Reading Time: < 1 min When looking at the days ahead, none of us know for sure what’s going to happen. We can treat that uncertainly with curiosity or with worry. In the book Four Thousand Weeks, the author Oliver Burkeman encourages us to choose curiosity, saying: Not knowing what’s coming next—which is the situation you’re always in, with regard […]
Learning
It’s an open book test
Reading Time: < 1 min While I spend a decent amount of time trying to memorize various things using tools like Anki, for the most part rote memorization is unnecessary. Learning systems and frameworks for understanding are vitally important, but for most everything else you can just look it up when you need it. Similar to the “you won’t be […]
Comfort and growth come from different people
Reading Time: < 1 min There are generally two kinds of people in your life: those that comfort you, and those that help you grow. You may get lucky and have a few friends that are both, but most people fall into one group or another. Frank A. Clark put it this way: “We find comfort among those who agree […]
Learning fast versus learning deep
Reading Time: < 1 min When you’re trying to learn something new, you can choose to learn it fast or learn it deep, and there is a place for both. For example, I’m using Anki right now to work on my knowledge of the Periodic Table. I just want a better cursory understanding of it (“Au” = “Gold”, for example) […]
Using 2022 to get better, not great
Reading Time: 2 min I recently saw a quote from the user “Kinsey” on Deepstash that said: “A New Year’s resolution shouldn’t be at becoming great at something but at becoming better or happier.“ I generally don’t set “New Year’s resolutions”, but there are some things that I’m working toward in 2022. While there are some bigger goals I’m […]
Quick looks at great books
Reading Time: < 1 min Just over a year ago I told you about how I used Blinkist to “read” popular books in about 20 minutes. It’s certainly no replacement for a proper reading of the book, but it’s a great way to get an idea of what it’s about and then perhaps dig into the full book later. If […]
What we want to see versus what we expect to see
Reading Time: < 1 min Uncovering the truth can be a tricky thing to do. Not only do you have to figure out who to trust and which sources to believe, but our own brains can often conspire against us. According to Adam Grant in his book “Think Again“, we have two biases that tend to drive poor judgement: Confirmation […]
Which is the right tool?
Reading Time: < 1 min I talk a good bit about various digital tools on here, like my recent post about Pipedrive. At times I probably play with tools more than I should (testing tools instead of doing work), but in a lot of cases it can really pay off. For example, I posted 12 years ago about Gmail’s “Send […]
Trust versus expectations
Reading Time: 2 min I’ve always considered myself a trusting person, perhaps to a fault. Trust is good, but unearned trust can lead to trouble. That’s why I was surprised a few weeks ago when our team was working through some DISC testing that it showed I wasn’t particularly trusting. Similar to the Enneagram (or any kind of personality […]
Your opinions require logic when spoken aloud
Reading Time: < 1 min Those of us living in the United States are protected by the wonderful First Amendment, which provides us with freedom of speech. Businesses like Facebook can still block you if they want (thanks to their First Amendment rights), but you’re free to publicly say most anything you want (yes, including yelling “fire” in a crowded […]