Category: Life
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Signs of maturity
A bias for calmness and inner peace. A stronger confidence that things will work out in the long run. Patience. An open-mindedness to what’s new, while still preferring your own taste. An ability to feel small for a short time, knowing that’s what it takes to be the bigger person. Appreciating youthful energy, as you…
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A letter from the past
8 years ago, I wrote a letter to my 35-year-old self. I expected to find it embarrassing (some of it is!), so I was surprised to find that there was some good stuff in there. I really emphasized, “Your opinion of you is really the only [thing] that matters.” In a way, I told myself…
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Making mistakes, with grace
You’re going to make a lot of mistakes. If you didn’t learn how to make mistakes gracefully, here’s one way to do it: Acknowledge the mistake. Apologize to someone if you’ve caused them pain or done something wrong. Make an effort to make things right and to lower the odds of it happening again, and…
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Old friends
Old friends know the past versions of you very well. However, those experiences and images make it difficult for them to see new versions of you. If they are opposed to change, and don’t want to lose you as a friend, your desire to grow in a different direction will feel painful to them. They…
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Trust summaries (AI or otherwise) at your own risk
A very specialized, expert, government trial suggests that AI underperforms compared to people at summarizing information. Reading a book summary is not the same as reading a book. In fact, you miss the most important parts of the book when you read the summary. Worse yet, you may even fool yourself into thinking you know…
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“Return on Investment”
One key to surviving in business is to make sure the money you put into it is producing (or going to produce) a larger amount of money. There are a lot of ways to measure this—one simple one is known as “Return on Investment” (ROI for short). The calculation is simple: “Net Return” divided by…
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Record, rewrite, rehearse
The next time you prepare for a job interview (or sales call, important meeting, etc.), take a few minutes to recall previous job interviews and note the common questions. Anticipate some new upcoming questions and write them down. Record yourself answering each question out loud. Listen to your answers. How does each answer sound? What…
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Some nice quotes
Dylan O’Sullivan posts some really great classic work into his X feed (I believe he runs the Infinite Books one as well). Here are some that have been rattling around my brain: C.S. Lewis: No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current…
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Progress in restraint
Earlier this year, I decided to make “restraint” the one-word theme of the year. I wouldn’t call it fun, however there’s no doubt it has made my life richer. Here are five notes on how it’s going: Some more observations related to restraint:
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5 pieces I re-read recently
I recently pulled up some of my old work to re-read, either because the ideas came up in conversation or were related to something that I was thinking about or feeling. They were great reminders for me, and maybe they’ll be helpful for you too: The work needs to be enough: A creative manifesto: “To…