Betterment

When you meet expectations, when you make a promise and keep it, when your quality is on spec—we say “of course.” On the other hand, if you relentlessly raise expectations, if you overp…

Last week, I received an odd text message from a friend, who is the 21 year old daughter of another friend, asking me if I had a bandsaw. I was confused at first because I wondered what she wanted with a bandsaw, but also because I realized that actually, I don't own one. It's not a tool that I

It’s famously been said that every individual is the average of the five people he interacts with most. Life experience certainly bears out the validity of this truism. A teenager falls into a friend group that practically undoes the influence of a previous decade and a half of parenting. A soldier goes into a deployment […]

When an entrepreneur gets funded, it’s often difficult for them to start spending money on assets–the old limits fade slowly. What used to be smart is now dumb. What used to too risky i…

In January, we made the case for doing hard shit. The response was epic. There seems to be a growing recognition that a little hardship can

Using Airtable to build a routine and personalize my mornings

Working hard doesn't matter if it's on the wrong things. Thoughts on making the hard decisions about what to focus on.

One of the most beneficial skills you can learn in life is how to consistently put yourself in a good position. Strong positions are not an accident. Weak positions aren't bad luck.

Read this and learn how the mental model of thought experiment, helped people like Albert Einstein, Zeno, and Galileo solve difficult problems.

The benefits of reading are negated if you forget remember what you read. This article discusses a tested system to increase retention. Learn how to use active reading to remember more from books.

The real test for an idea, theory, or advice is utility. The more useful, the better.

We’ve sampled several avenues for getting a dose of nature and we’re ready to declare: car camping is the worst. At least relative to the other options.

Do you remember all the elements you didn’t used to notice? It might be the way you see typography now, or the tuning of an orchestra. Or the alignment in the mouldings of a house you’r…

Today, I want to sing the song of praise for a job that allows me to live a happy life, content and ahead of all my duties — especially so because I know different times. Not only have I worked in vastly different fields to programming before — which gives you a lot of perspective about the spoi

Man has spent thousands of years mapping, domesticating, and harnessing his environment. He has sailed the earth’s seas, climbed its mountains, plumbed its depths, and left its atmosphere. He has tamed the wilderness, supplanted thick forests with sprawling cities, cultivated agricultural yields that can feed billions. He has channeled electricity, routed many diseases, shrunk space […]

Lock-in persists. That’s why it’s so valued by monopolists, tyrants and cults. The ability to speak up always creates inefficiency. It’s easier to just shut up and drive. Or be dr…

Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. So, yeah, like most other people in creative and know…

Benchmarking involves looking at every element of what you offer and comparing it to the very best element of any of your competitors. So your door handle is as good as the Audi’s, and your b…

My first computer game design was in 1977–I came up with a version of Star Wars. It was almost nothing like the movie, but it was a pretty good game for something running on a mainframe. The …

Many strategy games involve researching technologies, and each technology has a set of prerequisites (except the starting technologies). These can either be arranged linearly (tech levels) or in a ...

You never look at a skill /tech tree and go “uggghhh I can’t believe I haven’t got any of this done yet.” It’s exciting that you still have so many improvements to unlock.

Whatever “it” is. That’s probably a mistake. People don’t know what you know, don’t believe what you believe, don’t fear what you fear. They’re not equally…

Who decided that this was a good way for a group to interact? It’s all the worst elements of synchronous and asynchronous discussion rolled into one. It prioritizes speed of reply over though…

The system is lazy. It focuses on the things that are easy to measure: How fast can you type, what was your score on the test, how many followers do you have? One way to move forward is to learn di…

A simple approach to learning how to solicit and receive feedback: Begin by showing a well-meaning peer someone else’s novel, painting, design or business plan… You might discover that …

When you’re traveling, various maladies may beset you, and you won’t have your home’s well-stocked medicine cabinet at your disposal to remedy them. You can pack a full first aid kit, but if you’re traveling light, and are only concerned about issues that have a high likelihood of occurring, there are really only a few […]

It’s scary. That’s the point. Pick a date certain. You’re on the hook. Describe a particular type of client, or even choose one by name. Be really clear about the change you seek …

It probably doesn’t pay to buy your prom dress when you are 12 years old. You’re not sure of the size, not sure of what styles will be like and not even sure you want to go. On the othe…

Burning my hands on the steering wheel.