A friend of mine was asked recently to share his advice to a group of people. His advice was, “do what you say you’ll do.” People will remember when you break promises, but they won’t remember when you help them out. I think this is great advice about the importance of being reliable. People expect […]
Sprinting Theory: How to Have Self-Discipline on Steroids
There ain’t no such thing as willpower. Explaining away wins and losses by some magical force is only useful if you don’t understand anything about your own psychology. Having concrete theories about why your self-discipline can fail you is far more useful. I’m going to explore one of those ideas for putting your self-discipline on […]
Riding the Tipping Point: 6 Tips for Using Exponential Growth
If nobody can work 100 times harder than you, then how can some people earn 100, 1 000 or even a 1 000 000 times the results? The answer is that most problems don’t work on a straight line, giving the same amount of results for each hour you invest. The Stonecutter’s Dilemma is a […]
Feeling Overwhelmed?
How can you do it all? Running a marathon, setting up a successful business, getting organized and achieving your dreams aren’t easy to do. Even after you take the important step of deciding what you want out of life, it is hard not to be overwhelmed by the size of everything you want to accomplish. […]
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.