Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change
In New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change, Winifred Gallagher writes: [O]ur fast-paced world invites us to see ourselves in yet another light—this time as nature’s virtuosos of …
Culture
There is No Such Thing as Information Overload
Just as too much junk food can lead to obesity, too much information consumption can lead to stupidity. Clay Johnson’s book, The Information Diet, shows you how to thrive in this information …
Daniel Dennett: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
After reading How to Make Mistakes and How to Criticize with Kindness, a reader sent in a link to this video of Philosopher Daniel Dennett speaking at Google. Dennett is the author of the faboulous …
Daily Routines of Famous Creatives: Artists, Writers, Composers
What can we learn from the working habits of famous writers, artists, and composers? And how did they find time each day to do their work? After reading Mason Currey’s fantastic book, Daily …
30 Lessons For Living
What can we learn from those near the end of their lives about living today? Karl Pillemer wrote 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans to provide us with practical …
Richard Feynman on The Key to Science
“If it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong.” In this video from the 60s, Richard Feynman explains, very simply, the key to science with his timeless wisdom. It is the capacity to be wrong that …
The Antilibrary: The Hidden Value of Unread Books
The legendary Italian writer Umberto Eco had over 50,000 books in his private library. When asked why so many, he had this to say: It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you …
Daniel Dennett: How to Make Mistakes
In Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking, Daniel Dennett, one of the world’s leading philosophers offers a trove of mind-stretching thought experiments, which he calls …
The Tyranny of Email — 10 Tips to Save You
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my habits recently and how they affect me. One thing I’ve placed an increasingly watchful eye on is email. Email seems pervasive in our lives. We check email on …
David Ogilvy 10 Tips on Writing
In 1982, the original “Mad Man” David Ogilvy, sent the following internal memo to all employees of his advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, titled “How to Write.” Via The Unpublished …
The Four Levels of Reading: Improve Skills One Level At A Time
One of the secrets to acquiring knowledge is to read. A lot. My Hero, Charlie Munger, said it best “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t …
Understanding and Diagnosing Problems
We all know one, the Monday morning quarterback. They walk into the meeting room primed and ready for action. Ready that is, to apply the knowledge they know now to decisions of the past. And too …
The Most Productive Change You Can Make In Your Working Habits
In an increasingly interconnected world, finding focus and enabling time to do work is becoming harder and harder. Demands are outstripping our capacity at an alarming rate. It’s time to start …
2013 Summer Reading List — Curated Recommendations For a Curious Mind
I bet you’d like to read more this summer. Wouldn’t we all. Well, stop talking about it and start finding some books already. Here is a curated list of multi-disciplinary books that can …
Philip Roth — One Skill That Every Writer Needs
In his book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Mason Currey explores Philip Roth. Roth is full of insight. His comments on writing, taken from Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker, stuck with me. …
Assertive Inquiry
You might be surprised at what A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble’s former CEO, can teach you about conversations. This excerpt is from his book (kindle edition). In any conversation, …