Category Archives: Art

Why Do We Do It This Way, Again?

Two newlyweds were spending their first Christmas together.  Wanting to celebrate properly, the new wife asked her mother for the famous Christmas Ham recipe.  The husband was excited. He watched as the wife prepared to dutifully follow the recipe.  Curiously … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minimum Viable Personality

Excellent thoughts here on cultivating personality in your products.  Note that just about everything can be thought of as a product.  If you produce reports for a living, the report is your product.  You can create a brand out of … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Quotes, Relationships | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

On Being Too Good

When Roger Bannister broke the 4:00 barrier, a wave of runners suddenly poured through the hole he had smashed.  Before Bannister, a sub four minute mile was unthinkable.  After Banister, well, who cares if you ran a 3:59?  So did … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Inspiration, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Selling Out Your Dream For $140 A Week

You’ve got two job offers: Option 1 is a job at a fantastic company, with great people, doing something you want to be doing. Option 2 is a job at a good company, with good people, doing ok work.  But, … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Rationality | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Test Your Way To A Raise

Testing is fundamentally important to increase your odds of success.  Yes, you may have been born an athletic freak.  You may write a screenplay that strikes the right tone at the right time and is wildly successful.  You may come … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The World’s Second Most Valuable Skill

Awareness is vital.  If you can’t pick up on the things going on around you, you’ll almost certainly never be phenomenal at anything. Curiosity isn’t far behind.  You can be aware of everything at all times, but if you’re not … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Inspiration, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

On Handling Critics

Anyone who produces art, or voices opinions, or does anything publicly, will have critics.  Guaranteed. I wrote a post about frugality that got a tiny bit of attention on the web and was bombarded with insults.  Did I care?  Well, … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Quotes, Relationships, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Mark Zuckerberg Isn’t Mark Zuckerberg

I can’t say this more succinctly than Seth Godin, so I’ll just copy it here: “Mark Zuckerberg” has become a codeword for the truly gifted exception, the wunderkind freak of nature for whom traditional rules don’t apply. Well, sure, Mark … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Inspiration, Quotes, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Beat Procrastination By Being Self-Centered

If you work any sort of normal job, you’re probably forced to do a lot of stuff you’re not terribly enthusiastic about doing.  Paradoxically, this work can often take longer because we tend to lose focus.  We stall, we procrastinate, … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Inspiration, Productivity, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Your Horsepower Is Irrelevant

An engine can only produce so much horsepower.  If you’ve got a 300 horsepower engine, it’ll produce 300 horsepower.  Sure, you can expend a lot of effort, bore those cylinders out and up the horsepower 10%, but you’re still in … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Inspiration, Productivity, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Important Is Boredom?

A thought provoking article by Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, in the Wall Street Journal: If you have a smartphone in your pocket, a game console in the living room, a Kindle in your backpack and an iPad in the kitchen, … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Quotes, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Million Dollar Answer

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. – Mark Twain We spend a lot of time and money worrying.  We walk around thinking about earthquakes and hurricanes and terrorist … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Quotes, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Backup Your Life

A crisis like the death of a family member, or a broken leg or back, or even something as mundane as a sick pet can knock you seriously off course.  Even without a major event, a convergence of smaller distractions, … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Productivity, Self-Improvement, Time Tracking | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Pay Attention To Get Rich

Being aware of the world around you is important.  It makes life more interesting.  It’s the foundation for creativity.  It can also make you rich. I’m reminded of this fact by Sam Farber, founder of OXO.  How did Sam, a … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Meaningless Assignments Might Be Important

One of the aims of military boot camp is to break a person down so that they can be rebuilt in the way the military desires.  This might sound insane, but it’s pretty important to know that your soldiers are … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Quotes, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments