Farnam Street
Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
The first chapter in Seymour Schulich‘s book, Get Smarter: Life and Business Lessons, offers a decision tool that adds to the simple pro-and-con list that many of us have used to make decisions. …
Checklists establish a higher level of baseline performance. *** A helpful reminder from Atul Gawande in The Checklist Manifesto: In a complex environment, experts are up against two main …
The excerpt is from this version online, although if you’re going to read it, get the Hayes translation. Our mental powers should enable us to perceive the swiftness with which all things vanish …
“People should fall in love with their eyes closed. Just close your eyes. Don’t look.” *** Pop art luminary Andy Warhol had a lot to say about love and sex. As found in the wonderful …
Software memory is increasingly doing more and more for us. Yet it lacks one important element of human memory: emotion. This thought-provoking excerpt comes from Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software …
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 …
“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 …
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, …
“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 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 …
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 …
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 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 (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 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 …
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 …