Category: Life
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Language builds culture
In Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara highlights one of restaurateur Danny Meyers’ key insights: “Danny has always understood how language can build culture by making essential concepts easy to understand and to teach. He is brilliant at coining phrases around common experiences, potential pitfalls, and favorable outcomes.” Whether you want to call them mottos, memes, or…
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Don’t beat them, don’t join them
I’ve heard a couple of times from friends that they’re trying to stop using social networks. The keyword is try. It’s been difficult, to say the least. The thumb seems to have a mind of its own. Social networks are not only incredibly exciting to experience, they’re also literally how many people keep in touch. …
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The time it takes
Some of the most dangerous driving happens when a person leaves late and still tries to make it to the destination on time. They figure they’ll save time in traffic. Or, in other words, they rush. Experts do not rush. Experts know how long a process inherently needs to take. They embrace the German word…
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The decisiveness advantage
David C. Baker writes in The Business of Expertise: “After looking at 1,340 examples of successful experts, the only consistent trait was that they were risk-takers. That means that they were wrong a lot — but that they were usually right about the important things. It also means that they always made decisions. They weren’t…
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“It depends”
In order for someone to give you an answer, they need to understand your question. That doesn’t just mean they’ll listen to your question; they need to know what you’re asking them. That’s why sometimes even with the most helpful of intentions, the answer is still, “It depends.” There are way too many facts they…
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Seasons
People who seem to get a lot done don’t make progress on everything at the same time; rather, they make focused progress in spurts on one thing at a time. These experiences can seem like seasons, though it can happen more than four times per year (i.e., quarterly planning). One perspective is microseasons. Another is…
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Stone soup
This is a classic fable about a group of travellers showing up to a village with an empty pot. The villagers are unwilling to feed the travellers, so the travellers put a stone in the pot and boil water. The travellers offer to share their stone soup with some of the villagers, though the soup…
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Stir the pot
There’s a special type of luck that emerges just from taking enough action; enough shots at bat. You gather a hundred pieces of information. You take notes on a dozen of them, and they find your way into your brain. One of those notes enables you to understand people’s problems. You talk to dozens of…
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Do it
“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” Vincent van Gogh
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Forgetting and updating
Andy Nulman writes at Medium, “The “Forgetting Curve” I am championing though is way more self managing and practical. It would require — no, force — us to let go of old ways, preconceived notions, out-of-date processes and deeply-ingrained predispositions.” Forgetting isn’t always a bad thing; it’s sometimes just as important to forget, or to…