A mistake I’ve made too often, is falling into “single flaw” thinking. This is where you spend time trying to find the single cause for your lack of success in some complex problem. For example, in the first couple years of trying to start a business, I was struggling to make an income. In that […]
Why You’re Exhausted But Not Improving
Early in my business I remember going months without making any increase in revenue. Despite this, I was exhausted from trying to keep up with my business. I was working hard, but getting no results. Eventually I learned a distinction that changed how I viewed work. Now my business grows faster, even though I’m working […]
Developing an Appetite for Hard Ideas
Richard Feynman, professor and Nobel-prize winning physicist purportedly only had an IQ of 125. Smart, but hardly in the rarefied spectrum we normally consider for genius. This trivia is usually brought up to show the ridiculousness of IQ testing. If an obvious genius doesn’t qualify for Mensa, how valid can it be for normal people? […]
Is Obsession a Prerequisite for Success?
In chemistry, there’s the idea of an activation cost. This is the threshold of energy you need to surpass to start a chemical reaction. Dynamite, for example, contains a lot of energy. But unless a spark or lit fuse pays the activation cost it won’t explode. Life also has activation costs. There are many pursuits […]
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.