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Author Archives: AJ Kessler
It’s Hard And I’m Just Not Passionate About It…
“It’s hard, and I’m just not passionate about it, and I’m thinking of giving up – will you tell me it’s OK to give up, so I’ll feel better about it in the morning?†It’s rarely about difficulty or enthusiasm. … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Choice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Psychology, Quotes
Tagged Hard, Passion, Perseverance, Work
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Language and Rationality
Thinking in a different language may lead to more rational decisions: Keysar’s team recruited 54 University of Chicago students who spoke Spanish as a second language. Each received $15 in $1 bills, each of which could be kept or bet … Continue reading
Posted in Food For Thought, Psychology, Quotes, Rationality, Uncategorized
Tagged Language, Rationality, Reason
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On Role Models
We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing. Â Misdeeds … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Leading, Psychology, Quotes, Relationships
Tagged Guide, Letters to a Stoic, Mentor, Role Model, Seneca
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How To Be 10x Happier In Just 60 Minutes A Day
If you have a job, chances are most of your waking hours are not your own.  Most of all your hours may not be your own.  Between the time it takes you to get ready in the morning, your commute, and … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Choice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Psychology, Rationality, Self-Improvement
Tagged Choice, Control, Depression, Fear, Happiness, How to be Happy
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How Criticism Encourages Creativity
We’re taught to think that brainstorming is an effective way to generate ideas and spur creative thought. Â The key to successful brainstorming, it was thought, was lack of a lack of criticism. Â This makes sense: if people aren’t afraid that … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Psychology, Quotes, Rationality
Tagged Brainstorming, Creativity, Imagine, Jonah Lehrer, Meeting
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Steal This Idea: Lock Screen Emergency Contact
You, like many people, have a lock on your phone. This is smart: by requiring the user to type in a code or swipe a pattern in order to access the part of the phone that stores sensitive data, you … Continue reading
Overvaluing What We Have
One of the worst tricks we manage to play on ourselves is overvaluing what we already have and undervaluing what we don’t. Â This is especially sad since most of us don’t have all that much anyway, and taking the chance … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Choice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Psychology, Quotes, Rationality
Tagged Change, Doing, Happiness, Irrational Behavior, Value
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The Fastest Way to Change
The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be. – The Startup of You Human beings are such easily influenced creatures. Â The way we laugh is influenced by … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Choice, Food For Thought, Psychology, Quotes, Relationships
Tagged Change, Friends, relationships
2 Comments
On Cheating
People become more likely to lie or cheat when they see others lie or cheat, explains Dan Ariely: …we gave participants 5 minutes to solve as many mathematical problems as possible (where they were instructed to find which two numbers … Continue reading
Posted in Food For Thought, Psychology, Quotes, Rationality, Relationships
Tagged Cheating, Dan Ariely, Taxes
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Self Published
Ben Franklin Ezra Pound Emily Dickinson Marcel Proust Dave Eggers Thomas Paine Jane Austen Edgar Rice Burroughs Walt Whitman Nathaniel Hawthorne Stephen Crane Nikki Giovanni Virginia Woolf The question isn’t whether or not you should wait to be picked, the question … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Choice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Quotes, Seth Godin
Tagged Author, Creating, Self Published, Seth Godin
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Your Team Is More Important Than Your Idea
The modern Hollywood approach was to put together a team for one project and then disband the team when production was finished. Â We thought that was dumb. Â When it comes down to it, the only way to make a good … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Leading, Quotes, Relationships
Tagged Idea, Imagine, Jonah Lehrer, Pixar, Plan, Success, Team
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Should I Go To Business School?
Generally, business school is a poor investment. If you want to go to a top 20 school, you’re going to spend at least $100,000 and two years of your life (easily another $100,000 or $200,000 in lost earnings). Realistically, your … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Business, Choice, Money, Quotes, Rationality
Tagged Advice, Business School, MBA, Opportunity Cost
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Color and Creativity
What color should you paint that room? Â It depends on what you want to do there. Â If you need to pay close attention to detail oriented work, paint it red. Â If you want to maximize the chance for creative insight, … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Psychology, Quotes, Rationality
Tagged Color, Creativity, Design, Focus, Imagination, Jonah Lehrer
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Constraints Breed Creativity
Why would anyone constrain themselves to writing poetry in Haiku? Why would Shakespeare force himself to write entire plays in iambic pentameter? Â This makes no sense. Â Think about how much harder it would be to write a play where each … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Psychology, Quotes
Tagged Creativity, Imagine, Jonah Lehrer
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Make Yourself Redundant
There’s a lot of career advice out there that implores you to make yourself indispensable. Â Taken the right way, this is clearly good advice. Â But I’ve seen this misinterpreted any number of times. Â Making yourself indispensable or irreplaceable in terms … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Business, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Money, Self-Improvement
Tagged Career, Goal, Life, Linchpin, Work
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