Betterment

The desire for 11 is proof that we often want to go all the way to ten. While 11 is silly, there is a lot of pressure to give our all. But there are problems. The first is that if you try to sprint…

There’s a huge difference between drifting through life and strategically planning your future. It all comes down to habits. The right habits can propel you forward, helping you outpace everyone […] More

Previously: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 This was an eventful year. My son went to preschool, I joined Carta, left Calm, and wrote my third book. It was also a logistically intensive year, with our toddler heading to preschool, more work travel, and a bunch of other little bits and pieces. Here is my year in review summary. I love to read other folks year-in writeups – if you write one, please send it my way!

Where we choose to direct our gaze determines not only what we learn or believe, but how we choose to see the world. Typing is a skill. Juggling is a skill. So is project management. It’s eas…

“I’ll remember it later.” I’ll confess, I rarely do. It turns out, it’s easier to remember questions than answers. And tools like Google Docs and photos in the cloud g…

James shares tips for developers on how to use AI to build better products faster but not blindly copy and paste from ChatGPT.

Can I bring my emotional support dog?

If the signal is very weak and the noise is large, it’s easy to imagine that there’s no signal at all. AI and computers can be used as lenses now, which means we can strip away the nois…

Everyone has an intuition, but some people seem to have a sixth sense that guides them through life with an uncanny accuracy. You may know someone like this, or perhaps […] More

As Emperor Palpatine said in a galaxy far far away, “your arrogance blinds you.” While it may be odd to hear the Dark Lord of the Sith preach humility as

They say that the most sought-after job title from Gen-Z is not nurse, fireman or astronaut, but online “Influencer." This explains why places like the

We actually don’t really know. Netflix just released their first-ever detailed analysis of how many hours of engagement the top 15,000+ most watched shows on the network received over a six m…

Wonder Tools — Creating a productivity toolkit to get stuff done - part 1

Trust is worth more than attention. Helping people get to where they seek to go is more effective than hustling people to persuade them to go where you’re going. Choose your customers, choose…

Back in 2015, I started weightlifting seriously.  Over eight years of training, I was able to get strong. But more importantly, I discovered a hobby that brought me immense satisfaction.  While I don’t barbell train like I used to, I still religiously lift weights.  During my eight years of serious training, I’ve learned some important […]

Stephen Wolfram discusses building a general observer theory using discoveries from the Physics Project and NKS, including the ruliad. Read how the nature of observers is critical to determining the most fundamental laws we attribute to the universe.

Get top tips on effective job searching, networking, and resume crafting to turn recent tech layoffs into new opportunities

If you announce that something is elegant or classy, it probably isn’t. There’s a humility to hospitality and sophistication that evaporates when we name it.

Rick Rubin could have written about the music industry and insider stories. Instead, he spent eight years writing what is basically a spiritual text about making something meaningful.

We typically associate hunger with the desire for food. But there are, in fact, half a dozen other appetites that exist within the human organism, each of which must be fed to maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health: Sunlight. Place a houseplant in the shadows, and its leaves wilt and droop. While invisible to the […]

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” -Mark Twain. So are the reports of everyone hating their jobs, apparently. It turns out “The Great

We can wrestle with a challenge or a problem and find energy and possibility while doing it. And we can dance with someone else as we seek a mutual way forward. Fighting tends to be more brutal, fi…

Human beings as we know them have only been around for 70,000 years or so. Honeybees got to North America around the time Columbus did. And the same is true for technologies and companies. Western …

A colleague got an angry note. It concluded with, “you should know better.” The transgression? The sender was offended that my friend had written a post about a concept she’s been…

Charlie Munger passed away last week. He was the less famous part of Berkshire Hathaway, but gained great prominence over the last 20 years. At the time

They’re not the same thing. Hope can fuel us. Hope can be refilled. Hope opens the door to possibility. Expectations, on the other hand, are a trap. They make us brittle and lead to disappoin…

A subjective and practical guide on what to do if you want to create data visualizations yourself (including lots of exercises and examples!)

In advertising, "The Brief" is the written marching orders that an agency gives to its creative department for an assignment. Usually it’s only one or two

Today we're going to have a discussion about living with a chronic illness and the need to advocate for yourself in the face of indifference to your pain or refusal of treatment from doctors or your insurance company. After two long years of inconclusive tests, and ten years of delayed

In the moment, it’s really difficult. L’espirit descalier means, “the spirit of the staircase.” That thing you wished you had a said just a moment ago, the bon mot or the cl…