Betterment

You know what they say, your glass is either half empty or half full. In a similar way, starting a new life completely is either having nothing, or it’s a […] More

Build Your Own Business. Experience True Freedom.

John Waters' rollicking commencement speech at The Rhode Island School of Design offered up some good one-liners and a few pearls of wisdom, though phrased, quite naturally, in an irreverent way. Ready for some sage advice on what really counts as wealth?

According to Canva's co-founder and chief product officer, it's critical to balance developers' needs and core product values.

It might only cost $2 in the vending machine, but that can of soda is a complicated battery. It stores the energy of the machines that were used to mine the bauxite, the ship that brought the ore t…

Procrastination I recently decided to start a new side-project. It’s an app for android. I often have ideas for handy little apps — but I only ever shipped a few. Why is that?\nRight after an idea emerges, I immediately start to think about architecture and technical details.\nI will definitely need a database… No self-hosting. I definitely need to host that in the cloud. Maybe on AWS or Azure? Maybe some server-less approach? What kind of databases does AWS provide? … I then waste at least two weeks drilling down the AWS documentation and researching several irrelevant topics like global secondary index or DynamoDB sort keys. Sounds familiar? It usually ends with:\n

Behind the Yellow Tape: Investigating Tech Mishaps

Professional woodworkers rarely have to be reminded to sharpen their tools. Of course they know this. The rest of us, on the other hand, regularly use digital tools we don’t understand, don&#…

In the space of just a few years, I changed my diet, started exercising, began using a productivity system, read several books per month, joined Toastmasters, wrote a journal regularly, began waking up early, tried mediation and much more.

A poignant definition of civilization is all the conveniences, courtesies, standards, insulation and tools that we hardly notice now but that we would miss if they were gone.

The title of this piece is basically the subtext of a growing trend reported in a recent WSJ article, “America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined

using the jorge static site generator to pack a blog anthology as an epub file.

Alright, fellow freelancers, gather ‘round. Today, we’re diving deep into the cesspool of client interactions that make us question our…

You must escape the shallow joy of more

Drowning is devastating, a tragic and painful way to go. So much so that feeling like we’re drowning is a trigger, an overwhelming emotion that causes us to grasp, struggle and leave our best…

Authenticity is for amateurs. We want the surgeon, the broadcaster or the musician to show up fully, as the best version of themselves. We know you might be tired from an overnight shift, and authe…

Every now and then I have days where I just don’t feel like doing a damn thing. The idea of being productive makes my brain hurt. These little funks can be extremely frustrating, especially when there’s a lot I need to accomplish. I haven’t quite figured out why I get hit with these bouts of […]

Learn the manly history of walking and why to take up the daily walk again. Also use walking to solve some of life's problems.

Fancy new build tools come and go, but I think I will stick with using makefiles to orchestrate everyday tasks in my projects.

Bananas are (slightly) radioactive. The banana equivalent dose (BED) is a measurement of radiation. It’s definitely not enough to hurt you. When we think about risk, the BED is a useful way t…

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered what is largely revered as the most famous speech in US History, The Gettysburg Address. “Four score and seven years

It looks like this: data information knowledge understanding wisdom Which do we measure the most, spend the most obtaining and argue about most often? We might have it backwards. HT Russ Ackoff.

Prevention is far less costly than a cure. Fixing a problem before it becomes a crisis is one of the best investments you can make.

Our old friend Seth Godin has a great definition of organizational culture: “People like us do things like this.”  It’s simple and yet captures how shared

The difference between ‘buy now’ and ‘bye now’ is very thin. Sometimes, when we push very hard for a commitment, we break the trust we’ve earned. For a while, you migh…

From the 1970’s to around the financial crash of 2008, one could credibly argue that London advertising was the best in the world. Sure, the British are a

Most of us talk, some of us do it for a living. When your voice is on the fritz, it can affect your entire body as well as the way you approach your day. I’ve read all 25+ of my audiobooks my…

Persistent, connected and kind. Most visions of the internet in 1995 were about individuals interacting with content online. It turns out that the internet (inter plus net) is actually about connec…

Next week, I’m going to be opening registration for Foundations, my new year-long program designed to help you build stronger foundations for your life. Given the twelve foundations we’re going to work on for the following year, I wanted to distill some of the best advice I’ve received in each, both the obvious advice that […]