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Author Archives: AJ Kessler
Choosing A Strategy
Above is a very cool video showing which empires held which territories in Europe from 1000ad to 2005ad. Â While the video itself could be much better (no clock? no legend?), it provides a pretty great view of how empires rise … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Choice, Food For Thought, Relationships, Self-Improvement
Tagged History, Strategy, Video, War
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Marriage and Economics
Some interesting statistics about money and marriage from The Economist: Marriage itself is “a wealth-generating institutionâ€, according to Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and David Popenoe, who run the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. Those who marry “till death do us … Continue reading
Posted in Food For Thought, Money, Relationships, Self-Improvement
Tagged Marriage, Money, relationships
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Dieter Rams on Design: Understand People
Dieter Rams has been successful because he deeply understands people, both physically, psychologically, and how they operate in the world. Â He’s not some sort of mind reader: You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Aesthetics, Art, Business, Creativity, Inspiration, Psychology, Quotes
Tagged Design, Dieter Rams, Planning
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The Right Comparison
A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Psychology, Quotes
Tagged Marcus Aurelius
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Creativity Is Not A Talent; It’s A Way Of Operating
John Cleese manages to explain about 90 different topics I’ve written about in a 13 minute span. Â Below is a really, really excellent speech on fostering creativity, becoming more effective, managing time, and much more. Â The short version is excellent, … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Creativity, Inspiration, Productivity, Psychology, Quotes, Rationality, Self-Improvement, Time Tracking, Tips
Tagged Creativity, John Cleese, Lifestyle
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Dieter Ram’s Ten Principals of Good Design
Good design is innovative The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Quotes
Tagged Aesthetics, Design, Dieter Rams
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Creating False Memories
Ad men have known for years that they could make people feel good about a brand or product by telling happy stories. Â It’s one of the reasons Budweiser spends tens of millions of dollars on advertising during the Superbowl. Â They’re … Continue reading
Posted in Choice, Food For Thought, Psychology, Rationality
Tagged Advertising, Memory, Psychology
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Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments of Teaching
Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might … Continue reading
Leading With Lollipops
Inspiring video:
How To Make Work Miserable
From The Progress Principle: Over the past 15 years, we have studied what makes people happy and engaged at work. In discovering the answer, we also learned a lot about misery at work. … What we discovered is that the … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Leading, Persuasion, Productivity, Quotes
Tagged Management, Work
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If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy, You’re Not Spending It Right
This sentiment that money can’t buy happiness is lovely, popular, and almost certainly wrong: Money allows people to live longer and healthier lives, to buffer themselves against worry and harm, to have leisure time to spend with friends and family, and to control the … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Money, Psychology, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Happiness, Money
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Sleep on Concrete
Something Sebastian Marshall said to me a long while back has really stuck with me: sleep on concrete. Anyone who has travelled a lot has literally done this at least once. Â Baggage handlers go on strike and the airport shuts … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Money, Psychology
Tagged Lifestyle, Philosophy, Stoicism
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Share
For several hundred years now, most businesses have fought to keep things secret. Â Ingredients, techniques, processes, suppliers, you name it. Â Anything that might be a competitive advantage would attempt to be shielded from competitors and the public. Â In fact, the … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Psychology, Rationality
Tagged Mystique, Secrecy, Share, Sharing
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Disciplined Mindwandering, or The Benefits of Daydreaming
Jonathan Schooler, the psychologist who helped pioneer the study of insight, has recently begun studying the benefits of daydreams. Â His lab has demonstrated that people who consistently engage in more daydreaming score significantly higher on measures of creativity. Â To evaluate … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Psychology, Quotes, Self-Improvement
Tagged Daydream, Ideas, Jonah Lehrer, Mind Wandering
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Lies, Happiness, and The Tyranny of the Biographer
Being happy in your life and being happy about your life are very different concepts. This is a result of the fact that you have, in a sense, two selfs. There is an experiencing self, who lives in the present, … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Choice, Food For Thought, Psychology, Quotes, Rationality
Tagged Daniel Kahneman, Happiness, Rationality, TED, Thinking
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