Category Archives: Self-Improvement

Old People

Posted on June 3, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Building relationships with your peers is important.  But when you’re younger, or just starting out in a field, it’s more important for your immediate future to build relationships with people that are five, ten, and twenty years ahead of you. … Continue reading →

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Get Used To Hearing No

Posted on June 1, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Before you ever get into a field or a career, you’re probably going to hear someone say “no”.  No, that’s too hard.  No, you don’t have the credentials.  No, you don’t qualify.  No, it’s never going to work out.  No, … Continue reading →

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If You Wouldn’t Wake Up Early For It, Don’t Stay Up Late For It

Posted on May 30, 2012 by AJ Kessler

One of the reasons Reddit is great is that you can find genuinely wise, pithy, and applicable advice from someone named SmellsLikeUpfoo. In this case, the advice is simple: if you wouldn’t set your alarm one hour early to do … Continue reading →

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On Travel

Posted on May 29, 2012 by AJ Kessler

When most people think about retirement, they imagine a life full of friends, hobbies, and (likely) travel. To illustrate, think about what you would do if you knew you were going to retire at 65 and die at 75.  You’d … Continue reading →

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Happiness Is Not A Reward – It’s A Consequence

Posted on May 28, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Time is your most limited resource.  You can always make more money, but you can only buy so much time.  Happiness is not a reward for giving up most of your time in exchange for money.  Happiness is a consequence … Continue reading →

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A Fool’s Life

Posted on May 26, 2012 by AJ Kessler

The fool, with all his other faults, has this also: he is always getting ready to live.

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Gambling on Discipline

Posted on May 24, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Almost all people who become successful do so because they’re able to develop discipline.  It’s not something they’re born with.  It takes practice.  Consciously doing what needs to be done now, foregoing what you’d like to be doing instead, in … Continue reading →

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How To Write, Part 3

Posted on May 23, 2012 by AJ Kessler

This one comes comes from David Mamet, perhaps the most well-known living playwright.  He wrote a memo for the writing staff on the CBS show The Unit, where he was an executive producer, reminding everyone what makes for good drama. … Continue reading →

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Clothes Make The Man

Posted on May 22, 2012 by AJ Kessler

It has long been known that clothing affects how other people perceive us as well as how we think about ourselves.  It turns out, clothing also affects the way we think. If you wear a white coat that you believe … Continue reading →

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On Saving Time

Posted on May 16, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Treasuring the little time we have was not a new idea, even in Seneca’s day.  And, while there have been treatises more eloquently written, I haven’t seen any that drive the point home more succinctly and powerfully than Seneca.  For … Continue reading →

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Choosing A Strategy

Posted on May 14, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Above is a very cool video showing which empires held which territories in Europe from 1000ad to 2005ad.  While the video itself could be much better (no clock? no legend?), it provides a pretty great view of how empires rise … Continue reading →

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Marriage and Economics

Posted on May 13, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Some interesting statistics about money and marriage from The Economist: Marriage itself is “a wealth-generating institution”, 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 →

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Creativity Is Not A Talent; It’s A Way Of Operating

Posted on May 9, 2012 by AJ Kessler

John Cleese manages to explain about 90 different topics I’ve written about in a 13 minute span.  Below is a really, really excellent speech on fostering creativity, becoming more effective, managing time, and much more.  The short version is excellent, … Continue reading →

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If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy, You’re Not Spending It Right

Posted on May 3, 2012 by AJ Kessler

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 →

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Disciplined Mindwandering, or The Benefits of Daydreaming

Posted on April 30, 2012 by AJ Kessler

Jonathan Schooler, the psychologist who helped pioneer the study of insight, has recently begun studying the benefits of daydreams.  His lab has demonstrated that people who consistently engage in more daydreaming score significantly higher on measures of creativity.  To evaluate … Continue reading →

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