Betterment

How I use Obsidian to track my day-to-day.

The essence of baroque art and craft is its complexity. Difficult to create, overloaded with ornamentation, filled with grandeur and color and surprise, the focus is on the effort expended. And tha…

It’s thrilling. Nothing held in reserve. All in, leaving nothing behind. It’s easy to get hooked on this. And it’s easy to never experience it. The internet has made each path mor…

Of the short stories Jack London penned, “In a Far Country” is my favorite.  The story follows two characters London calls “The Incapables” who travel to the savage and unforgiving Alaskan North searching for gold and adventure.  The men make a very poor go of things: they bicker, shirk chores, hoard food, take pleasure in […]

People believe that slow and deliberative thinking is inherently superior to fast and intuitive thinking. The truth is more complicated.

A Zettelkasten is a personal tool for thinking and writing that creates an interconnected web of thought. Its emphasis is on connection and not mere collection of ideas.

A Zettelkasten is a personal tool for thinking and writing that creates an interconnected web of thought. Its emphasis is on connection and not mere collection of ideas.

I first reported on my DIY Peloton back in 2018 after using it for a year. 4 years later I thought I might finally have broken the bike, but I was wrong. Aside from replacing my cycling shoes, the …

Most of all, we’re experts in our own narrative, our feelings, our lived experience. No one has had that but us, and while it might be unexamined or instinctive, we’re the experts. Expe…

Why would someone buy a share of stock for $945? One reason might be that they think they can sell it tomorrow for $950. A more common reason is that someone bought it an hour ago for $940. Of cour…

For trivial matters, it’s efficient and perhaps useful to simply follow a crowd or whatever leader we’ve chosen. But when it matters, we need to make (and own) our own decisions. To do …

A lot of people really dislike conflict and have a low opinion of it. They’re uncomfortable with disagreements at the office, think there’s no room for contention at church, worry that fighting with their partner means their relationship is destined to dissolve, and generally feel that heated arguments tear communities apart. My guest today, Ian […]

Today is my birthday. I turn 70. I've learned a few things so far that might be helpful to others. For the past few years, I've jotted down bits of unsolicited advice each year and much to my surprise I

The first kind, the common kind, is when someone helps you with advice or labor to accomplish what you’ve already set out to do. The second kind, more rare and more useful, is when someone he…

Practice makes perfect. But what's the best way to train? I review research showing the three ingredients to do it right.

Incremental changes do not provide emergency exits for a failing system. It’s to recognize when a tool is not useful

Every neighborhood has one.  He’s the old, eighty-something guy you see running every day. He’s always out at the same time. He’s frequently shirtless. Chances are, this guy didn’t start running last year. Or a decade ago. Or even forty years back. Chances are, he started running in college. Or high school. And he hasn’t […]

In the quiet moments of our lives, we can all sense that our hearts long for something, though we often don’t know what that something is. We seek an answer in our phones, and while they can provide some sense of extension and fulfillment — a feeling of magic — the use of technology also […]

When someone shares a new idea, or makes a pitch, or describes a dream, what would happen if you were enthusiastic? Perhaps positive thinking is contagious. Perhaps egging on the other person will …

Some people wake us up. They bring us a new idea or a new way to do things. They challenge us to think differently, they challenge the status quo.

Catalina Islands. Made with iPhone. (c) Om Malik “When people become engrossed in what they are doing, they enter a state that is called ‘flow. Flow can be achieved by engaging in mental or p…

If you’re someone who’s a decade or two out from your high school graduation, do you ever find yourself thinking that you’re just not as happy as you were back then? Of course all the positive-thinking self-talk then kicks in and you think, “Well, maybe I actually wasn’t that happy before. I do like my […]

Professionals put things away slowly so that they’ll be ready quickly when needed. Investing time now for time later.

I'm having one of these days today that are a little too productive. I have Fridays off for the rest of the month to use up last year's vacation days - and today was just a week of a day. And to think that it all started off so decidedly unproductive, with me waking up an hour late, then staying

Do you ever feel restless? You figure you need a new job or relationship or morning routine. You wonder if a vacation or a move will remedy your discontent. Yet no matter what app you download, goal you make, or trip you take, you never feel entirely satisfied, never entirely happy, never entirely free from […]

When your watch stops, it’s unlikely that you believe that time is now standing still. It’s obviously the watch that’s broken, not time. But when a metric on our culture or a comp…