One of my favorite early lessons in entrepreneurship was the idea of working “on” your business instead of merely working “in” your business. To see the distinction, imagine running a restaurant. Here, working “in” the business is clear. Make delicious food. Offer great service to your customers. Keep the place clean and inviting. Being able […]
Book Club: Average Is Over (November 2017)
Last month we read Average Is Over by Tyler Cowen. In this eye-opening book, renowned economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that high earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence in data analysis and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, low earners who haven’t committed to learning, to making the most of new technologies, have […]
Know Your Competition
Almost all human accomplishments are, directly or indirectly, judged in competition with others. This is most directly true in domains such as sports or entertainment, where awards and trophies go to some, and not others. What matters here isn’t absolute performance, but relative performance. Absolute performance can often go up and up, yet because it […]
Are Successful People Just Putting in More Effort?
As someone who writes advice for a living, I’m always interested in the ways advice works, how it gets distorted and what the typical advice-receiver can do about it. Recently, I came across some research that suggests a new way advice-givers aren’t being totally honest with you: paternalistic advice bias. Here’s the abstract, from the […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.