Betterment

From a reader: You should do a post on tips for reading canonical Western literature.  Especially on whether, and to what extent, one ought to read secondary stuff like criticism, biographies, histories alongside.  Also, to reread, or to read another canonical work for the first time instead.  Tips for the average interested reader… For your […]

Fergus asks: Having enjoyed your posts on how to read canonical Western literature and how to get started with opera, I’d like the same thing but for film, and perhaps for architecture. Today let’s do movies!  I am hardly an expert, but here are my tips: 1. Yes there are some movies made for the television, but for […]

And just like that, another year is gone. As in 2020, I spent 2021 carefully logging my reading on my Kindle to visualize at year-end. If you’d like to know how I did this or to view my data …

For the last few years, I've been a fan of Tom Whitwell's annual list of 52 things he learned during the past year -- here's his l

Whether it’s taking fruit to work (and to the bedroom!), being polite to rude strangers or taking up skinny-dipping, here’s a century of ways to make life better, with little effort involved …

A year after we moved to northern California I acquired a pair of shiny new titanium hip joints. There would be no more running for me. But I’m a lucky guy who gets to to bike and hike more t…

That’s why it’s worth so much. Sure, you can outsource. You can look for shortcuts. You can hire folks. You can use mailmerge. You can even send it to voice mail. But all of these time …

I live a weirdly balanced life these days, with friends and work and a cheap lifestyle that still ends up fun, and adventurous. It's a good life, I enjoy it - but there is also a decade of my life that was hectic, loud, and stressful - and I still couldn't get enough of that. But I always knew t

When it comes to moving forward, becoming better, achieving our goals, the biggest obstacle very often seems to be time. In that there’s never enough of it. We keep waiting for long, uninterrupted stretches in which to read, exercise, journal, reply to a text. And yet, no matter how much we organize our schedules to […]

I recently found myself standing on a windy tarmac 20-miles above the Arctic circle, staring at a plane that was about the size of a Snicker

If you’re feeling creative, do the errands tomorrow. If you’re fit and healthy, take a day to go surfing. When inspiration strikes, write it down. The calendar belongs to everyone else.…

Posted on Friday 31 Dec 2021. 990 words, 15 links. By Matt Webb.

There’s a better cause right around the corner. It might not work. You’ll never be able to keep all the promises. It can’t last forever. We’re all going to die. It’s n…

“It’s simple.” “It’s complicated.” When you talk to someone about your new idea, they’re going to realize right away that it’s one or the other. The …

Managers have to wait for permission, because management requires authority. But in every area of our lives, if we choose to lead, we can lead. Simply by beginning. It might be that few will choose…

You have more than a billion choices online. With just a few clicks, you could be just about anywhere. Thanks for reading this today. What did you have for lunch yesterday? Of all the lunches in al…

Life can get difficult. Especially the middle of life -- yup, the famous midlife crisis. How do avert one? Here's what the science says...

One sort of job requires people to follow a recipe. Another, better sort of job requires people to understand the recipe. If you understand it, that means you can change it. You have resilience and…

As another year draws to a close, we’ll be taking the next week off from publishing new content to enjoy the holidays and catch up on all the behind-the-scenes tasks that go into running a website and podcast. While we’re away, check out some of our best and most popular content of the year. Articles […]

Sometimes, people with every advantage act as if they don’t have what they deserve. They’re ungracious, unkind and even vulgar about it. The first problem is that it earns them little i…

As makers, software engineers should adopt these 7 essential habits.

If you open a roadside motel, expect that tired and demanding budget travelers will arrive. If you run a fancy restaurant, don’t be surprised if people will angle and cajole and lie to get a …

My obsession with how we get good at things continues. Here I review seven more books that dive deep into teaching and learning.

If you sell your time as the measure of the work you do, the work is over when the shift ends. Clock in, clock out. If you sell your output as the measure of the work, your work is over when the in…

Dig deep or dive right in? How much background knowledge do you need before you should start practicing a skill?

“If it were only nicer out, I’d be happier.” That’s just a step away from, “If the current world crisis would abate, then I’d be able to concentrate.” Whic…

One of my favorite books is a two-thousand-year-old text of Hindu scripture called the Bhagavad Gita. I’ve known about the Gita since I was in high school. For example, I knew that Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, quoted the Gita when he saw the bomb tested for the first time: “I am […]

If you’re asking someone to work for you, help you or advise you, it turns out that being specific about what success looks like is an obvious way to get better results. If everyone can agree…