Newer does not always equal better. In fact, older is often better. Longevity implies resistance to change, obsolescence, competition, and thus odds of continued survival into the future.
Read More
Doublethink is a form of self-deception. We’re all capable of holding contradictory beliefs and ideas. The trick is to be aware of these contradictions and manage them to our benefit.
Read More
Deciding what to do is straightforward. So is figuring out how to do it. But knowing when to do it is really hard. Effective leaders develop a sense of when.
Read More
One of my goals this year is to write a handbook on leadership. I’m woefully behind, so this article is an attempt to force some progress. I’ve spent a good bit reading about and taking notes on leadership over the last year. As of now, I think effective leadership is made up of four core elements: personal credibility, self-confidence, judgment, and an ability to inspire and sustain cooperation. What am I missing?
Read More
First principles thinking is a powerful mental model.[1] You can use it to simplify complex problems, discover novel solutions, and learn new skills. The idea is to break something down into its basic parts, understand them, and explore different ways of putting them back together. You deconstruct so you can reconstruct.
Read More
We all live our lives according to various rules we’ve programmed into our routines. Most of the time, these rules help us. But sometimes circumstances change, and a rule starts doing more harm than good. When this happens, it’s time to unlearn it.
Read More
Sometimes deciding not to decide is the right decision. Decisiveness doesn’t always require you to make a decision to act. It can also mean choosing to delay. What you want to avoid is the infinite deliberation that exists between these two choices. That’s no man’s land.
Read More
Life is a series of treasure hunts, but it is the moral ambiguity we face along the way that unearths us.
Read More
A common driver of irrational decision-making is “all-or-nothing” thinking. And it’s more pervasive than most people realize.
Read More
What is wisdom? Here are a few observations.
Read More
When you remove unnecessary complexity from something, that something improves.
Read More
Non-partisan voters are voters who are not biased, especially toward the major political parties. They exist because their beliefs do not align with the beliefs of a particular party. They consider each elected position individually. Elections are difficult for non-partisan voters because they must decide.
Read More
Most people work hard, but few people compete. Maybe this is why so many hard-working people fail to reach their goals.
Read More
I’ve converted my notes from How to Win Friend's and Influence People to a simple checklist that I can reference during my weekly reflections. Feel free to take this or repurpose it for your own use. It also serves as a quick summary of the book in case you find my notes a bit too dense.
Read More
In The Psychology of Human Misjudgment, Charlie outlines 25 human tendencies that can lead to poor decision-making. To combat these tendencies, he recommends making a checklist you can reference when you’re making an important decision. I’ve converted my notes to this simple checklist. I hope it helps me avoid bad decisions by helping me become aware of how these tendencies might be affecting me.
Read More
Hosting a podcast has many benefits, but my favorite is being able to listen to myself think out loud. Listening to myself think enables me to make better decisions.
Read More
Tired of procrastinating on an important goal? Try creating a forcing function. A forcing function is anything that requires you to take action and produce a result. When you create a useful forcing function, you indirectly coerce yourself into progressing your goal.
Read More
When a significant life change happens, routines stop. When routines stop, habits don’t trigger. Without longstanding routines and habits, life gets hard. Our automated decision-making ceases and we’re forced to think about everything.
Read More