Reading Time: 2 minI’ve been using Blinkist for some book summaries for a few years now, and it’s great! However, I’m noticing a growing problem in the gap between long books and Blinkist, in that the “Blinks” just aren’t long enough to really share the heart of the book. Blinkist and most related platforms are proud of the […]
Learning
Repetition is the foundation of clarity of thought
Reading Time: < 1 minIn recently listening to the Founders episode on Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue for the last 37 years, they shared a simple sentence that tied together a number of ideas I’ve had. The sentence was simply “repetition is the foundation of clarity of thought“. One of my early posts in my daily blogging streak […]
They all love to read
Reading Time: 2 minI recently decided to dig in to understand the reading habits of some of the most successful people in recent decades, and quickly found one common thread: they all love to read. All of them. I have no doubt that there are exceptions, but my initial digging didn’t find any. Here are ten people that […]
What books do you like?
Reading Time: < 1 minAnother great segment from the recent “Founders” episode about Sam Walton is related to finding ways to hire creative people. More specifically, how do you determine the creativity of someone during an interview? Here’s a bit from the show: One of the best ways to find creative people is to ask a simple question. What […]
Accumulating little notes
Reading Time: 2 minI recently shared the question of whether meta work is worth the effort. It’s certainly situational, but I’m finding that it often can pay off quite well in the long run. In that previous post, part of the thought was around tracking books from lists that people suggest. Similar to the list that I shared […]
Is the meta work worth it?
Reading Time: 2 minOne of the big challenges of productivity is determining what meta work (the work around your work) is worth your time. For me, a big one is playing with productivity tools; while I might find some gains in new tools, I also tend to spend a lot of time tinkering with them. I internally consider […]
Benjamin Franklin’s self-doubt led to the signing of the Constitution
Reading Time: 2 minOn September 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin gave a speech at the Constitutional Convention which led to the signing of the Constitution. Franklin wasn’t convinced that the document was perfect, but he also knew that maybe he was wrong and he encouraged everyone to move forward. Here’s part of what he said: “I confess that I […]
Movie tickets are sunk costs
Reading Time: 2 minThe idea of a “sunk cost” has always been interesting to me. I understand it rather well, but it often feels counter-intuitive. As a result, I love finding new ways to explain it to help me widen my understanding. If you’re not familiar with the term, Wikipedia defines it as “a cost that has already […]
Multiplexity
Reading Time: 2 minI know a lot of people through my personal life and a lot of people through my work life, but there’s an important third group — people that are in both. In the book “Friend of Friend“, author David Burkus calls this “multiplexity”. He explains: “While we may want to categorize people into just work […]
Change your defaults
Reading Time: < 1 minOne of the biggest problems people face on their phones is getting sucked into a bout of “doomscrolling” — just mindlessly going through never-ending social media feeds. Most of us open social media apps with a bit of purpose in mind, but it’s easy to get sucked into the feed for longer than we intended. […]