Self Improvement

Years ago, I was watching some trashy reality TV show. A woman was yelling at another woman during a fight, “Go ahead! I don’t care about what other people think of me!” Her rant couldn’t have made the opposite more obvious.

Our caring is the manifestation of our mental and emotional energy. It is a depleting resource. We become fixated on things we said, on not knowing an answer, or indulged in the menu of endless faux pas.

Meanwhile, research shows that people’s opinions of us don’t substantively impact our life. Yet we are enslaved and eager for approval. It’s…

Self Improvement

Mike Tyson is the father of my favorite sports quote. Reporters were questioning him about his new opponent. They were building up the rivalry, talking about how dangerous this rival was, how he planned to keep Tyson at a distance with his jab, how he planned to wear him down.

Getting annoyed with the questions, Mike looked up from tying his shoes and said, “Everyone has a plan — until they get hit.” It’s so perfectly translatable to life. Everyone is on a diet, until they get hungry. Everyone wants good grades, until it’s time to study. …

Self Improvement

I feared for my life on the third mile. It was a five-mile lake swim and I’d gone too fast on the first leg. Stars danced in my goggles. My mouth was dry. A swimmer had recently died in an open water swim. My mind was enjoying replaying that fact in my mind. The threat was real. If you fainted, you drowned.

As a sprinter, I had no business being in this race. Coaches are known for bad ideas. This was one. Fortunately, I survived. But I felt like I was hallucinating as I emerged onshore.

I’ve faced many harrowing…

Fiction

Angie and Tim’s story began through the sheer chance of two people sitting by each other. They sat through predictably-boring freshman orientation. Tim asked her mundane questions he already knew the answer to. He nodded in gratitude as she explained. He whispered a few bad jokes that she graciously laughed at.

From there, Tim found reasons to bump into her at various junctions. He eventually confronted the awe-inspiring terror of asking a woman out and succeeded. There were no games or illusions. Bound by laughter and conversation, their courtship moved forward by mutual feelings and earnest intent. …

Entrepreneurship

Greedy players are crushed by cheaper competitors. Shoddy products are usurped by quality alternatives.

In the arms of buyers and sellers, free markets have a way of sorting things out. Capitalism is beautifully efficient and unforgiving. Unfortunately, a free market’s conceptual beauty is rarely matched by its operational reality.

This was particularly true in the late 19th century, as archaic business laws enabled monopolies to stomp about unhindered.

One businessman found himself singlehandedly taking on an all-powerful monopoly. It threatened to destroy his livelihood, and means of unveiling his own brilliance.

The origins of genius

Not every genius gives birth to another genius. But…

Self Improvement

It’s almost a crime that we don’t educate children on cognitive biases. They aren’t subtle. They radically alter how we interact with the world.

People are excessively hard on themselves. They hang on to ancient grievances. They make misinformed decisions in full confidence. They give themselves undue credit and perpetuate flaws. Cognitive bias can cost you time, money, jobs, and friendships. They fuel some of the dumbest decisions you’ll ever make.

Here are four significant cognitive biases and how to beat them.

Your False Confidence Kills Your Empathy

Psychologist, Paul Piff, ran a famous social experiment using Monopoly. In dozens of iterations, scientists brought in two…

I shudder when I think about ‘the moment’.

It’s that instant you realize pushing send was a very bad move. The balloon gets away. You watch your ill-advised email disappear into the mist, destined to return with new friends and bitter consequences.

The worst I’ve seen was at my former office. An employee sent our internal budget to a key customer. It detailed how much money we were making off this customer, and clearly showed we were overcharging them. …

Self Improvement

Imagine you’re offered a million dollars to predict whether a stranger is a good or bad student. Your only data will be bullet point facts about them.

If your only bullet point said, ‘shows up on time’, you wouldn’t have much to work with. If your facts included, ‘shows up on time’, and ‘pays attention’, things get better. If you add, ‘studies three hours per day’, you’ll probably feel much safer about your million-dollar guess.

All of the above are correlative to good grades. Their statistical weights vary but they all stack. If we pivot and apply this same logic…