Betterment

Once life gets busy, it’s sort of inevitable that we begin to sort the work to be done. And the most natural sort is to focus on the urgent. After all, if that plate is about to break, it&#82…

This quote pretty much sums up what happens to successful people as they grow older. They lose the ability to risk it all. The more successful they are, the more they want to protect what they have…

What’s the best speed to drive? I was caught in a snowstorm the other day. Visibility was low, so I was going about 25 mph. Someone passed me on the highway, doing 30. Not 55 or 75, but fast …

Somebody just gave the 31st upvote to my answer to the Quora question “What do you regret as you get older?” So I thought it might be worth repeating. Here’s a short list: Not learning …

If you’re the client or the boss, it’s possible that someone is going to create creative work for you. Sooner or later, you’ll get something that doesn’t work. You might wan…

This is not a real word, but it’s useful nonetheless. When we default to doing what we did without examining our options, we’re ‘usualing.’ It’s a helpful way to save …

This is a complicated promise. It’s about commitment and connection and most of all, time. If we’re saying that we’ll do what’s in our short-term interest and convenient, th…

Have you ever noticed how some of the best ideas come from spite? Take potato chips. As the story goes, they were born from a chef’s frustration.  A

This was an article sent to 512 Pixels members last month. Learn more about membership here. At the end of every year, I publish a photo on Instagram cataloging the Field Notes notebooks I used over the previous 12 months. Here is the most recent picture: Every year, I get questions about this. I wrote a bit about […]

Training should not just be about presenting material. Trainers need to anticipate where people can get confused and then skillfully introduce contrast sets to foster expertise.

Process Design DOWNLOAD A GUIDE TO THE TOOL Chaordic Stepping Stones (English) Chaordic Stepping Stones (Spanish) Chaordic Stepping Stones (Japanese) DOWNLOAD A COMPREHENSIVE WORKBOOK Chaordic Step…

Working too hard can backfire on you, but there are other paths to office stardom

The knowledge of a carpenter is in his hands. The apprentice must work with his own to discover it. Here is some terrible advice: “If you can't explain it to a 6-year-old, you don't understand it yourself.”

Gain knowledge about the five hazardous attitudes in aviation and ways to recognize and manage them for flight safety.

Stop having boring status updates that everyone hates and start having career-changing conversations!

This takes guts, and hustlers are afraid to do so. Thirty years ago, when the avalanche of email spam was on the horizon, I proposed that any commercial email should have a $ in the subject line. A…

I won’t walk away. I won’t ease any of the constraints. I won’t forgive. I won’t get a coach. It’s personal. I don’t want to talk about it. I will think about th…

Outrage fatigue can wear us down—but we can take care of ourselves in an onslaught of overwhelming news.

Romantic couples and business partnerships share more similarities than you think.

I create a lot but never run out of ideas. Part of my secret is the note-taking system I use.

My favorite presentation at XOXO this year was Ed Yong’s talk about the pandemic, journalism, his work over the past four years, and the personal toll that all those things took on him. I just watched the entire thing again, riveted the whole time

When there’s an overwhelming amount of incoming, it’s possible to bear down and simply get through it. 200 emails because of a product launch. A project goes viral and there are a lot o…

Work on climate problems is actually about efficiency. It’s easier and cheaper to avoid sloppiness and side effects than it is to clean the mess up later. And energy sources that don’t …

What I found in the mire

If you’re looking to lose some weight this year, you’ve likely made plans to reduce your calories and hit the gym hard. While calorie reduction and physical exercise are essential components of weight loss, there’s another crucial factor that often gets overlooked: non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. NEAT is all the calories you burn daily […]

It’s called the Theseus Paradox. According to Plutarch, there’s an Ancient Greek story about a 30-oar ship belonging to King Theseus, which by standards

A few thoughts on the mechanical pencil I recently switched to.

Align everything that you do so that it is an act of service to your future self.