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 …
Culture
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, …
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 …
Conversations with David Foster Wallace
Five years ago today David Foster Wallace committed suicide. His May 21st, 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class of Kenyon college, This is Water, is one of greatest of all time. Offering a …
The Remarkable Way We Gain Insights
In 1936 Graham Wallas, co-founder of the London School of Economics, published The Art of Thought, outlining the four stages of the creative process. This pre-dates, by at least a decade, James …
Peter Bevelin: A Few Lessons From Sherlock Holmes
Peter Bevelin‘s first book, Seeking Wisdom from Darwin to Munger, is one of the best books you’ve probably never heard of. He’s just released another book, A Few Lessons from …
Education is a Priceless Opportunity to Furnish Your Mind and Enrich Your Life
The more I dig into Ogilvy the more curious I get. How could you not fall in love with a man who wrote, “We have a habit of divine discontent with our performance. It is an antidote to …
How You Climb A Mountain Is More Important Than Reaching The Top
Two examples from Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s book, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, demonstrating that process is more important than results. Focus on …
66 Personal Development Habits For Smart People
Steve Pavlina’s book, Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth, offers an interesting look at self-improvement. “Perception is the most basic aspect …
Richard Feynman’s Love Letter to His Wife, Sixteen Months After Her Death
Richard Feynman was an amazing character mastering physics, thinking, life, and as we shall soon see, love. Richard and Arline Greenbaum were soul mates. They were a perfect symbiotic pair, each …
34 Insights From Nassim Taleb
Nassim Taleb, the author of The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder with 34 insights from his facebook account: The artificial gives us hangovers, the natural inverse-hangovers. …
The Hidden Power of Wisdom That Never Expires
The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence, a book by Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658), offers three hundred aphorisms for understanding the world and creating advantageous divergence. Most of …
Peak Listening — A Simple Trick You Can Apply Today
I thought this excerpt from The Plateau Effect: Getting from Stuck to Success was worth thinking about. If you try to improve your listening skills, you’ll notice a lot of discussion about “listening …
Marshall McLuhan: Old Versus New Assumptions
Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), for those unfamiliar with him, rocketed from an unknown academic to rockstar with the publication of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man in 1964. The core of the …
Elements of Effective Thinking
Do you want to come up with more imaginative ideas? Do you stumble with complicated problems? Do you want to find new ways to confront challenges? Of course, you do. So do I. But when is the last time …
The Fragilista
They think that the reasons for something are immediately accessible to them, even if they have no clue. No matter how complex or difficult, no problem results in an “I don’t know.” …