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Author Archives: AJ Kessler
Compared to What
It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re doing well if you compare yourself to your peers who are doing worse than you. Â Unfortunately, this is a recipe for mediocracy. Â Eventually, your self-induced laziness lets your peers catch up and then … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Self-Improvement
Tagged Goals, Life, Measure
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Scammer’s Logic
Why do “Nigerian” scammers say they’re from Nigeria? Â After all, if you were running a widely known scam, wouldn’t you vary the details so you had a better chance of fooling a wider audience? Probably not. Â In an interesting paper … Continue reading
Posted in Food For Thought, Marketing, Money, Persuasion, Productivity, Psychology, Rationality
Tagged Marketing, Psychology, Scam, Testing
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Death of the Hobby
Hobbies used to exist as a way to entertain ourselves. Â If you had some extra time, you collected stamps, or watched birds, or built ships in a bottle. Â You sought out activities to stimulate your mind. Â Hobbies were an essential … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Productivity, Self-Improvement
Tagged Brain, Hobbies, Work
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Hard Work Is Never Wasted
In school, a lot of kids ask “When will I ever need to know this?” Â Why do I need to know how to solve for x? Â Who cares whether Amenhotep or Ramesses ruled Egypt first? Â When will I ever need … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Psychology, Rationality, Self-Improvement
Tagged Hard, Learning, Persistence, Work
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Freedom, Responsibility, and Child Rearing
The New Yorker asks why American kids lack the responsibility so evident in children of (some) other cultures. Â The article concludes that an adolescence of parental fixing, making sure everything is perfect and the kid never fails, results in a … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Choice, Food For Thought, Leading, Psychology, Rationality, Relationships, Self-Improvement
Tagged Children, Parenting, Psychology, Teaching
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Technical Difficulties
We experienced some technical difficulties over the last week. Â Everything appears to be fixed now, and we should be back on track with daily posts from here on out.
Posted in Uncategorized
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Magic Bullets
From an ESPN piece on Ryan Lochte, who is looking to spoil Michael Phelps’ final Olympics next month: “I’m not the most talented swimmer,” Lochte adds. “So I try to outwork everyone else.” It’s Sunday. A day of rest. The … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Psychology, Quotes, Self-Improvement, Tips
Tagged Shortcut, Work Hard
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Good Point
The only Powerpoint advice you need, from Seth Godin, reproduced in part here, in case a meteor hits his server and this gem is lost forever: Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Aesthetics, Business, Creativity, Marketing, Persuasion, Quotes, Relationships, Seth Godin
Tagged Powerpoint, Presentation, Sales, Seth Godin, Speech
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On Character
In Britain, it’s a crime to display a sign that is “threatening or abusive or insulting” with the intent to provoke “distress”, even if that sign is displayed in your own window. The local constabulary explained that citizens, “in the … Continue reading
Freedom
The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Choice, Diet, Food For Thought, Quotes, Rationality
Tagged Choice, Freedom, health
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The $144,146,165 Button
Tiny changes can have massive results. Need proof? Â Three buttons in a cab can increase tips 220%.
Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Marketing, Persuasion, Psychology
Tagged Disproportionate Results, Persuasion
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Perspective
It’s always important to remember that not everyone sees things the same way you do. Â If they disagree, or understand, or don’t believe you, it’s not necessarily because they think you’re an idiot. Wish I knew who to give credit … Continue reading
Posted in Food For Thought, Relationships, Self-Improvement
Tagged Perspective, relationships
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Possibilities
We have more tools available than ever before to accomplish whatever it is we want to accomplish.  And technology changes so fast that you can expect to have access to tools you might not have even dreamed of every few years. Just … Continue reading
Creating An Ownership Experience
Apple stores are a paradox. People love them, even though the service is awful. Yes, the service is better than Best Buy and other big retailers, but it’s still awful. So why are Apple stores far and away the highest … Continue reading
Sell Before You Build
Derek Sivers describes a marketing genius’ approach to writing: Marketing guru Jay Abraham, in the pre-internet days, would run classified ads in newspapers and magazines. If he wanted to write a book about something, he’d run a classified ad, taking … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Marketing, Quotes
Tagged Marketing, Writing
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