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Author Archives: AJ Kessler
Failure Is Good
Most people are afraid of failure. I know I certainly am at times. The problem is, failure is often the best way to learn. When you succeed at something difficult or amorphous, you usually don’t know why: a lot of … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Persuasion, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Failure, Mark Cuban, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson
1 Comment
Ego Is Good
From Seth Godin’s Poke The Box: Somewhere along the way, ego became a nasty word. It’s not. When our name is on a project, our ego pushes us over the hump and drives us to do even better work. Ego … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Persuasion, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Ego, Greed, Poke The Box, Seth Godin, Vanity
4 Comments
If You’re Not Curious, You’re Boring
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. -Albert Einstein I really believe curiosity is everything. Those who aren’t curious about the world are boring and never accomplish anything great. I can understand how people can go through … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Albert Einstein, Curiosity, Interesting, Interestingness, Jay-Z, John Mayer, Seth Godin
3 Comments
Now Is A Great Time To Be Young
It seems like every day that I hear how hard it is to be young these days. Â There’s no jobs, students are laden with debt, etc. etc. This seems like total bullshit to me. Â For example, this NY Times piece … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Self-Improvement
Tagged Future, Kids, Opportunity, Startup, Work
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Enjoying Museums
I visited the Leopold Museum by myself yesterday, because no one wanted to join me. Â The museum was very nice, and absolutely worth a visit if you’re in Vienna. Â It houses the largest collection of Egon Schiele’s work in the … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Tips, Travel
Tagged Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Leopold, Museum
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Overwhelm
In Vienna this week, I’ve had the opportunity to check out quite a few churches. Â In the middle of the old city there are maybe a dozen spectacular churches, sporting everything from Gothic to super modern architecture. Â The biggest and … Continue reading
Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Food For Thought, Travel
Tagged Church, Color, Overwhelm, Steve Jobs, Vienna
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If You’re Going to Jail, Get There Early
Lo and behold, judges aren’t always rational. Â It turns out that judges hearing parole requests start out the day granting about 65% of them. Â These numbers dwindle down to about 0% right before a judges break, then pop back up … Continue reading
Posted in Food For Thought, Law, Persuasion, Rationality
Tagged Judge, Justice, Law, Rationality, Trial
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Hired Guns
When Alex Rodriguez wanted a new contract to reflect the fact that he may end up as the all time leader in HR, hits, RBIs, and runs scored, he didn’t negotiate the deal himself. Â He hired super-agent Scott Boras, who … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Negotiation, Persuasion, Self-Improvement
Tagged CAA, Deals, Movies, Negotiation, Opportunity Cost, Scott Boras, Sports
1 Comment
Being Owned
I’m not in show business because I don’t have to go to the meetings, I’m just not a part of it, I don’t belong to it. When you “belong†to something. You want to think about that word, “belong.†People … Continue reading
Posted in Food For Thought, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Belonging, Clubs, George Carlin, Groups, Organizations, Ownership
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Trouble Focusing? Clean Your Workspace
This is an interesting study from the University of Princeton’s Neuroscience Institute:Â http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21228167 Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Creativity, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Clutter, Focus, Mind, MRI, Neuroscience
2 Comments
Being Done
The point of being done is not to finish, but to get other things done. -Â Cult of Done That feeling of completing some big project is fantastic. Â It feels like you’ve pushed a giant stone off your chest. Â It should … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Cult of Done, Finish, Finishing, Graduating, Skills
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Short and Sweet
I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. -Mark Twain Three Sentences (http://three.sentenc.es/) is an intriguing solution to a problem many people don’t even recognize exists. Â Emails are often too long, especially … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Brevity, e-mail, Mark Twain, Pascal, wit
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Sugar is Killing Us
I have a massive sweet tooth. Â In the last 72 hours, I’ve had four Sprinkles cupcakes, half a bag of Trolli Apple Rings, about 3/4 of a pint of gelato, apple strudel with whipped cream and ice cream, plus hearty … Continue reading
Trust
Landed in Veinna, Austria this morning. Â I got the immediate feeling of safety, even though the train ticket machine warned about using unlicensed cabs and limos. Â I don’t know what it was exactly, maybe it’s a totally false sense of … Continue reading
Fuck You. Pay Me.
Though there’s some stuff in here I don’t necessarily agree with, a worthy watch for any creative: 2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*ck You. Pay Me. from San Francisco Creative Mornings on Vimeo.
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Law, Photography, Psychology, Quotes, Video
Tagged Fuck You, Law, Photography
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