The Keys to Happiness
“The mental construction of our daily activities, more than the activity itself, defines our reality.” What if the formula for success is backwards. We’re told that if we work hard, …
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How to be 10% Happier
Think you had a bad day? Dan Harris had a panic attack on live TV in front of millions of people. Something had to change. He knew it. Almost immediately after the panic attack on the air he was …
Brené Brown on The Difference Between Guilt and Shame
Brené Brown studies vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. She’s a researcher-storyteller and author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, …
No Risky Chances: The Conversation That Matters Most
[quote]Lacking a coherent view of how people might live successfully all the way to the very end, we have allowed our fates to be controlled by medicine, technology, and strangers.[/quote] Atul …
To Give or Take? The Surprising Science Behind Success
“The principle of give and take; that is diplomacy—give one and take ten” — Mark Twain Was Twain right? It certainly seems so. The world is full of people who operate with that fuel. For them …
What Book has the Most Page-for-Page Wisdom?
Here is what happened when I asked twenty-seven thousand people “What is page for page the book with the most wisdom you’ve ever read?” My thinking was, and still is, that you need …
Google and Combinatorial Innovation
In his new book, How Google Works, Eric Schmidt argues that “we are entering … a new period of combinatorial innovation.” This happens, he says, when “there is a great availability of different …
Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie, author of Americanah, one of The New York Times’s ten best books of the year, tells the story of …
E.B. White’s Beautiful Letter to Someone Who Lost Faith in Humanity
In March of 1973, a person sent a letter to E. B. White, the author of greats such as Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, expressing his bleak hope for humanity. White’s beautiful reply, …
David Foster Wallace on Argumentative Writing and Nonfiction
In December 2004, Bryan A. Garner, who had already struck up a friendship with David Foster Wallace, started interviewing state and federal judges as well as a few key writers. With over a hundred …
10 Principles to Live an Antifragile Life
It’s one thing to live and another to live your life in a way that is antifragile. What is Antifragility Author Nassim Taleb says defines the term antifragile this way: Some things benefit from …
Win Without Fighting: 10 Secrets to Persuasive Communication
Unlock the power of persuasion with these ten golden rules of argument. Arguments are deceptively difficult. We often believe that presenting facts will logically lead others to our conclusions. But …
Edward Hess, Interview No. 6
This interview with Ed Hess is full of amazing insights but I don’t know if you’ll read it because a) it’s long and we live in a world of increasingly short attention spans and b) it’s an actual …
The Glass Cage: Automation and US
People have worried about losing their jobs to robots for decades now. But how is growing automation really going to change us? Let’s take a look at the limitations of automation and the uniquely …
The Art of Roughhousing
“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled …
Marcel Proust: Imminent Death Reminds us that Life is Beautiful
In his book, How Proust Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton brings to light a fascinating answer by Marcel Proust to a Parisian newspaper on what we should do in the face of a near-certain death. …