How many people looked brilliant in 2008, just before losing it all when the housing market crashed? How about before the market tanked following 9/11? Or any other time in history? The past is littered with examples of people who “had it all figured out” until suddenly, they didn’t. When I hear people talking now …

Within corporate hierarchies, and generally most situations in which work is being conducted, virtually anyone has the power to stop progress. Sometimes it comes via a raised hand and associated questioning, sometimes throughout deliberate intentions to derail a project, and sometimes simply by failing to carry through on assignments. Starting, on the other hand, can …

…if you’ve decided to go your own unique way, you can’t go around judging yourself against people who are going theirs (or worse, blindly following a path they don’t even understand). We have to stick to our calling and leave everyone else to theirs. Ryan Holiday, link -Brandon

Meetings are generally easy to attend. Show up at a certain place at a certain time, and you have successfully attended a meeting. Working on our own time is more challenging. It requires us to set aside all other distractions to focus on the task at hand. Some people tend to default to meetings. It …

A simple smile can instantly improve our likeability. Knowing this, some people walk around with a fake smile permanently painted on their face. But if deployed incorrectly, an always-on smile can actually have the opposite effect . Just think about a politician walking through a crowd with shockingly white teeth always gleaming out from between …

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The topic of significant digits is a joke in school. It seems ridiculous that it should matter how we format a number. But there are few ways to lose my respect faster than telling me that a system is 82.352941176% accurate after 14 of your 17 tests pass. It shows a complete misunderstanding of statistical …

If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry a person, go on a trip), just don’t do it. It does not mean that one reason is better than two, just that by invoking more than one reason you are trying to …

“ONLY USE RUBBER PLATES ON THIS PLATFORM!!!” That’s what a sign at my gym reads. It’s right next to one of the six deadlift platforms at the gym, and it’s directly over the rack of rubber-coated weights. Does the sign mean that it’s ok to use any type of plate on the platform, but that …

There are a few ways to approach a customer relationship. You can: Acknowledge that it’s a short-term relationship and take a transactional approach Act as if you care about the long game yet still take a transactional approach Take a fake long-term approach Take an authentic long-term approach Car shopping is a good way to …