. Last year I shared about the show “The 100”, and how I wished they had stayed inside of their initial boundaries instead of veering off into strange and unbelievable scenarios. […]
The maddening ambiguity of upstream efforts
Reading Time: 3 min For years, I’ve noticed an issue that arises when something comes along that can save many lives, but may cost a few in the process. Here are two examples. When self-driving cars become the norm, we’ll likely save 30,000 lives per year that would have otherwise died in car accidents. However, it’s also likely the […]
A lot of work for a little light
Reading Time: 2 min How much time do you need to work in order to have light in your house for one hour? It’s not something I’ve really thought about before, but a long quote from the book “Enlightenment Now” put it in very interesting terms. “A Babylonian in 1750 BCE would have had to labor fifty hours to […]
Your oncologist doesn’t need to be a cancer survivor
Reading Time: < 1 min In many types of businesses, it’s helpful when the owner has gone through what their customers are facing. I shared a few years ago how that can work well, focused on Rory Vaden’s popular idea of “you’re most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were“. However, there are a lot of cases where […]
Higher standards can make things look worse
Reading Time: 2 min As you improve some parts of your life it can make other parts of your life seem worse, even if they’re improving as well. As I shared last year, the world is in far better shape than you might realize, and it just seems bad in comparison to perfect. In his book “Enlightenment Now“, author […]
The Sunday Summary: Long to-do lists, clear speaking, deep notes, and automatic golfing
Reading Time: 2 min In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, June 12: If you finish your to-do list, that’s problematicI’m a big advocate of getting things complete, like consistently hitting inbox zero, but your to-do list should always […]
Awareness of your shortcomings doesn’t excuse them
Reading Time: < 1 min We all have shortcomings in our lives, and it’s important to be aware of what they are. However, self-awareness doesn’t excuse them and you should be working to smooth out your rough places. On a recent episode of Adam Grant’s “Rethinking” podcast, he had Brené Brown and Simon Sinek on to talk about leadership kills. […]
Don’t choose outrage
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 […]