Ursula K. Le Guin on The Human Spirit
In her acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation’s 2014 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, Ursula K. Le Guin offered this soul-touching look at humanity. I think hard …
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Sifting the Essential from the Non-Essential
The most powerful skill we’re never taught is deciding what to ignore. Someone who can concentrate on what truly matters will achieve more than someone who can’t. When everything seems …
Learned Helplessness
“The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away it can only be forgotten.” That Sounds like something Victor Frankel would say. However, it’s Greg McKeown in …
Albert Einstein to Marie Curie: Haters Gonna Hate
“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” — Marie Curie *** “Few persons contributed more to the general welfare of mankind and to the advancement of science …
Best Books for Investors: A Short Shelf
I’ve already outlined 12 books the sophisticated investor should read. Now Jason Zweig, Knowledge Project Guest and author of Your Money and Your Brain, chimes in with the books he recommends …
Giving up Your Best Loved Ideas and Starting Over
“Any year that passes in which you don’t destroy one of your best-loved ideas is a wasted year,” says Charlie Munger. If only it were that easy. It’s mentally hard to come to an opinion and even …
Marie Kondo: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
Tidying and organizing our homes can make a huge difference to our happiness and productivity. The Japanese art of decluttering focuses on the philosophical side of decluttering, while also offering …
Patagonia: The Art of Telling a Beautiful Story
The Patagonia video below is a reminder that things can be built to last, that we don’t need to buy more than we need, and that we can celebrate the old. It’s also a great reminder that …
Innovation: The Attacker’s Advantage
Innovation isn’t a single act, it’s an ongoing process of battling against what’s already established. Change is often not noticeable until it’s too late. The attacker’s advantage is the ability to …
The Difference Between Losing and Being Beaten
Not every time you lose, are you beaten. And not every time you win, did you win. There is a difference between losing and being beaten, and it comes down to you. From Essentialism: The Disciplined …
The Surprising Books That Billionaires, Chess Prodigies, Performance Coaches, and Bestselling Authors Recommend
One question Tim Ferriss, the author of The Four Hour Workweek, asks people on his podcast is “What book have you gifted most often to others, and why?” This is one of my favorite parts of the show. …
Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story
“Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty.” — William Archer Joan Didion famously remarked that “We tell ourselves stories to live.” She was right. The business has become a story …
The Powerful Predictor Behind Successful Relationships
Relationships are a major component of our health and happiness, so it’s worth paying attention to how we can improve them. In this post, we cover one of the most significant predictors of …
Books for Schools That Need Them
This might surprise you but I was never a big reader as a kid. In fact, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a book. This lasted all the way to university. While never lazy, I was ignorant to the …
Charles Darwin — Natural Selection was like Confessing a Murder
On this day in 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published. In Letters of Note we find an interesting letter from him to Joseph Hooker 15 years before what would later be …
Eight Ways to Say No With Grace and Style
In a world of more requests than we can possibly fulfill, learning how to say no with grace and style is a skill we all need. We should be saying no more than we say yes, although the opposite is …