Betterment

It’s time to get serious about how we show up in remote meetings. For a year, we slogged through it, but it was exhausting. Not only did we feel lousy at the end of the day, but other people …

Octavian Caesar Augustus adopted a simple principle to help him solve problems and reach his goals: Festina lente, or "make haste slowly."

I’ve started keeping notes on papers in Obsidian and I thought I’d share the workflow, which so far is pretty straightforward and easy to set up. This uses the binary file manager plugin and the annotator plugin.

Back in 1971, Ilon Specht, a fun, 23-year-old New York advertising copywriter, sat down at her desk at McCann-Erickson, one of the big Madison Avenue

We’re quick to stop to see the car wreck, the billionaire having a meltdown, or the professional wrestlers pretending to be political leaders. But it often seems more difficult to take a mome…

Most things that consumers acquire are bought, not sold. We decide we’re interested in something and we go shopping to get it. Potato chips, wedding venues and cars are all purchased by peopl…

The race to the bottom has been won. Anything cheaper than what’s on offer is a waste of the customer’s money, because it won’t get the job done. Once we’ve cut every corner…

Flashcards should be the base for learning any memory-intensive subject, mnemonics layered on top (if that).

Introduction: In today's fast-paced world, where productivity and work-life balance often seem like distant goals, finding effective strategies to stay on top of your game has become crucial. One such method that has gained significant attention is Jordan Belfort's "Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling." By combining the principles of persuasive selling with practical productivity techniques, this approach offers a comprehensive framework to boost productivity while maintaining a healthy work-

They’re toxic, wasteful and a tempting trap. It’s one of the most important topics in my new book. (And here’s a new podcast on it). We need proxies. You’re not allowed to r…

If a placebo heals your illness, does that mean it was all in your head in the first place? That you weren’t really sick, or didn’t really want to get better? If expensive wine tastes b…

You want to make your move. Launch your idea. Throw your hat in the ring. But your competitors look awfully intimidating.  They got there first. They own that space. And if their social media feeds are any indication, they’re absolutely killing it in every possible way. From afar, your rivals seem to possess a mythical, […]

Assets are ownable. They are devices, skills, connections or properties that allow us to amplify our effort and do our work with more impact. A drill press is an asset, so is your law degree. The p…

In his book, “The Practice: Shipping Creative Work,” our old friend Seth Godin, talks about how creativity thrives under restraints. He tells the story of

Somebody once asked Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic, why he was so successful. He must be terribly clever! Adams replied, paraphrasing, that

A new study explores how people's preferences for immediate or delayed happiness can shape their behavior and overall well-being.

In the mid-1980s, David Hemery set out to answer a burning question: “What makes a winner?” Hemery was a winner himself, having taken the gold in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1968 Olympics. He was curious as to what contributed to this achievement, and to the achievements of others. Were there common qualities amongst those […]

When the gas car was first introduced, it couldn’t compete with horses. After all, we’d had thousands of years to optimize our systems around horseback, and this new technology was stil…

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer shares a few of his favorite things.

The biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson visits his archive, which, after getting the Marie Kondo treatment, is on exhibit at the New-York Historical Society.

The course focuses on taming a ubiquitous emotion. But what about addressing its root causes?

Boring résumés can lead to fewer interview opportunities. Here's what to check for if you're searching for a new job.

I’ve been thinking about retirement lately. I’m not retired, at least I don’t think I am, though moving on from The Recount has left me uncertain about how to answer the inevitabl…

A question we don’t ask ourselves very often, but a choice we make every day. It’s tempting to not care. If you choose to not care, you’re off the hook. It’s simply to do as…

Tips for developers on getting into flow states

Do we underinvest in learning? An exploration of the logic of learn-or-delegate decisions.