“I would have been here ten minutes earlier if I hadn’t been stuck behind that Meanderthal.”
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Who decides the rhythm of your day? When are you at your best, when do you drag? In the old days, when we worked on the assembly line or even in sync at the office or at school, there were good reasons to adopt the timing that was assigned to us. But perhaps it makes sense to take control and ...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
As I write this, they’re laying a brick wall outside of my window. Each brick weighs about five pounds. There are a thousand bricks in this wall. And every brick is moved, one by one, from the truck to the cart to the wall. Over time, any inefficient move is costly indeed. Watching professiona...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Harvard, Dartmouth and Stanford are always full. The value of their degree is largely based on scarcity. There are always more people who want to get in than they will allow. That’s intentional. Artificial scarcity to create a credential that appears valuable. Harvard has enough endowme...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
We often send metaphorical letters to our past selves, berating the choices we’ve made. We express regret about missed opportunities or past mistakes. It’s easy to blame our younger selves for the mess we’re in. What would you say to your future self? And how would you feel whe...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
The perfect avocado… Sometimes they’re too hard, and often, they’re rotten. But every once in a while, you’ll nurture an avocado until it’s at the peak state of flavor and texture. You certainly aren’t going to waste it. You’re not going to sacrifi...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
That’s the opposite of, “count me out.” Either you seek to unite and be part of it. Or to divide and watch it go away. Whatever ‘it’ might be. We can seek to trigger those we’ve decided are our enemies, undermine the standards and burn it all down. Or we...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
The windmills aren’t the problem, it’s the tilting. In Cervantes’ day, ’tilting’ was a word for jousting. You tilted your lance at an enemy and attacked. Don Quijote was noted for believing that the windmills in the distance were giants, and he spent his days on ...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
If you put the jelly on before the peanut butter, the sandwich will fail. And if you try to spread the peanut butter on the plate and then add the bread, it will fail even worse. Like so many things, the order is not optional. And yet, we often do the least-scary or easiest parts first, re...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
We might be settling scores or we might be opening doors. It’s up to us. Grievance and possibility have confusing roots. Grievance isn’t about grieving. In fact, it’s the opposite. Grievance is the narrative of getting even. Possibility doesn’t itemize everything ...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Weight is a useful measure. 10 pounds is twice as much as 5 pounds. Measuring things and then ranking them effectively enables us to make better choices and to scale up our operations. Sometimes, though, in our rush to standardize and process a complicated world, we begin to measure things th...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
For most products and services, we rate them on a curve. Of course the seat on the discount airline was cramped, but that’s okay because it was cheap. Of course this Camry doesn’t look or ride like a Porsche, don’t be stupid… But, the opposite is true in the high en...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
“Where do you get your ideas?” The thing is, everyone has ideas. All the time, every day. Having ideas is part of the human condition. The right questions might be: Are you exposing yourself to new inputs and new situations, and challenging yourself to find more interesting ide...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Because wishes don’t always come true, but wishing takes a lot of time and energy and focus. What you wish for determines how you’re spending a juicy part of your day. If you wish for something you can’t control, that might fill you with frustration or distract you from wishing...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
The phone company didn’t care what sort of conversation you were having. The call was the call. Same is true for cable–what you watched didn’t matter to them. The reason retail banks are so frustrating to many customers is that because they began with a geographic focus, they&#...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
If there’s scarcity, we need to make choices. Who gets hired, what website shows up at the top of the search results, who gets a loan. And while we can make those choices on a case by case basis, at scale, we rely on algorithms instead. A series of coded steps, inferences and decision-m...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Lawyers are fond of this. And sometimes, parents are too. At least you won’t get blamed if something goes wrong. It turns out that we don’t need an abundance of caution. We need appropriate caution. They’re different things. Abundant caution is wasted. Things like ripe...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Publishers take two risks to bring new ideas to the world. (And I’m talking about any middleperson–a gallerist, a TV network, a movie studio, a label–they’re all publishers). One risk is the time and money spent attracting and supporting the creator/artist. And the ...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Is it the same as “doing well on some tests”? Because that’s what we report–that perhaps 240 times in a college career, you sat down for a test and did well on it. That’s hardly the same as doing well in school. Where do we look up insight on your resilience, enthusiasm...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
(There are some fractions here, please persist. It’s worth it.) Imagine that you have a daily drive. Half of it by distance is on dirt roads where your car can drive 10 miles an hour. And half of it is on a good road where you can drive 50 miles an hour. Which is a better choice: Tradin...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
March is the perfect time to go on a world tour from your living room. In the Northern Hemisphere, early March offers perfect weather for shipping, and a blissful shortage of Hallmark holidays and cheap chocolate. Megan Giller and I have put together a series of interviews (and tastings!) of dar...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Some people get one. Most people don’t. But, if you’re reading this, it means that you’ve received more than one, perhaps a countless number of, little breaks. Access to tools, the benefit of the doubt, decent health, occasional peace of mind. Little breaks. Over and over. Little b...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Independent workers, founders, creators and organizers are often lumped together with a simple term, but that one-size-fits-all model fits no one. You might be an entrepreneur, building a significant business by borrowing money to buy machines or to develop a market, focused on creating value, i...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
Ski slopes are marked by difficulty. The green circle indicates the easiest slope, the one that will get you to the base of the hill the fastest, with the least amount of risk or drama. Why would anyone choose to ski down on the difficult black diamond run instead? Most passionate skiers would ask t...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
How to get better at graphic design… There are more amateur and semi-pro graphic designers working today than at any point in human history. Presentations, instagram posts, websites, the cover of your kindle book or the logo for your podcast–anyone who’s touching a phone or ...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
This article first appeared on Seth's Blog
“What’s different?” Because we rarely notice what’s the same. It’s not easy to focus on the chronic. In fact, it’s really difficult. Too often we are in organizations that are highly leveraged, living from quarter to quarter, or we’re depending on clients or...Read More Source: Seth's Blog
