When making a purchase, there’s generally a trade-off between cost, timing, and quality. You can get a good quality product quickly, but it’ll cost you. You can get a good quality product cheaply, but don’t expect it to come quickly. And you can get a cheap product quickly, but don’t expect it to be durable. …
There’s a myth in the engineering community that every problem can be broken down to a single “root cause.” Overall, I agree with the mindset. Root cause analysis helps us to look past symptoms so the true problem can be identified and addressed. But in complex situations, it isn’t realistic to assume that a problem …
We shouldn’t need to be polite to the people closest to us. Niceties are primarily meant for strangers, or people with whom we’re trying to build a relationship. We don’t know each other well enough to say exactly what’s on our mind, so we coat our message in excessive politeness to keep from coming across …
I recently realized that my perception of responsibility is highly dependent upon the outcome of the event. As a team that I led was heading into a decision with positive expectations, I firmly believed that my input had very little do with the potential success of my team. I thought about all of the positive …
Seth Godin likes to use what might be the single most useful phrase in sales: “you’ll pay a lot but you’ll get more than you paid for.” If you can deliver on this promise, the power is almost limitless. Maintaining low prices is one way to win market share, but unless you have the scale …
I’ve lost track of the number of people who have told me I’m crazy because I believe that I can stop hiccups on command. They say that hiccups are an “involuntary muscle spasms” and that there’s no way to intentionally prevent the spasm once hiccups start. But the next time that I get the hiccups, …
There’s a common saying around the carpentry world: Measure twice, cut once. There are two key parts to this. First, it’s worth being certain that your measurement is right before making any irreversible cuts. It’s easy to mark the wrong line on a ruler, measure from the wrong point, or forget your measurement; so double-checking …
Long plane rides are boring. Cut off from the connected world that we’re used to living in, we’re stuck trying to pass the time by watching random movies, listening to music, and reading books. But if we change the mindset, this time can actually present a unique opportunity. Without the distractions of everyday life, we’re …
Technology has made global coordination an afterthought. It’s common practice for project teams to include multiple members from different continents all seamlessly working together. Phone, email, IM, and video calls make it feel like you’re working across the street from your colleagues rather than across the world. But despite all of the amazing technological strides …
On a Monday night in historic Aachen, Germany the town square is packed. Friends and family are out in bunches hoping to enjoy a lovely summer evening together. They aren’t in a hurry. They don’t have an objective. They’re just there to enjoy life. Maybe that’s something we could all use a bit more of. …