Category Archives: Food For Thought

Selling Technology Sucks: Start With The Goal Instead

Posted on September 4, 2011 by AJ Kessler

How do you sell $10 Billion worth of product a year? One of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards for the technology”. You can’t start with the technology and … Continue reading →

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Inherent Problems With Effective Philanthropy

Posted on September 3, 2011 by AJ Kessler

One is that in order to learn how to do something well, you have to fail sometimes. In order to fail, there has to be a measurement system. And that’s the problem with most philanthropy–there’s no measurement system. You give … Continue reading →

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It’s Not God-Given Talent

Posted on September 2, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Professional athletes have god-given talents. Movie stars have big breaks. Musicians get discovered. Executives have connections; uncles or fathers or friends who got them into the business. These are all variations on the same excuse we use to justify someone’s … Continue reading →

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Chasing Glamor

Posted on September 1, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I want to be an architect so I can design amazing buildings. I want to be a lawyer so I can help people and win big cases. I want to be a rock star so I can make music. These … Continue reading →

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The Million Dollar Answer

Posted on August 31, 2011 by AJ Kessler

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 →

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Most Of Your Stuff Is Worthless

Posted on August 29, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I’ve written about the benefits of eliminating clutter before.  I’ve made a conscious effort to only buy stuff I actually need and am going to use.  I’ve gone through several rounds of getting rid of stuff I own.  That said, … Continue reading →

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Fake It ‘Til You Make It: Physiologically Sound

Posted on August 27, 2011 by AJ Kessler

From Psychology Today: The great surrealist artist Salvador Dali was described by his fellow students at the Madrid art academy as “morbidly” shy according to his biographer Ian Gibson.  He had a great fear of blushing and his shame about … Continue reading →

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How Could Anyone Live Here?

Posted on August 24, 2011 by AJ Kessler

If you’ve traveled at all, even if it’s just a few miles from your home, you’ve undoubtedly run across places that you can’t imagine living.  Desolate or teeming, scorching or freezing, swamp-like or bone-dry, gaudy or spartan, run down, dilapidated … Continue reading →

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Why Procrastination Is Good

Posted on August 23, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Very interesting thought from Cal Newport: The evolutionary perspective on procrastination, by contrast, says we delay because our frontal lobe doesn’t see a convincing plan behind our aspiration. The solution, therefore, is not to muster the courage to blindly charge … Continue reading →

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Why Economists Are Wrong, or How Specialization Makes Us Unhappy

Posted on August 22, 2011 by AJ Kessler

We generally understand how specialization and competitive advantage make us all richer. Lawyers particularly, and I imagine other highly paid hourly workers, understand that the best use of their time is spent lawyering. For this reason, these professionals have an … Continue reading →

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It’s Always Incompetence

Posted on August 21, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Whenever an event can be explained by either a vast conspiracy or simple incompetence, always assume incompetence. This is merely a corollary to Hanlon’s Razor, but it can save you just as much anguish.

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Curiosity, or How Elon Musk Thinks

Posted on August 20, 2011 by AJ Kessler

ELON MUSK: I think, generally, their {other people’s} thinking process is too bound by convention or analogy to prior experiences.  So it’s very rare that people try to think of something on a first principles basis. They’ll say, “We’ll do … Continue reading →

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Recognize When You’re Being An Asshole

Posted on August 16, 2011 by AJ Kessler

There are some instances when I can’t stand wasting time.  If someone’s driving 10 mph under the speed limit on a one lane road, I’m infuriated.  If the one guy behind the counter at the post office is moving at … Continue reading →

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Being Interesting Requires Being Interested

Posted on August 14, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Seth Godin with another pithy post: Interesting and Interested . . . it helps to be both.  These are the two ways you earn attention. If it’s so obvious, why is it so difficult? Everybody wants to be interesting, to … Continue reading →

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People Aren’t Racists, They’re Assholes

Posted on August 13, 2011 by AJ Kessler

If I was black, I’m pretty sure I would think a huge section of our society was racist.  If I was flamboyantly gay, I’m pretty sure I would think a huge section of our society was homophobic.  If I was … Continue reading →

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