The Wisdom of Crowds and The Expert Squeeze
As networks harness the wisdom of crowds, the ability of experts to add value in their predictions is steadily declining. This is the expert squeeze. *** In Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of …
Thought and Opinion
Why it’s easier to describe “what makes us happy” than answer the question “what is happiness?”
A passage from Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide explaining, in part, why it’s easier to describe what makes us happy than answer the question what is happiness. I can say that I’m happy …
Carl Sagan: “The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.”
Carl Sagan’s timeless and humbling Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, based on the photograph above. Here’s an excerpt: Look again at that dot. That’s here. …
Reading a Book is a Conversation Between You and the Author
Marginalia—those tiny notes in the side margins of a book—is a contentious subject. Some people view this as a necessary part of the reading process. Others view it as sacrilege. This beautiful …
Roald Dahl’s Heartbreaking Letter About Losing his Daughter in 1962
Roald Dahl, the beloved author of my personal favorites Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG, lost his eldest daughter, Olivia, to measles in the early 60s. It wasn’t until 1988, …
Elon Musk on How to Tell if People Are Lying
Elon Musk shares a valuable insight on evaluating job applicants: asking them to explain their thinking at multiple levels helps him determine if they worked on the problem themselves or they’re …
How Warren Buffett Keeps up with a Torrent of Information
A telling excerpt from an interview of Warren Buffett (below) on the value of reading. Seems like he’s taking the opposite approach to Nassim Taleb in some ways. Interviewer: How do you keep up …
Nassim Taleb: How to Not be a Sucker From the Past
The fact that new information exists about the past in general means that we have an incomplete roadmap about history. There is a necessary fallibility … if you will. In The Black Swan, Nassim …
The Last Thing We Need Right Now is a Vision Statement
In this excerpt from Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, Louis V. Gerstner Jr. says something I wish tech companies would heed. I said something at the press conference that turned out to be the …
David Foster Wallace on The Moral Clarity of the Immature
David Foster Wallace, who brought us gems such as This is Water and insights into ambition and perfectionism, was the guest editor of the 2007 edition of Best American Essays. His introduction …
Six Common Strategy Traps
Strategy could be the most over-used word since leadership. How many strategies can one organization have? A lot of people say “strategy” when they really mean a goal or objective. This is …
When Things Go Wrong: The Warren Buffett Way to Handle Problems
“Get it right, get it fast, get it out, get it over.” *** In an interview with Jeff Cunningham, Warren Buffett hits on two principles that elude most of us. Interviewer: I was reading a …
Elon Musk: A Framework for Thinking
In this brief video, Elon Musk, who previously brought us how to build knowledge and 12 book recommendations, talks about a framework for thinking. I do think there is a good framework for thinking. …
Ray Dalio: Open-Mindedness And The Power of Not Knowing
Ray Dalio, founder of the investment firm Bridgewater Associates (and guest on The Knowledge Project), offers a prime example of what a learning organization looks like in the best book I’ve ever read …
The Mind’s Search Algorithm: Sorting Mental Models
Mental models are tools for the mind. In his talk: Academic Economics: Strengths and Weaknesses, after Considering Interdisciplinary Needs, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, in 2003, …
What A Rembrandt Can Teach you about Software and Programmers
A thoughtful passage by David Gelernter in Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox…How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean on how looking at a Rembrandt can teach us …