Betterment

Wondering why “people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about”, George Monbiot inter

#1. Don’t be cheap.

In a lot of ways, I use my gardening time as a metaphor. One that was particularly meaningful to me lately came when I was pruning this feral tomato that showed up in one of my beds late last year.

On the power of routines. Saturday is 'floors chores' in this house, no matter what.

Many marketers spend time with their CRM systems. Expensive cloud-based tools that automate Customer Relationship Management. Maybe customers don’t want to be managed. They probably don&#8217…

One year ago today, I decided to quit my job.

…but hurry. The words matter. Rushing has a built-in excuse. Rushing pushes us to skip steps or ship junk. But hurrying acknowledges how precious this moment in time is. It honors our good fo…

It’s often said of us humans that we’re the only “tool-using mammals”. While not exclusive to the hacker community, a bunch of us are also “tool-building mammals” when we have the need or get the f…

Existentialist philosophers were very big on the idea of free will. They believed that while circumstances could limit your choices, there were always choices to be made.  Existentialists also argued that while many people make a show of loving freedom, most experience it as a dizzying burden and seek every opportunity to flee from it. […]

“No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge.”

And it will stick with me lifelong

The intentional, noticed choices are obvious. “Vanilla or chocolate?” But most of the choices we live with are unseen. They’re expensive, challenging and invisible. When we plan a…

As in, what _types_ of to-do are there.

The Irish broadcaster, Colm Flynn recently tweeted about a lovely TV news report he worked on back in 2019, about a postman, Mike Sheehan, in a very

No wonder you feel overwhelmed! All your work is urgent, there are no clear solutions for anything, you sprint from meeting to meeting, with barely space to breathe. Leadership coach Lena Reinhard offers a few tips on managing the unmanageable.

One of the common conceits in leadership is that nobody is truly essential for a company’s continuity. I call it a conceit, but I do mostly agree with it: I’ve felt literally sick after hearing about some peer’s unexpected departure, but I’m continually amazed at how resilient companies are to departures, even of important people. About two-thirds of Digg’s team left in layoffs in 2010, but we found ways to amble on.

For the last thirty years, the easiest shortcut has been convenience. If a marketer or a politician or an institution wants to gain acceptance, make it convenient. Tim Wu has pointed out that we&#8…

A strong personal value proposition should define who you want to work with, what solutions you can offer, and why any of it matters.

In resetting my organisation system, I need to get away from the computer.

Not what we see when we’re present, but what do we see when we imagine we’re present? In the early days of photography, the world was black and white, and sort of flat. It’s worth…

Some industries need to be dragged kicking and screaming to innovation. When margins are tight and profits are small, CEOs often don't want to spend a dime on the promise of increased efficiencies or long-term savings, and so external leverage is needed. Today we talk with Shinya Shimizu, founder and CEO of Elephantech, who explains how he found that leverage in his mission to make the global technology supply chain more environmentally friendly. We explore how Elephantech and other startups are helping the world meet net-zero targets, strategies for scaling manufacturing startups, and how you can make money while doing good in the world. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Back when I was managing at Digg and Uber, I spent a lot of time delivering feedback to my management chain about issues in our organization. My intentions were good, but I alienated my management chain without accomplishing much. I also shared my concerns with my team, which I thought would help them understand the organization, but mostly isolated them in a Values Oasis or demoralized them instead. Those experiences taught me that pushing your organization to improve is essential leadership work, but organizations can only absorb so much improvement at a given time before they reject the person providing the feedback.

Life can be irritating. And sometimes, we can make a choice. The thing that’s vexing you: is it a situation or a problem? Problems have solutions. If we care enough, we can find a way to solv…

The secret to getting results only has three words: Understand human nature.  During the Revolutionary War, Ben Franklin was in the precarious position of

Over the last two newsletters (three, if you include my reply to Google’s “rebuttal” of the Prabhakar Raghavan newsletter), I’ve made the case that while rot economics are responsible for making technology products manifestly worse, this transformation was only possible thanks to the interventions of a managerial class.

Indie Courses helps you sell your course quickly and gives you the tools and knowledge to make more sales than you would elsewhere. No marketing degree needed.

Researchers explore the intricate mechanisms of memory and debunk common myths about its function.

Guest post by L6 Staff Engineer & Tech Lead at Google

More than two-thirds of the companies surveyed said that they used NPS methodology with their customers. Some are using it to measure employee satisfaction as well. The P stands for ‘promoter…