Work Like You’re Already Fired
What if you only had two weeks left to work at your company? What if you knew you were leaving, or if you knew you were going to be fired? But what if you still really wanted to make an […]
Startup Scaling Is the Most Addictive Game
The rules change constantly. Sometimes there are no rules. Sometimes there are so many rules you have to go rogue. There are dozens and hundreds of characters with unique personalities and motivations. You don’t know which ones are friends. What works […]
Cultivate a Healthy Fear of FOMO (“FOFOMO”, If You Will)
Fear of missing out: it’s what took me out onto Broadway in Nashville Saturday night, after I knew I should have been going home. It’s what almost made me go out tonight instead of finishing a long-term project. It’s what […]
Want To Get Perspective? Become a Cultural Tour Guide
Want to appreciate your world/country/city/culture more? A lot of people say you should do things like “being a tourist in your own town.” While that’s not a bad idea, I’d suggest looking into being the *tour guide*, too. This weekend […]
Dancing Is the Highest Form of Networking
Tonight at a wedding I met the head of a significant organization in my industry. Shortly after we were both out on the dance floor enjoying Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk.” It was an interesting transition: from talking serious business to […]
The 4 Essential Elements of a Good Wedding Toast
There are many ways to give a wedding toast. Toasts can be long or short. They can give advice or just give encouragement. But – at least in my experience – there are four elements that *must* be present for […]
Stop Pretending That Being Good Is Easy
There are a couple of things that make it especially easy for people to do wrong: We refuse to name evil for what it is. We assume we are good. Evil never appears in obvious guises. We all know it. It’s been said […]
Misadventures in Curing the Common Cold
It all started with a flu shot (I think). The symptoms of a cold come slowly, like a shark slowly circling. First comes drainage. Then comes nasal congestion. Then come watery eyes. Then comes coughing and sneezing. When cold-like symptoms […]
Victory Against Evil Is Never Final
I was talking with some church friends last night about the frustrating cycle of history found in the Biblical stories. People turn to violence and injustice and fall to violence and injustice again and again, cycle after cycle. It’s really […]
11 Thoughts After Finishing “Man in the High Castle” Season 3
WARNING: Major spoilers for Seasons 1, 2, and 3 in this post. I just finished watching the third season of Amazon’s amazing alternative history/sci-fi drama The Man in the High Castle, which is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s novel […]
Paul, 1 Corinthians, and Your Company’s Body Parts
About 2,000 years ago, a Jewish tentmaker named Paul had the task of teaching teamwork to a bunch of zealous members of a new, obscure cult called “Christianity.” His advice – to the extent it was followed – probably deserves […]
Don’t Let Your Weird Religious Upbringing Go To Waste
Were you raised in a strict conservative religious environment? If so, you probably have some interesting stories to tell. You probably missed out on a lot of what the rest of society takes for granted – from Harry Potter to […]
How To Stop Being a Snob, Part 2: Jesus on Transcending Snobbery
This post is part 2 in a series. See part 1, in which I argue for one theory of what snobbery is. In the first post we talked about the nature of snobbery. It often shows up as a desire to be “uncontaminated” […]
How To Stop Being a Snob, Part 1: Snobbery, Disgust, and Evolution
Have you ever been a snob about something? I was the biggest music snob in high school. In fact, I hated some forms of music so much that I would physically cringe and try to leave the room when I […]
You’re Probably Overestimating Your Self-Defense Skills
If most guys are like me, they all think that they could hold their own in a fight. “Sure,” they say, “I might not be a karate master, but I know how to throw a hard punch.” If most guys […]
Stop Saying “We”: Why You Should Say “I” and “You” More at the Office
I have a controversial opinion. The Harvard Business Review people aren’t going to like this, but professionals on teams need to stop saying “we” so much. “We aren’t doing a good enough job of supporting our customers like ACME Corporation.” […]
Debate Pro Tip: Call Out Your Own Fallacies
Circular reasoning. Strawmen. Appeals to nature. The “No True Scotsman.” Fallacies like these are easy for the casually-trained logician to spot in others, and they’re easy to pull out and critique in others. But what should you do if you make a […]
Not Enough Time? Be More Ambitious About Your Weekends
“How was your weekend?” “Not long enough! LOL” Bulls***. The weekend is plenty long enough. Have you ever really tried to make the most out of those 48+ hours you have? I’d expect not. Most people see the weekend as […]
Bootstrap Your Public Speaking With Public Questions
One of the biggest anxieties a speaker (not to mention an event’s content staff) has is a talk which does not generate any questions. A talk with no questions is a talk which the audience is hoping will end. You can become […]
Give Your Parents Back Their Youth
Tonight my mother experienced her first Lyft rides, rode a motorized Lime scooter for the first time, and joined me in exploring Piedmont Park and the Atlanta Beltline. She’s visiting from out of town, and as her host I’m determined […]
Young Employees Are Scared S***less. Here’s How To Encourage Them
So, you want to help your fresh-faced young hires perform better at your company. If they’re good workers, the biggest problems you’ll find will seem to be timidity, over-subservience and dependence, a lack of engagement, a lack of initiative, and […]
Workplace Personalities, Self-Knowledge, and Office Conflict Immunization
If you care about professional success, you almost need to make working with new personality types a part of your job. It’s easy to develop a bubble in the workplace, especially in small companies. Many companies start out with a pretty homogenous culture […]
Who Is Your Black Flag Freeing? The Futility of Flags and Labels
I’m undertaking a new writing challenge: write one post a day for as many days as possible based on things at my desk. This is day 7 of that challenge. One of my favorite things about my company is the […]
Great Brand Wisdom in 24 Bullet Points (Amazon.Love, or the Bezos Commandments)
I’m undertaking a new writing challenge: write one post a day for as many days as possible based on things at my desk. This is day 6 of that challenge. I keep one of my favorite lists of brand-building commandments by […]
Desk Photos, Work-Life Separation, and Character
I’m undertaking a new writing challenge: write one post a day for as many days as possible based on things at my desk. This is day 5 of that challenge. By my desk at work I have a string of […]
Work Life Hack: Turn Your Desk Into a Snack Stand
I’m undertaking a new writing challenge: write one post a day for as many days as possible based on things at my desk. This is day 4 of that challenge. I’m currently in a bit of an arms race at […]
Fictional Flags, Bad Odds, and Defiant Hope
I’m undertaking a new writing challenge: write one post a day for as many days as possible based on things at my desk. This is day 3 of that challenge. There are two flags hanging at my desk at work. […]
Cheap Google Sunglasses, Over the Top Startup Bro, and Leaning Into Tech Stereotypes
I’m undertaking a new writing challenge: write one post a day for as many days as possible based on things at my desk. This is day 2 of that challenge. Hanging up by my desk at work you’ll find a […]
Resilience, Rebounds, and Soybean Crops
“. . . If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same. . .” – If, Rudyard Kipling There’s photo hanging by the desk at my office that perfectly captures what it takes to succeed […]
Use Better Tech (Not Laws) To Reduce Texting and Driving Deaths
In the past year or so I’ve started to notice a new feature on my phone: with simple artificial intelligence the text messaging app is able to auto-generate simple, relevant replies to text. So if someone says “hi”, you can say […]