Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas
Betterment
Building Something Real in your spare time
Starting a new pet project is easy. But finishing it? That's a different story.
Many programmers love to tinker with side projects. I'll argue that most of the decent ones do, anyway. Learning new tools makes us want to build things. Innovative technologies, cool product ideas. Unfortunately, the result is
There is always something: Fighting distractions as a software developer - ShiftMag
This article is a distraction. You should get back to your work! Or not?
Look inside David Lynch’s mysterious ‘Thinking Room’
At Salone de Mobile, the enigmatic director David Lynch has designed a room to help you think. It certainly won’t let you relax.
When Procrastination is Productive - Scott H Young
Productivity isn’t throwing out all your existing commitments in the fanatical pursuit of a big ambition. Instead, choosing what matters and organizing your time and energy to reach it.
Nothing Beats Competition
If we didn’t have rivals, there’d be no losing. There’d be no winning either. Because there’d be no competition. And while that seems like an appealing
Managers can boost productivity by changing one word in their questions
Managers can increase productivity by leading with an inquiry based appraoch.
Refusing the salon of the refused
This week is the 150th anniversary of the most important failed art exhibit of all time. It was organized by and featured artists who weren’t even among those that had a slot at the runner…
The digital barback
A barback supports the bartending staff. There are always clean glasses and fresh ingredients, ready to go. Having someone else do your mise en place can dramatically improve your productivity. And…
Getting the word out
“How do you get the word out?” I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business leaders and nonprofits as well. It’s easy to believe that the goal of marketing is…
"The World Reveals Itself to Those Who Walk"
I walk a lot. I mean, I'm a New Yorker now, and here we walk significantly more than other Americans elsewhere do (which isn't necessarily saying much as Americans in general walk very little -- far far less than the residents in other industrialized countries).
Poppy and I walk Kin
Market pressure
Every competitor faces pressure, and it varies by industry, consumer/investor segment and geography. This applies to services, products, ideas, organizations, jobs… whenever there’s a c…
Sunday Firesides: Gotta Get in the Reps
Coach youth sports long enough, and you begin to see the main difference maker as to which would-be athletes improve. The kids who dribble the basketball in their driveway every night or play catch with their parents during the week, get better. Those who don’t handle the ball outside of scheduled practices, do not. It’s […]
How’d You Make That?
Three masterpieces from glimmer through struggle to breakthrough.
microdosing retirement
my month of rotting
Updating our stuck interactions
There are few sitcoms, thrillers or plays where the plot can tolerate the addition of a cell phone. Once the characters have the ability to connect and clear up misunderstandings at will, a lot of …
Them or us?
What kind of culture will we build? At work, in our community, online? Compliance Quality Inquiry Inclusion Consumption Possibility and/or Fear Each of us builds culture every time we interact with…
Oh My Git!
An open source game about learning Git
The challenge of nonprofit fundraising
When someone starts a business, they spend a bunch of time with a business plan, working to raise funds and get it off the ground. After that, though, the purpose of the business is completely alig…
Why tell the others?
Every internet success works because the network effect kicked in. There’s no other way for an idea to reliably and economically reach a big enough audience to be sustained. That’s why Super Bowl a…
The marketing department
That’s the first part of the confusion. It’s a group of people who can’t decide what the thing they do is supposed to be. Is it: Advertising Publicity Increasing retail distributi…
Forecasting projects
Weather predictions are probabilistic, not deterministic. That means there isn’t a single right answer that we can calculate. We can’t say it will rain at 11:05 but we can say that there’s an 80% chance of rain today. Forecasting when we’ll be done is also probabilistic, in exactly the same way. We can say based on past throughput data that we have an 85% chance of being done on or before May 12.
Demanding certainty
The defenders of the status quo often demand certainty when facing decisions about the future. It sets up the conditions for doing nothing, because certainty never happens until the future arrives.…
Use Obsidian as a Bookmark Manager with Raindrop
The flexibility of Obsidian combined with the organization of a bookmark manager.
The Notetaking Cold War
Digging into the philosophical roots of the battle between Tiago Forte and Conor White-Sullivan
AI-assisted Decision-making
How to use ChatGPT to master the best of what other people have figured out
How Hard Should I Push Myself?
What the science of stress tells us about peak performance
The End of Organizing
How GPT-3 will turn your notes into an *actual* second brain
In Defense of the Unoptimized Life
Give yourself the space to be inspired
The Japanese 3X3 Interval Walking Workout
The overarching principle of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is that the harder you do an exercise, the more physiological benefits you accrue; thus, by incorporating intervals of higher intensity efforts in your workouts, you can get more fitness bang for your buck in less time. When we think about HIIT, we tend to think about […]