Category Archives: Persuasion

How To End The Lockouts

Seth Godin is a smart guy.  You know how I know?  Not only does he have great insights and produce great work in his chosen field, he offers great insights into all sorts of different things. For those who don’t … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Business, Negotiation, Persuasion, Rationality | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

They Can Control Your Mind

Sort of a follow up on the Advertising Works On You post.  Turns out, advertising even works on advertisers.  Two pretty unbelievable clips: (embedding has been disabled, but definitely worth clicking through to see some amazing persuasion techniques in action: … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Creativity, Persuasion, Rationality | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How To Make $1 Billion In One Summer And Get Whatever You Want

The lights dim, just a little bit, in that cavernous, air-conditioned hall.  This is my favorite part.  There’s so much promise and intrigue.  It’s impossible to feel let down.  That familiar lime-green image flickers to life, letting the audience know … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Persuasion, Quotes, Style | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Barely Hanging On? Count Backwards to Success

The explosion came from out of nowhere. Flames surround me. I couldn’t see through the glowing white light of burning magnesium. That’s how the “second half” of Dan Ariely’s life began.  After sustaining third degree burns to over 70% of … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Business, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Persuasion, Productivity, Rationality | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Invite, Don’t Sell

Windows and Orbitz provide totally open experiences: you can have whatever you like, anything is possible, but you’re going to have to work for it. Apple and Abercrombie & Kent chose a different direction: both provide totally tailored, curated experiences.  … Continue reading

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

That’s Not Fair

What revolves around the Earth? “Henri looked down in concentration as the answer choices were read aloud: (A) The moon, (B) The sun, (C) Mars, (D) Venus.  Henri reread the question out loud and mulled the choices over in his … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Business, Food For Thought, Negotiation, Persuasion, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

We Are All Followers

Obesity is spreading like a disease.  If a person becomes obese, the likelihood that his friend would also become obese increased by 57 percent.  If a person’s sibling became obese, the chance of another sibling becoming obese increased by 40%.  … Continue reading

Posted in Food For Thought, Inspiration, Persuasion, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why Their Offer Sucks and You’re Always Right

Following yesterday’s post, I thought I’d share a bit more about irrational behavior.  The following attributes won’t help as much at the tables in Vegas, but they can save, or make, you more money in a lot of other situations.  … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Negotiation, Persuasion, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Keep Your Mouth Shut

Number one piece of advice if you’re ever questioned by the police about a crime: keep your mouth shut until your lawyer gets there. Interrogation techniques are so psychologically effective, people confess all the time.  Even when they didn’t do … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Persuasion, Rationality | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

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 , , , | 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 , , , , | 4 Comments

If You’re Going to Jail, Get There Early

Lo and behold, judges aren’t always rational.  It turns out that judges hearing parole requests start out the day granting about 65% of them.  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 , , , , | Leave a comment

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.  He hired super-agent Scott Boras, who … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Negotiation, Persuasion, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Don’t Let Associations Define You

Paul Graham, in his essay Keep Your Identity Small, dishes out some wonderful advice about how to have better discussions, be a more rational person, and, ultimately, how to be a better person.  The problem, as he describes it: I … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Persuasion, Self-Improvement | Leave a comment

You Can Screw People, As Long As They Have A Say

“That’s not fair!” If you have kids, or friends with kids, you probably hear this a lot.  Fairness is a wildly subjective standard, and as such, it usually doesn’t really mean anything.  The only problem is, people’s subjective opinions about … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Persuasion, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , | 2 Comments