Richard Feynman Explains How Rubber Bands Work
Richard Feynman has a gift for taking something that seems pretty simple and turning it into something beautifully complex. Watch as he explains how something as simple as rubber bands work.
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Improve Your Life by Paying Attention
“Few things are as important to your quality of life as your choices about how to spend the precious resource of your free time,” writes Winifred Gallagher, author of the book Rapt: …
Napoleon’s Fatal Mistake
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” — Victor Hugo France of the 1790s provided an ideal place for Napoleon Bonaparte’s unlikely rise to the top. Paul Johnson …
Free Radicals: Don’t Follow your Passion, Cultivate it
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” — Seneca *** We’ve entered a new phase of self-invention. Thanks in large part to technology and the pace of the modern …
Epictetus on How to Live and the Ability to Choose
The Enchiridion (“The Manual”) is a short read on stoic advice for living. Epictetus’ practical precepts might change your life. What’s in our control and what’s not Some …
F. Scott Fitzgerald: A List of Things to Worry About and Things to Not Worry About
From F. Scott Fitzgerald—famous author of The Great Gatsby—comes this letter to his daughter Frances Scott Fitzgerald. Offering a hint of his parenting, the letter from August 1933 concludes with a …
Robert Greene: The Two Kinds of Failure and Why They Matter
“It is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt. You will fail to question the element of luck.” *** This excellent passage from Robert Greene‘s book Mastery …
Jeff Bezos Had His Top Execs Read These Three Books
In an interview that aired on CNBC1, Jeff Bezos shared some of the details about books that he’s shared with Amazon’s top executives. These books, it turns out, are frameworks for shaping …
Evolution is Blind but We’re Not
The first thing we do is try to figure out what went wrong. When people in organizations evaluate poor outcomes, determining what went wrong, and why is one of the first steps. Once we have a cause, …
11 Simple Rules For Getting Along With Others
These 11 simple rules, first presented by Dave Packard at HP’s second annual management conference in 1958 are timeless. Not only will they help you improve your ability to work with others but …
Ancient Wisdom For Lifelong Health
I was excited to read John Durant’s book The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health. Whether or not you’re interested in paleo, it’s full of interesting nuggets. …
The Seven Characteristics of Effective Creative Teams
All of the work I’ve been doing looking at how creativity and insight emerge—from Graham Wallas Stages of Control to a technique for producing ideas and Gary Klein’s triple path—focuses on …
Elmore Leonard: 10 Rules Of Writing
Elmore Leonard, crime-fiction writer, died on August 20th at the age of 87. In July 2001, Leonard wrote a short piece for The New York Times on his ten rules for writing that was eventually adapted …
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
“The whole thing was basically an experiment,” Richard Feynman said late in his career, looking back on the origins of his lectures. The experiment turned out to be hugely successful, …
20 Aphorisms from Nassim Taleb
The Bed of Procrustes, the title of Nassim Taleb‘s book of aphorisms, takes its title from Greek Mythology. Procrustes (“the stretcher”) owned a small estate along the sacred way …
Why Lazy and Smart People Make the Best Leaders
“You’re looking for three things, generally, in a person,” says Warren Buffett. “Intelligence, energy, and integrity. And if they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two.” …