Betterment

The other day, I was staring blankly at my bookshelf in my office while thinking about something related to the Art of Manliness. As I semi-zoned out, a book caught my eye: Fire in the Belly by Sam Keen.  I hadn’t cracked that book open in over a decade.  When I first started AoM back in 2008, I poured through all […]

We can agree that Isaac Newton didn’t invent gravity. It was here all along, but he gets some credit for naming it and describing it. And Columbus definitely didn’t discover North Ameri…

Peeves make lousy pets. They undermine us and put us on edge. But quirks? Little eccentricities we see in the world that offer a cost-free smile. Habits or interactions that always make us a little…

Among all artists, writers alone suffer the illusion that the world needs to hear what they have to say. I thought that line, or something like it, came from Rollo May, probably in The Courage to C…

“World renowned psychologist,” prolific author and C-suite executive coach, Dr. Jim Loer made a recent appearance on the always-excellent Knowledge

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke Try to imagine the you of twenty years ago holding a Rabbit R1, or using a cell phone or being a…

How pausing and asking yourself — ”and then what?” — levels up your decision making skill.

I'm re-organising the Johnny.Decimal system that manages 'the Johnny.Decimal business'. Post-it notes are on the wall!

Something is wrong with the way we communicate. We’ve lost control. And we’re drowning in misinformation as a result.

I'm the guy telling you how to be organised. And yesterday I confessed that I wasn't organised. What's going on?

The best thing about having a well-known brand is that it doesn’t go away easily. The worst thing about having a well-known brand is that it doesn’t go

Not all decisions need the same amount of analysis before being made. Some are easily reversible and should be made fast. While others have long-lasting effects and require careful planning before being made.

Be of service to others and true to your craft to build a great network

Things are rarely what they seem to be. If we took things at face value, we’d still think the Sun revolves around the Earth. We’d still believe the

Ever since there has been high school, there has been the instinct to read the Cliffs Notes. The internet took this idea, added a gratuitous semicolon and perfected Too Long; Didn’t Read. Thi…

The home for Infra Engineering content on Fly.io.

Some restaurants keep a photo of the local reviewer in the kitchen. The thinking is that if someone notices she’s in the building, everyone can up their game. And some musicians wait eagerly …

Wondering why “people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about”, George Monbiot inter

#1. Don’t be cheap.

In a lot of ways, I use my gardening time as a metaphor. One that was particularly meaningful to me lately came when I was pruning this feral tomato that showed up in one of my beds late last year.

On the power of routines. Saturday is 'floors chores' in this house, no matter what.

Many marketers spend time with their CRM systems. Expensive cloud-based tools that automate Customer Relationship Management. Maybe customers don’t want to be managed. They probably don&#8217…

One year ago today, I decided to quit my job.

…but hurry. The words matter. Rushing has a built-in excuse. Rushing pushes us to skip steps or ship junk. But hurrying acknowledges how precious this moment in time is. It honors our good fo…

It’s often said of us humans that we’re the only “tool-using mammals”. While not exclusive to the hacker community, a bunch of us are also “tool-building mammals” when we have the need or get the f…

Existentialist philosophers were very big on the idea of free will. They believed that while circumstances could limit your choices, there were always choices to be made.  Existentialists also argued that while many people make a show of loving freedom, most experience it as a dizzying burden and seek every opportunity to flee from it. […]

“No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge.”

And it will stick with me lifelong