Betterment

A Zettelkasten is a personal tool for thinking and writing that creates an interconnected web of thought. Its emphasis is on connection and not mere collection of ideas.

It’s interesting to realize that mirrors weren’t perfected until a few hundred years ago. Human beings spend a lot of time considering our own appearance and our own feelings and most o…

It’s so tempting to simply begin painting a wall. After all, it’s pretty easy to lay down paint. But it turns out that masking and dropcloths, painstakingly put into place, save many ho…

Have you ever known someone who becomes more conservative when he’s part of a liberal community, and more liberal when he’s part of a conservative one? This behavior — being contrarian seemingly for the sake of being contrarian — can seem a little silly. But these gadflies perform a great service for the communities to […]

Successful treaties calm things down and let us get back to what’s really important. Sometimes, the fight becomes the entire point. Not surprisingly, when we’re busy fighting a war in o…

We spend much of our worrying time on crises. Our media is filled with warnings, coverage and fear of cataclysms. The big boom, the sudden end, the crash. In fact, rot is far more common. Things de…

Recently, Justin Pearson, a Black Democratic lawmaker in Memphis, Tennessee, made international news when he delivered a stunning speech that went viral.

Roller coasters are one of the safest ways to travel (they end up where they begin, but that’s a different story). People pay to ride on them because they feel risky, even if they’re no…

This image was inspired by an idea from the Econtalk podcast interview #854 with the economist and blogger, Tyler Cowen, around his recent book, “Talent:

And it changes over time. You and I know what to do when we see a revolving door, or to speak quietly in a library. We have expectations of how the world works and what designers are saying with th…

For the ancient Greeks, eudaimonia was considered the highest human good. While the word doesn’t easily translate into English, it roughly corresponds to a happy, flourishing life — to a life well-lived. Eudaimonia wasn’t a destination — a nirvana that, once reached, initiated a state of bliss. Happiness wasn’t something you felt, but that you did; it was […]

We spend almost no time teaching toddlers about freedom. Instead, the lessons we teach (and learn) for our entire lives are about responsibility. It’s easy to teach freedom, but important to …

It’s one thing to learn everything there is to learn about being a surgeon. It’s another thing entirely to actually be one. The same holds true for most

It’s almost impossible to safely drive a car while only looking in the rear view mirror. Only seeing where you’ve been is a terrible way to figure out where to go. But it’s really…

One of the spokespeople for the new milk marketing campaign confessed that she doesn’t really like drinking milk. Sales are way down, and an entire generation is drinking other beverages. Other tha…

A useful metaphor for freelancers and small businesses. Every good restaurant should have two different salads on the menu. The boring salad is the regular kind. It’s there for people who kno…

More than ever, we’re pushed to have certainty. Strong opinions, tightly held and loudly proclaimed. And then, when reality intervenes, it can be stressful. The software stack, business model…

Be a great conversationalist with these 53 "get to know you" questions to ask, including conversation starters and essential DO's and DON'Ts!

Lots of organizations (and individuals) have plans and processes for getting the word out. In fact, we spend trillions of dollars doing so. Do you have a plan for getting the word in? Is it simply …

To accelerate innovation, we first need to increase our quantity of insights.

Debt is a financial miracle. If you buy a property for 20% down, with the bank financing the rest, and it goes up in value by just 10%, your profit is 50%. (I’ll wait while you do the math.) …

Have you been using ChatGPT in your learning efforts? Share some of your tips!

Tom announced his retirement today, at 80 years old, after 45 years of Excellence and perhaps 10,000,000 miles flown. I remember a photo of him sleeping on a bench in an airport in Siberia. I remem…

Dear friends, In mid-1978, I was summoned to New York City to meet with the Managing Director of McKinsey & Co. When I did so, I was given an assignment. McKinsey developed genius strategies. But the clients by and large couldn’t implement them. What was going on? Answering that question, [more]

Now it’s a business model. People are regularly fooled by crypto scams, NFT hype, opioid felons, algorithmic spam at scale, health claims, illogical political arguments, fundraising pitches, …

There are thousands of ways to express encouragement and enthusiasm and support. Few of them require a blood oath or even much inconvenience. “I’m thrilled that you’re contributin…

Early in my career, I was subjected to the so-called “bring me a rock” phenomenon and the experience left me with a sense of frustration which has stuck with me ever since. This phenomenon happens when a manager cannot or will not communicate their goals clearly and succinctly. Subordinates repeatedly try to fulfill their manager’s...

One way to do it is to get people to want what you want. The other way is to help them get what they want in a way that gets you what you want. They’re not the same. Changing what someone wan…