Reading Time: 2 minI’m a big fan of summaries, as they can be a great way to get a lot of information in a short period of time. Blinkist creates fantastic summaries, and I certainly read them quite often. That said, summaries can leave you short. In his book “Clear Thinking“, Shane Parrish shares: Reading a summary might […]
Learning
Ask for advice, not feedback
Reading Time: < 1 minSometimes 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 […]
Sit quietly in a room alone
Reading Time: 2 minCan 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 […]
Decisions force us to predict the future
Reading Time: < 1 minI try to predict the future at times, and my results are hit or miss. With every decision that we make in life, though, we’re being forced to try to predict an unknown outcome. In his book “Farsighted“, author Steven Johnson explains it like this: Complex decisions force us to predict the future. Most decisions, […]
Don’t steal the revelation
Reading Time: < 1 minThere are times when getting to the right answer quickly is important, and everyone should be pushing for the answer. Other times, though, it can be more beneficial to wait and let people figure things out for themselves. In a recent episode of The Long and The Short of It podcast, Pete shared this idea: […]
Your mind never wanders
Reading Time: < 1 minDepending on what I’m doing at any given time, my mind can wander off a bit. As Kevin Horsley explains in “Unlimited Memory“, though, it never really wanders. As he says: Your mind never wanders; it moves toward more interesting things. That’s both enlightening but also frustrating. There are times when it’s fine for my […]
Discover why they’re amazing
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen you meet someone new, there is undoubtedly part of their personality or their life or their knowledge that is amazing. It might be something you discover right away, but often it’s not and you need to find out what it is. In his book “Excellent Advice for Living“, author Kevin Kelly says it roughly […]
Our future should grow as much as our past
Reading Time: 2 minIf I asked you to look back 10 years and talk about how much you’ve grown, you’d likely have many stories to show your increased compassion, knowledge, income, and many other things. On the other hand, if I asked you about your potential growth in the next 10 years, most people don’t see themselves changing […]
The whole world is a classroom
Reading Time: < 1 minWe’re at an amazing point in history, and one that will be changing (for the worse?) as AI continues to develop. Between tools like YouTube (free), summaries of books (many free) and the books themselves (not free, but more easily available than any time in history), you can learn whatever you want whenever you want. […]
Reading a book with blog posts in mind
Reading Time: < 1 minWith almost every book that I read, I read with the intention of digging in deep and then blog posts just happen to come out of it. A good example of that was Adam Grant’s “Think Again“, where I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, and it just happened to generate a number of great ideas […]