Dave's Library

Precedents matter. What you do and say early on in a relationship (romantic or business) sets the expectation; hard to change. (via @ramit) — Ben Casnocha (@bencasnocha) October 12, 2015 I made a note of this tweet from Ben Casnocha...

Toys can help children learn to be thankful for what they have.

Have you ever wished you could eradicate the ums and ahs right out of your conversation and especially your public presentations? Turns out those verbal fillers may play an important role in establishing trust, according to this Slate magazine article by Michael Erard: “…’uh’ and ‘um’ don’t deserve

Read up on the top 100 productivity improvement hacks that will give you the ability to crush it like a boss at work, school, and in everyday life!

How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals -- including embracing failure. "The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most," Grant says. "You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones."

When you travel abroad you don't usually go for the college libraries. But if you're visiting Dublin - you totally should.

Battling uphill Sean was battling his boss. And he was losing the war. The first person to talk to me about Sean was Ronit, the HR executive. “In a world that was fair, Sean would win. But he can’t

Within each of us are two selves, suggests David Brooks in this meditative short talk: the self who craves success, who builds a résumé, and the self who seeks connection, community, love -- the values that make for a great eulogy. (Joseph Soloveitchik has called these selves "Adam I" and "Adam II.") Brooks asks: Can we balance these two selves?

Resilience is a set of skills—and psychologists know how you can learn them.

Steve Ko's blog

A Modest Proposal Last month, I wrote an intentionally provocative article for the Harvard Business Review's website. It was titled, "A Modest Proposal:

In an industry where a private office flush with glass plaques and deal mementos is the ultimate sign of success, commercial real estate firm CBRE gambled on a new strategy that hinged on concepts workers tend to hate. Employees seem to love it—but more importantly, clients are begging for it.

[This is an excerpt from The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to creativity] Many of our popular stories of discovery are portrayed as accidents or matters of lu…

You've landed the interview for your perfect job. You're on the phone with a potential new client.

Martin Luther King's last speech

One rainy afternoon a few years ago, I was driving into Seattle for a networking event when my husband called me on my cell. I answered (this was pre-hands-free law) and listened, noting the barely perceptible panic in his voice: something unexpected had come up, and he needed the car for an off-sit