One of my goals this year has been to become a cinephile, so I’ve been working my way through some of the classics that have influenced generations of filmmakers. Recently, I finally got around to watching Seven Samurai. Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece has been on my list for a long time. It’s the film that […]

A short reader survey about the challenges you’re working through and the support you wish existed.

Cities used to die slowly. Ancient Rome, Babylon, Memphis (in Egypt) and others took generations to fade from their peaks. The reasons were easy to see: Shifts in trade routes Loss of political cap…

The first things humans invented, before fire, the wheel or baked brie, was trust. Trusting the others in the village. Trusting that you could get a good night’s sleep. Trusting that what you…

The complexity of our tools changes the complexity of our reality

The first German tank of World War II was about the size of your car.  The last was about the size of your living room. You can see the comparison here.

We wait and hope for the first kind, the magic that arrives just when we need it. This is the magic of inspiration, or of good fortune. The magic of opportunties offered and connections made. There…

A lovely editorial piece from Charles Broskoski at Are.na.

When we’re a little behind, we borrow to catch up. Perhaps we borrow goodwill and spend less time than we might on a project. Or we need some money to pay the rent, so we borrow against a pay…

Written pieces, talks, and other bits by Zach Holman.

A get-home bag is the kind of kit you keep in your trunk or at work — light enough to carry, but stocked with the essentials.

When’s the last time you thought about your car’s engine? Probably not for a while.  Most people don’t. Until it breaks.  This sort of thing happened last

The Asian squat refers to the typical squatting posture that is seen throughout many nations in the Far East. However, not everyone can deep squat.

A guide to venting without annoying everyone you know.

Don’t search for the answers.

Cicero loved this one weird trick for finding the crux of any issue.

So many bits of information are flying around. Emails to us, articles, posts, videos, updates, memos, meetings, books… The most common (and apparently efficient) approach is to quickly look o…

Here are five tips to ensure that you, not your slides, are doing the talking. Slides don't inspire. You do.

It takes about 900,000 minutes to become a board-certified dermatologist. At that point, you might be very skilled and well-informed. It takes less than nine minutes to make your patient feel seen,…

For three decades, British traitor, Kim Philby, spied very successfully for the Soviet KGB from the very heart of MI6 British Intelligence, resulting in

On September 9, 1965, Navy pilot James Stockdale was flying a mission over North Vietnam when his A-4 Skyhawk took anti-aircraft fire. The cockpit filled with smoke. Warning lights flashed red. He ejected, breaking a leg in the process. As his parachute carried him toward a crowd of villagers armed with machetes and pitchforks and […]

AI doesn’t have to make slop—it can help you do the best work of your life

It’s possible to consider the next event in our lives as something the world is trying to teach us. But it might be even more effective to realize that, whenever we choose, we can learn somet…

Visitors to your new bookstore are likely to have a phone in their pockets–they could buy a book from the competition without even walking into the shop. And diners at your funky restaurant h…

If you have ever met me in person, you know that when you share an idea with me, I simplify it to its core and reflect it back to you, focusing on its essential parts. I dissect each statement for precision. “What do you mean by this word?” I have two decades of experience working … Continue reading Thinking Clearly

The 1996 Apple Network Server was Apple's first true Unix-through-and-through server (the Apple Workgroup Server 95, actually a Quadra 950...

Organizations and brands can choose their quadrant. It’s tempting to want the best of all four, but it’s going to take effort and focus. All of these terms are relative choices, not abs…

In most organizations, contradictions are treated as problems to be fixed. But what if they’re actually the point?

If someone with less skill and less dedication than you took over your job, could they degrade the quality of your work? It’s not difficult to make a list of twenty things that could be done …

If there was a website you could visit to find out what the future held, how often would you visit it? We do that with the weather, sometimes daily. People are drawn to breaking news and social med…