Vincent van Gogh on the Two Types of Idlers
The anthology Ever Yours: The Essential Letters, contains 265 of Vincent van Gogh’s letters, which is nearly a third of all the surviving letters he penned. In a long and winding letter to his brother …
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Remember Not to Trust Your Memory
Memories are the stories that we tell ourselves about the past. Sometimes they adjust and leave things out. In an interesting passage in Think: Why You Should Question Everything, Guy P. Harrison …
Frederick W. Taylor: Time Management Skills
“There is no question that the tendency of the average man (in all walks of life) is toward working at a slow, easy gait, and that it is only after a good deal of thought and observation on his …
The Difference Between Good And Bad Organizations
I’ll elaborate on this below but here are the contrasts between good organizations and bad ones. Which one do you work for? In good organizations people can focus on the work and not office …
The Books That Influenced Edward O. Wilson
Too often life gets in the way of reading and thinking. Rarely are we given a chance to look back at what influenced our thinking. Sometimes these are small fragments — words, thoughts, marginalia, …
How Play Enriches Our Creative Capacity
“Play doesn’t just help us to explore what is essential. It is essential in and of itself.” — Greg McKeown *** The value of playing cannot be over-stated. From Einstein and Seneca to Steve …
Elon Musk on How To Build Knowledge
Elon Musk recently did an AMA on reddit. Here are three question-and-response pairs that I enjoyed, including how to build knowledge. He knows how to say I don’t know. Previously, you’ve …
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
Two years ago today, internet activist Aaron Swartz took his own life. At the time, Swartz was in the midst of being prosecuted for downloading academic journal articles. While 27 at the time of his …
Vincent van Gogh on How To Live
Van Gogh didn’t become popular until shortly after his death. To this day it’s unclear whether his letters drove the initial interest in his art. The anthology Ever Yours: The Essential …
The Necessity of Marginalia
Francis Bacon once remarked, “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Reading and writing often go hand in hand. Reading is not a passive skill …
What’s Accomplished in Conversation?
What is a conversation? A simple question that’s difficult to answer. We think we know until we try to explain it to someone else. In The Domestication of Language, Daniel Cloud explores the …
Richard Feynman: The Difference Between Knowing the Name of Something and Knowing Something
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was no ordinary genius. He believed that “the world is much more interesting than any one discipline.” His explanations — on why questions, why trains stay on the tracks as …
Bruce Lee on Self Regulation versus External Regulation
Bruce Lee the philosopher brought us some insightful comments on self-actualization. Now he’s back with more goodness. In Bruce Lee: Artist of Life, Lee talks about the curative power of …
Bruce Lee on Self-Actualization
Recently on Reddit, Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon, did an ask me anything. One of the questions caught my attention: … of all your father’s philosophies, which do you feel we can all …
The Ghost of Christmas Past: A Look At the History of Christmas
Christmas, as a festival, has changed a lot throughout history, with many of its core modern traditions being more recent than we think or of surprising origin. Historically, Christmas was often a …
The Relationship Between Design and Planning
While I’m not all that interested in military doctrine and tactics in and of themselves, I am interested in complex systems, how the weak win wars, and the lessons military leaders offer (for …