Betterment

Try to fit in every general and conceptual detail when describing a very big concept and it’s likely that we’ll be confused. When you’re intent on explaining all of it, we glaze o…

Perhaps that super-genius is playing a very well-thought-out long game, anticipating every countermove with plenty of resources and alternatives at hand. It might be the local business you’re…

The Roman Empire enabled an early version of globalisation that offered travellers adventure, novelty and opportunity

In the 19th century, scientists conducted dissections on live animals to study their living anatomy. Known as “vivisection,” the operations were highly controversial. While some argued that vivisection imparted valuable insights that couldn’t otherwise be gleaned, others felt the additional knowledge the practice produced was negligible, especially when weighed against the cruelty involved in harvesting […]

Why you need a system, not just a collection of tips, to tackle tougher challenges.

Gratitude might be the way forward. So much of what ails us gets a bit better when we say ‘thank you.’ Even when it’s hard. Especially then.

How to beat back test anxiety and face down any challenge with confidence.

Posted on Thursday 24 Nov 2022. 884 words, 9 links. By Matt Webb.

They say the best consultants plan for their own obsolescence i.e. they do such a good job imparting new skills and knowledge to their clients, that

Our world has never been more convenient and comfortable. With just a few taps of our fingers, we can order food to our door, access endless entertainment options, and keep our climate at a steady 72 degrees. We don’t have to put in much effort, much less face any risk or challenge, in order to sustain […]

It changes. It changes as we age, and it changes depending on the situation. A second-grader might think that a boring class is never going to end. A bad cold might feel endless, unless we have the…

Surprising results about what matters for learning from a famous study.

Satsuki Fujisawa's motivational message was picked up on camera in Beijing.

There are ways to have a productive conversation with someone you disagree with.

Former Ogilvy ad-man and current Executive Creative Director at LG US, John Long, recently sent out a deliciously snarky tweet. It’s a photo of a famous

If you often find yourself saying “sorry” in a way that doesn’t advance the conversation, it might be interesting to substitute “thank you” instead. So, “I&#8217…

It’s tempting to imagine that mixing half a glass of milk and half a glass of orange juice might get you a hybrid that’s better than either. Alas, not so much. The goal is to find somet…

The wrong answer is, “it won’t.” If you buy a piece of tech, it will break. If you buy an asset of some sort, it’s likely to go down in value one day. If you start a project…

It is easy to think of founders as idea machines and first-time visionaries. Cue Bill Gates and the PC, Henry Ford and the assembly line automobile, and

Amongst supposedly monogamous couples, 23% of men and 19% of women have cheated on their current partner, and while studies have long found that men are more likely to cheat than women, that gap has significantly narrowed over time; in fact, married women between the ages of 18 and 29 cheat at a slightly higher […]

Toddlers don’t get afforded a lot of respect. They whine all the time about how unfair things are, and it’s difficult to take them seriously. Lately, in our quest for victory, we’…

“Happy employees, happy company” is a common mindset these days. It tells us to aim directly at organizational happiness. But aiming at happiness is

“Everything impinges on everything else… Everything is potentially everywhere.”

It’s autumn in North America, and that means that homeowners and contractors are busy removing suburban leaves. It’s almost impossible to avoid the deafening roar of gas-powered leaf bl…

Dwight D. Eisenhower started smoking cigarettes in his junior year at West Point. He would soon begin smoking them in a near-endless chain. He could smoke fifteen cigarettes in the course of a few hours, and regularly worked his way through two to three packs a day. In the weeks leading up to the Invasion […]

We usually think of militaries as rigid. But the best militaries operate with a fair bit of flexibility. Churchill once remarked that the Wehrmacht was

_______ is [Always/Never] the solution to a problem. In my experience, “always” and “never” are rarely useful ways to approach a problem. “Sometimes” requires nu…