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When Things Go Wrong: The Warren Buffett Way to Handle Problems

“Get it right, get it fast, get it out, get it over.” *** In an interview with Jeff Cunningham, Warren Buffett hits on two principles that elude most of us. Interviewer: I was reading a …

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Elon Musk: A Framework for Thinking

Elon Musk has two frameworks I use all the time. The first is the algorithm, which helps you solve problems. The second is his framework for thinking, which he outlines below: I do think there is a …

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Ray Dalio: Open-Mindedness And The Power of Not Knowing

Ray Dalio, founder of the investment firm Bridgewater Associates (and guest on The Knowledge Project), offers a prime example of what a learning organization looks like in the best book I’ve ever read …

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Improving Your Luck

It isn’t enough to be good. You need luck. We tend to think that smart people make good decisions and stupid people make bad decisions and that luck plays very little role. That is until …

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The Mind’s Search Algorithm: Sorting Mental Models

Mental models are tools for the mind. In his talk: Academic Economics: Strengths and Weaknesses, after Considering Interdisciplinary Needs, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, in 2003, …

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Bruce Lee: The Four Basic Philosophical Approaches

As found in Bruce Lee: Artist of Life, which provides unique insight into the mind of Bruce Lee through his private letters and writing. 1. Aboutism keeps out any emotional responses or other genuine …

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Seuss-isms: A Guide to Life for Those Just Starting Out and Those Already on Their Way

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was the famous children’s book author. He was also a philosopher. Seuss-isms! A Guide to Life for Those Just Starting Out…and Those Already …

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Wired for Culture

What makes us human? In part, argues evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel in Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind, language is one of the keys to our evolutionary success, especially in …

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Thorstein Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class

Ahh leisure or as some call it, the art and science of doing nothing. It’s something we all want and yet rarely have. Our modern workplace culture prides itself on filling every one of our …

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Developing a Mental Framework for Effective Thinking

Becoming a better thinker means understanding the way you think and developing a way of approaching problems that allows you to see things from multiple lenses. These lenses, or mental models, are …

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Vincent van Gogh on Color

In a letter to his brother Theo, dated July 1882, found in Ever Yours: The Essential Letters, Vincent van Gogh describes how the simple few fundamentals combine into nearly endless permutations. …

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Produce More by Removing More: The Disciplined Pursuit of Essentialism

Aristotle talked about three kinds of work: theoretical, practical, and poetical. The first searches for truth. The second is practical with an objective around action. The third, however, is lost in …

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The Tension Created By Stretch Goals

It’s one thing to set big stretch goals. It’s another thing entirely to acknowledge the tension and incentives they create within an organization. Charlie Munger, speaking at the 2000 …

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Carol Dweck: A Summary of Growth and Fixed Mindsets

There are two main mindsets we can navigate life with: growth and fixed. Having a growth mindset is essential for success. In this post, we explore how to develop the right mindset for improving your …

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Andy Warhol on Beauty

“I’ve never met a person I couldn’t call a beauty,” Andy Warhol writes in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again): Every person has beauty at some point in …

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What A Rembrandt Can Teach you about Software and Programmers

A thoughtful passage by David Gelernter in Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox…How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean on how looking at a Rembrandt can teach us …

Continue readingWhat A Rembrandt Can Teach you about Software and Programmers
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