Reading Time: < 1 min Sometimes just a little shift in wording can make a huge difference. In Adam Grant’s book “Hidden Potential“, he explains the difference between seeking feedback and seeking advice: Instead of seeking feedback, you’re better off asking for advice. Feedback tends to focus on how well you did last time. Advice shifts attention to how you […]
We are generators of the media
Reading Time: 2 min A few weeks ago, PJ Vogt interviewed Ezra Klein on the Search Engine podcast. It was a fascinating interview and I encourage you to give it a listen, but one concept that Ezra shared really stuck out to me — we are generators of the media. He said this on a podcast, and I’m repeating […]
Cooperation wins, even if you lose every time
Reading Time: 2 min The most famous problem in game theory is called “The Prisoner’s Dilemma“, and you’ve likely seen it play out in game shows over the years. In game shows, it often comes down to the final two players with a secret vote to split the pot or try to take more for themselves, and the logic […]
Sit quietly in a room alone
Reading Time: 2 min Can you sit quietly in a room alone? According to many ideas in the book “Unlimited Memory“, it’s a great thing to do. They start with a quote from Blaise Pascal that brought the title of this post: “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.” Related was […]
The Sunday Summary: Generosity, presentations, cold outreach, and the internet isn’t getting worse
Reading Time: < 1 min In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, April 15: Don’t ascribe attribution to Google when other investments drove the real valueIt’s easy to look at your stats and see a bunch of traffic coming from […]
The commodity versus the product
Reading Time: < 1 min What is it that you sell? Even if it’s just one product, it’s really more than one thing to your customer. As an example, in his classic book “The E-Myth Revisited” author Michael Gerber shares this quick note about what Revlon actually sells: Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon and an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur, once […]
The internet isn’t getting worse either
Reading Time: 2 min Over the past few years I’ve shared thoughts on how the world is much better than people think. Murder rates are down, reports of missing children are down, school shootings are down, the economy is doing great, etc. Things are far from perfect, and we always need to be working to make things even better, […]
If you purchase from cold outreach, you’re condoning their behavior
Reading Time: 2 min As with most of you, I get hit with cold outreach all the time. Cold emails, phone calls, LinkedIn connections, people at our door, etc. While they may occasionally have decent offers, my rule on cold outreach has become very simple — no. Last week I had someone stop by our house to sell us […]
Present or be present?
Reading Time: 2 min The title of this post may be a little confusing, but spelled out it’s: Present (“pre-sent”, like giving a presentation) or be present (“pres-ent”, like being active in the room). In many cases, those are two different things. If you have an important presentation to give, you may often distance yourself from those in the […]
Generosity is not about lowering your price
Reading Time: < 1 min There are many ways to be generous with your clients, and lowering your price can perhaps be a way to do that. In many cases, though, that’s not really what being generous is all about. In a recent episode of the “Finding Mastery” podcast, Seth Godin shared some thoughts on this: “Generosity is not about […]