Some people are great generalists. They aren’t great at any one thing, but they can do it all decently well. Others are the exact opposite. They aren’t knowledgeable on many topics, but they know a lot about one thing (think of a PhD student). You could try making a team with a bunch of generalists, …
A diverse company shouldn’t only have one version of their overview, just like a person shouldn’t have one version of their resume. I don’t want my plumber doing my taxes, and I don’t necessarily look for the same qualities in my coworkers as I do with my friends. And I’m far from the only person …
Community is composed of that which we don’t attempt to measure, for which we have no record and ask no recompense. Most are things we cannot measure no matter how hard we try. – Dee Hock – Brandon
If you ask for a pound of meat, a savvy butcher will almost always give you a bit more. They certainly won’t measure out 0.97 or 0.98 pounds. It’ll probably be 1.03, 1.06 or even 1.10. It’s simple business strategy. In the seconds after you order, the butcher has the chance to increase revenue up …
Watch enough sporting events, and you’ll understand that you can’t judge a game until the end of the fourth quarter (or second half, third period, etc.). The list of “unbelievable” comebacks and collapses is staggering. But we tend to forget this outside of sports. There are countless stories of people who became wildly successful after …
Within the “lifestyle design” genre, it’s commonly taught that we should try to plan our life around our ideal day. The lesson typically goes something like this, “Imagine your ideal Saturday. Now think about how you can design your life so every day is as close to that “perfect” day as possible.” It generally makes …
Imagine that, one day, someone decides to sort through the office mail and distribute the relevant material to the appropriate people. Let’s call this person the Mail Sorter. Realizing how much people like the service, the Mail Sorter decides to do it the next day. And the next day. Pretty soon, everyone else in the …
Question: What advice would you give to a smart, drive college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore? Answer: Don’t try to find your passion. Instead master some skill, interest, or knowledge that others find valuable. It almost doesn’t matter what it is at the start. You don’t have to …
Envisioning our end results can be a strong motivator. We think about the reward at the end (pride, a trophy, money, recognition, etc.) and we get the urge to push on. But the results can’t be the only thing that drives us. No matter how hard we work, the end results are never guaranteed. We …
Where do you look when shooting a basketball (or a dart, soccer ball, or anything similar)? If you’re like most people, a lot of time and effort goes into developing the physical shooting technique, but much less thought goes into the mindset when the shot actually happens. Taking basketball as an example, you could look …