The first general put in command of American troops during the Mexican-American war was Zachary Taylor. “Old Rough and Ready” didn’t care much for garrison discipline and military formality. He was steady and unruffled and spoke laconically, choosing his words carefully and using as few as needed to get his point across. Taylor didn’t mind […]

Ageing doesn’t have to mean slowing down. In fact, you’re more likely to win an ultramarathon in midlife, not to mention get happier, wiser and more body confident

In a 1961 contribution to Analog, Maurice Price explained that, while a new engineer might arrive to a clean desk, a “cycle of confusion” quickly begins as papers pile up so deeply that the engineer can do little more than fish old technical journals from the pile and read them (this is known as “keeping up with the state of the art”). Eventually the engineer resolves to clean the desk, but that only returns the system to the start of the cycle. The key equation is C = K1 exp (K2t). “In this equation K1 is the constant of confusion...

An essay on friendship, an introduction to my play The Spank

Protests let off steam. They organize people who might not show up by creating a moment in time where there’s enough opportunity and social pressure that they participate. A protest sends a m…

Everyone’s got an opinion on your business. Should you listen to them?

If you ask any team if they trust each other, they would probably say they do.

AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it feel less like a threat, it gives us the confidence to make it into something better. I us…

A young guy is the big man on campus at his high school. He’s captain of the varsity football team. Student body president. Homecoming king. Honor society. Valedictorian.  Thanks to his stellar high school career, he gets accepted to a prestigious Ivy League university. But instead of continuing his string of teenage successes, our promising […]

The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more people than ever before making a living hustling to steal, impersonate, defraud and otherwise vi…

Lots of people go to the beach but very few get in the water. 3,000 students go to the football game to watch 20 of their peers play. And we go to a conference to meet people and connect, and then …

Before jumping straight into scoping and designing new standards, we should look at other quick wins to increase consistency around how data is published.

A phrase that’s been showing up recently is, “no pressure.” It usually comes in a pitch letter of some sort, written by someone who isn’t in a position to exert any pressure…

I live by my planner. It's freeing.

Engineering is the powerful practice of being able to deliver artifacts that do what they’re supposed to. Bridges that don’t fall down, software that runs, IV lines that don’t get…

Applying Econ 101 to understand why some people have great jobs ... and others don't.

The minimum viable product is a powerful way to find out if your solution is going to find a market. Bean-to-bar chocolate in the US didn’t happen because someone raised millions of dollars, …

Consider purple.space a new community for professionals to connect without hustle. Peer-to-peer support, brainstorming, community workshops, coaching, dailies and more. Distributed work doesn&#8217…

In Roman times, marble sculptures were highly prized status objects. Sure, they were expensive, but more than that, they were really hard to make. Every

Here are the best career research strategies to make sure you are not heading down a dead-ends with your deliberate practice efforts.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have made the same decision? In the last fifty years, more than 25,000,000 Americans have died prematurely due to cigarette smoking. Worldwide, it&#821…

This is one of the great benefits of learning. It’s also a common challenge. When we get better at something, it is preceded by a moment of incompetence. In that moment, we’re not exact…

The three ingredients needed to apply deliberate practice to your career.

There’s been a lot of talk these days about burnout. Pushing too hard, for too long, can do a number on your mental and physical health. Comparatively little discussed is a malady that can be just as pernicious: rust out. Rust out occurs from the under use of your capabilities. Few individuals ever approach the […]