articles

Blogs have seen a renaissance in the last few years. They went from online public journals, to near-extinction by the hand of social networks, up to where they are now: well-written essays covering a wide variety of complex topics. They enhance mental clarity, enable a structured way to share ideas, and allow for like-minded people to connect. Technologists and coders have been blogging like this since ages. But today it’s getting serious traction.

Optimism requires believing in an unknown, unproven future

Hey, you. You're doing great. Click here to read this on the web. Source: ATJ's bulletin board Welcome to the 112th issue of Total Annarchy, a…

Why digital Daily Notes don't work (for everyone) - Powered by Obsidian Publish.

There’s been a lot of critique going on lately about notes. My friend Rick and I talked about it a few months ago, and I’d been copying and pasting the links down in an Airtable record (Haha—not kidding though). I’ve written 1,000+ notecards at this point, at least 200 of which made it into this […]

Steven Johnson essay on new computer-based tools that can integrate research for writers within personal library of files; describes features and results of his personal experience; says new tools allow creative collaboration between writer's intelligence and software's search and retrieval capabilities; says advent of word processors changed way writers wrote and new software will change way they think; photo (M)

Geniuses of the past were aristocratically tutored

I felt like I somehow needed fame. In retrospect, there was a lot of self-loathing from tough childhood experiences, and I desperately hoped that love from without (i.e., from masses of other peopl…

If you care about a creative practice, my guess is that you’ve already seen Peter Jackson’s new Beatles movie. If not, go check it out. It’s a miracle that the movie exists at all…

​ ​ ​ Welcome back to The Imperfectionist, and my apologies for the brief unplanned hiatus! (Sending out an email to say I wouldn't be sending an email seemed pointless and anno...

Some time ago my friend (and co-investor in Clio , Jobber and Unbounce ) Boris Wertz wrote a great blog post about "the only 2 ways to bui...

Have you ever wondered why successful people continue to be successful? I address why those with early advantages are able to maintain them over time.

Stanford researchers found that walking boosts creative inspiration. They examined creativity levels of people while they walked versus while they sat. A person's creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when walking.

A new journaling tactic that immediately kills procrastination and boosts creative insights. 间歇日记，间隙日记，intermittent note，daily note

Interstitial journaling is a productivity technique created by Tony Stubblebine. To my knowledge, it’s the simplest way to combine note-taking, tasks, and time tracking in one unique workflow. You don’t need any special software, but Roam Research makes it even easier to do thanks to the flexibility of daily notes. Interstitial journaling has had an ... Read more

Marketers love to price below a round number (e.g., $49.95). But these "charm prices" aren't always effective.

Last week, Twitter accepted Elon Musk's acquisition bid. The media response was intense. For a few days, it was seemingly the biggest story in the world: every news outlet rushed out multiple takes; commentators fretted and gloated; CNN, for a while, even posted live updates on the deal on their homepage. As I argue in

When I was in college I took two intro economics courses: macroeconomics and microeconomics. Macro was full of theories like “low unemployment causes inflation” that never quite stood u…

The chaos monkey is a smart piece of software and a brilliant idea from engineers at Netflix. The chaos monkey deliberately switches off servers in live environments at random. It takes the pain of disappearing servers and brings that pain forward. By deliberately sabotaging their own systems it created strong alignment for the team to design-in redundancy and automation for the necessary resiliency and reliability in the face of random failures. Training for this randomness helps make stronger, more resilient and fault-tolerant systems and software and keeps your movie streaming so you can keep chilling without interruptions. The chaos monkey is a great metaphor and trigger to actively work on what life could throw at your system before it happens. More monkey inspiration for writing and for bananas.

Pushing yourself vs. letting things come to you—the eternal dilemma

Pitching Nirvana

Thanks to everyone for the amazing response to the Times essay and my subsequent post. Clearly, there is some serious pent-up interest out there in these kinds of tools. I’ve received so many…

This week’s edition of the Times Book Review features an essay that I wrote about the research system I’ve used for the past few years: a tool for exploring the couple thousand notes and quotations…

If you view knowledge for its utility, you will never fully appreciate it.

The definitive guide to the dollar cost averaging vs. lump sum decision.

Untangling my task and project management approach, at last.