Betterment

Over on the Infinite Loops Podcast #167 the author, entrepreneur, and former White House advisor (under George W. Bush), Dr Pippa Malmgren talks about

Here are some books and household items that I wanted to share. I’m mostly into audiobooks these days–a good narrator combined with a good author is pretty rare and wonderful… It …

In todays world, productivity is the name of the game, especially in the tech industry where software developers are the driving force behind innovation. However, the idea that longer hours lead to greater productivity is no longer considered to be the case by most. Recent research and real-world examples suggest that cutting back on work hours can actually boost productivity for software developers. In this article, we’ll explore the reasons behind this shift and the benefits it brings to both developers and their employers.

There are two franchised pack-and-ship shops about equidistant from my home. One has a 4.5 rating and is reliably busy. The other has an astonishingly low 1.5 out of 5 rating. The physical plant is…

Over the life course, people’s happiness tends to follow a U-shaped curve; it begins to decline around the age of 18 and hits its lowest point around age 47 or 48, at which point it starts to go back up again. Researchers aren’t sure why happiness follows this trajectory. Our personal hypothesis is that after […]

The idea of communing with nature is instilled from birth in Norway. I hiked through a rain-drenched forest to try it myself

When an organization first sets out to have an impact, it discovers that it has no customers, no clients, no constituents. So it shows up, it makes an offer and it listens. The early days are excit…

A version of this post originally appeared in Google bathrooms worldwide as a Google Testing on the Toilet episode. You can download a prin...

Getting the word out is easy to measure and exciting as well. Focusing on this misses the point. You might be able to get a song played on the radio, but will the song motivate listeners to show up…

The trick for most ambitious pursuits, I’m afraid, is simply doing the obvious thing much, much more than most other people are willing to do—and accepting that it may hurt at times.

Elizabeth Spiers for the NY Times on how to apologize (given the recent spate of celebrity non-apologies): I Have a Question for t

If every building in the shopping district in a big city was owned by one landlord, rents would go up. So would the prices of everything sold. The landlord would keep a significant percentage of ea…

“It is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music, sculpture, writing, painting - and by magical I mean intended to produce very definite

Authority is usually addressed as a brand is a way to reach people and gain their “automatic”...

It might be the high fidelity of a good LP on a great turntable. It sounds just like the original recording. It might be the high fidelity of loyalty. No shopping around for a momentarily better de…

What does it mean to act in a moral way? One of the answers the philosopher Immanuel Kant formulated to this question can be paraphrased this way: “Never treat people merely as a means to an end, but always as an end in and of themselves, too.” We all treat people as means sometimes, and […]

Rubber duck technique for improving your code and design

Avoid Interference Between Horizontal and Vertical Refactorings

Many businesses thrive by helping people deal with projects that feel like they have high stakes. A kid’s first haircut, the offsite storage of data backup, an upcoming family reunion, a medi…

Back in the 5th Century BC, the philosopher Democritus was the first person to conceive of the idea of atoms. That the universe was made up of tiny,

In a world perpetually online, I found solace in Arctic silences. Bookended by sleepless nights and jet lag, my journey led me to question: What truly matters when we unplug? Beyond the glare of sc…

“Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no” and no can be just as frightening. First, there’s the no of &…

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?