Category: Turning Stories
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Buy less junk food for better portion control, even if it means paying more
One of the best ways to eat less junk food is to make sure you don’t have any in the house. It generally works because you make eating junk food less convenient. If you really want it, you have to work for it. There’s an extension of the original rule: buy less of it, so…
Herbert Lui
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In praise of scruffy writing
A friend of mine recently published a new book and asked for my advice for promoting it. Fortunately, I wrote a post on the topic, so I sent them the link. (It’s much easier for me to find a link to a post from my blog than a post at a social media platform.) At…
Herbert Lui
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Creative risk and precursive faith
A property of any project that involves imagination—including entrepreneurship, art, writing, etc.—is the risk that it might not work. It’s not feasible to gain much certainty on the project, or even to control how it turns out. One really helpful framework is precursive faith: believing in the work ahead of seeing any evidence. You need…
Herbert Lui
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Taking a break from writing a new book
Earlier this year, I gave myself several weeks to finish up my next book. I mapped it out on a paper calendar. I knew it was a short timeframe—it felt unrealistic and stressful!—and I still gave it a shot. Unfortunately, I was right. While I didn’t get to finish the final draft of the book,…
Herbert Lui
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Reading more, again, gently
I recently noticed I hadn’t been reading as much as I’d liked. So one evening, I set the alarm 20 minutes earlier than usual. The next morning, I woke up and I read. I really enjoyed this experience, so I did it again the next day. This has been happening for the past week and…
Herbert Lui
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Success shouldn’t be an excuse
Success fails when it’s used as a socially acceptable excuse to keep you safe from exploring the unknown, and committing to discover your contribution. If you promise yourself that you’ll feel more secure about the future once you’ve accumulated more savings, you also commit to experiencing high stress and dissatisfaction until that achievement. If you…
Herbert Lui
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Some slight adjustments for people who take photos to remember moments
Taking photos can often make a moment more difficult to remember. Linda Henkel wrote the first academic paper on this tendency, describing it as “photo taking impairment.” Subsequent studies have replicated this finding. One of the potential explanations is that our brains know it doesn’t need to remember the experience, because the photograph will help.…
Herbert Lui
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Everyday choices
Every day, you have the opportunity to make choices. More often than not, these choices will sound something like: Do I choose the painful, gratifying path, or do I choose the easy, comfortable path? You want to make a change in your life, and you’re too tired after work. Will you wake up 15 minutes…
Herbert Lui
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The way through
Sean Blanda’s reflection on one year of running his business has been on my mind the past few weeks, particularly his reflection on ego: I have had a wandering eye — which in my case, means roughly six domains were registered with good intentions and I was late in the process with a few companies…
Herbert Lui
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The middle path
Starting in the 1990s, Europe and the U.S. outsourced manufacturing to China for a variety of reasons (mostly because it was cheaper). MIT economist David Autor coined the term “China Shock” to describe this trend, which took place suddenly over seven years. While stuff got cheaper, and American companies’ margins got bigger, this disruption also…
Herbert Lui