Category: A Matter of Time
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Basketball evolved because its inventor let go of control
On December 21, 1891, there was a big blizzard in Springfield, Massachusetts. Students wouldn’t be able to go outside for days. A thirty-year-old Canadian teacher at the YMCA Training School, James Naismith, had to figure out how to keep his students busy. James started off with a game of indoor football, which was too violent,…
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Help the best idea win
Ken Kocienda asks in his book, Creative Selection, “Two people have imagined two cute puppies. I assert mine is cuter. What do we do now? Do we have a cuteness argument?” Of course not. The solution is simple: in order to conduct a debate on the topic, the two people need to find pictures of…
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Highlighting the practice
My friend Nik wrote something kind about me and this blog. I really appreciated this excerpt: A writer who can maintain a daily blog through the chaotic storm that everyday life can be is a much stronger writer than someone who only types when they feel like they have the time for it — and…
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Determination vs. desperation
At some point in your life, you will need to cut off your options and make a critical decision. You send a message out to yourself, and to everyone else, that you are committed to follow through. There’s no other option for you. All the epic metaphors come to mind—you are making a leap of…
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Read your old journals
Writing a journal is nice, but it’s just as rewarding—maybe even moreso—to go back and read it. It’ll give you hints—or direct advice—when you feel confused. I highly recommend adding your own old journals to your reading list. One helpful technique is to combine sources—for example, you can look at a journal entry from 10…
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Choosing how you feel
My friend Peter has been running Barrel, which has grown into Barrel Holdings, for 18 years. In the past, he’d constantly feel the worries of what could go wrong the following week, even on holidays. If you’re an entrepreneur or independent, you’ll know exactly what Peter means—when the buck stops with you, you’re ultimately responsible…
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You made it!
There’s a popular post circulating online that suggests men shouldn’t celebrate their birthdays because they—we!—should celebrate achievements, not existence. While I could relate to it, and I felt incredibly surprised as my perspective is the exact opposite, the main point I want to make is this: If you manage to make it another year around…
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The work vs. the strategy
The films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have made nearly $30 billion in box office sales. The studio spent around $7 billion of that to make the films. That’s an incredibly successful film franchise—the highest grossing one of all time. Naturally, film studios are trying to copy it. And yet, Marvel’s chief creative officer Kevin…
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One sitting vs. many sittings
When you commit to making something, and not stopping until you’re finished, you’re tapping into an incredibly powerful energy. This is the power of one sitting. It has the same energy as a sprint. For example, hackathons take this force to the extreme, stretching the time window out to a full day or two. If…