Betterment

“It is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music, sculpture, writing, painting - and by magical I mean intended to produce very definite

Authority is usually addressed as a brand is a way to reach people and gain their “automatic”...

It might be the high fidelity of a good LP on a great turntable. It sounds just like the original recording. It might be the high fidelity of loyalty. No shopping around for a momentarily better de…

What does it mean to act in a moral way? One of the answers the philosopher Immanuel Kant formulated to this question can be paraphrased this way: “Never treat people merely as a means to an end, but always as an end in and of themselves, too.” We all treat people as means sometimes, and […]

Rubber duck technique for improving your code and design

Avoid Interference Between Horizontal and Vertical Refactorings

Many businesses thrive by helping people deal with projects that feel like they have high stakes. A kid’s first haircut, the offsite storage of data backup, an upcoming family reunion, a medi…

Back in the 5th Century BC, the philosopher Democritus was the first person to conceive of the idea of atoms. That the universe was made up of tiny,

In a world perpetually online, I found solace in Arctic silences. Bookended by sleepless nights and jet lag, my journey led me to question: What truly matters when we unplug? Beyond the glare of sc…

“Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no” and no can be just as frightening. First, there’s the no of &…

The first general put in command of American troops during the Mexican-American war was Zachary Taylor. “Old Rough and Ready” didn’t care much for garrison discipline and military formality. He was steady and unruffled and spoke laconically, choosing his words carefully and using as few as needed to get his point across. Taylor didn’t mind […]

Ageing doesn’t have to mean slowing down. In fact, you’re more likely to win an ultramarathon in midlife, not to mention get happier, wiser and more body confident

In a 1961 contribution to Analog, Maurice Price explained that, while a new engineer might arrive to a clean desk, a “cycle of confusion” quickly begins as papers pile up so deeply that the engineer can do little more than fish old technical journals from the pile and read them (this is known as “keeping up with the state of the art”). Eventually the engineer resolves to clean the desk, but that only returns the system to the start of the cycle. The key equation is C = K1 exp (K2t). “In this equation K1 is the constant of confusion...

An essay on friendship, an introduction to my play The Spank

Protests let off steam. They organize people who might not show up by creating a moment in time where there’s enough opportunity and social pressure that they participate. A protest sends a m…

Everyone’s got an opinion on your business. Should you listen to them?

If you ask any team if they trust each other, they would probably say they do.

AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it feel less like a threat, it gives us the confidence to make it into something better. I us…

A young guy is the big man on campus at his high school. He’s captain of the varsity football team. Student body president. Homecoming king. Honor society. Valedictorian.  Thanks to his stellar high school career, he gets accepted to a prestigious Ivy League university. But instead of continuing his string of teenage successes, our promising […]

The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more people than ever before making a living hustling to steal, impersonate, defraud and otherwise vi…

Lots of people go to the beach but very few get in the water. 3,000 students go to the football game to watch 20 of their peers play. And we go to a conference to meet people and connect, and then …

Before jumping straight into scoping and designing new standards, we should look at other quick wins to increase consistency around how data is published.

A phrase that’s been showing up recently is, “no pressure.” It usually comes in a pitch letter of some sort, written by someone who isn’t in a position to exert any pressure…

I live by my planner. It's freeing.

Engineering is the powerful practice of being able to deliver artifacts that do what they’re supposed to. Bridges that don’t fall down, software that runs, IV lines that don’t get…

Applying Econ 101 to understand why some people have great jobs ... and others don't.