A question that often helps provide clarity: “Is this consistent with the person I want to be?” When I wrestle with decisions or emotion I struggle with. Asking this question/its parent variant: “Is this consistent with the father I want to be?” clarifies the path forward immediately. "Is this consistent with the quiet life I want to live?"…
A good career takes hard work. A good relationship takes more hard work. A good life and happiness takes some more hard work. Why, even a great vacation requires a lot of hard work. True happiness and hard work come together. We can never stop working hard if we want to live good lives. We just…
In his book – How to Fail at Almost Everything And Still Win Big – Dilbert creator Scott Adams asserts that ‘goals are for losers while systems are for winners.‘ In his words – "Losing ten pounds is a goal [that most people can’t maintain], whereas learning to eat right is a system that substitutes…
Thank you Grant Snider of Incidental Comics
Compound interest is the single most important concept in finance. Time value of money, as an idea, comes close. But, understand compound interest and it will change the way you think about saving money for the future. The simple notion behind compound interest is that you earn interest on your interest. This means small amounts invested today…
"When a new invention is first propounded in the beginning every man objects and the poor inventor runs the gauntloop of all petulant wits." said William Petty in 1662. You may have noticed that I have a fondness for quotes, it is not because I think quoting famous people gives my message more authority and…
When Steve Jobs started Apple and started growing it, he got to a point where Apple was no longer a startup but was becoming a corporate entity. To Steve's credit, he knew that mentally he was still a CEO of a startup and not ready to be a CEO of a corporate entity. Hence Steve…
“To listen well is to figure out what’s on someone’s mind and demonstrate that you care enough to want to know. It’s what we all crave; to be understood as a person with thoughts, emotions, and intentions that are unique and valuable and deserving of attention. Listening is not about teaching, shaping, critiquing, appraising, or…
The most important step we will take as human beings to reverse the climate crisis is to get to net zero emissions by 2050. A few years ago, it was hard to even visualise a path to doing this. For the first time, thanks to the International Energy Agency, we have an excellent illustration of…
Derek Sivers once shared a powerful post on drama – his notes from a talk by the late Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt Vonnegut explained why people have such a need for drama in their life. He said: “People have been hearing fantastic stories since time began. The problem is, they think life is supposed to be like the stories.”…
Matt Ridley is one of those uncles you would like to visit because you know you are guaranteed to hear hilarious and insightful stories. I firstly encountered Matt Ridley through his very humorous TED talk titled: When Ideas have Sex. So you can imagine by the title that you are in for an interesting talk,…
Scott de Martinville, a French printer, began taking a hobbyist’s interest in the physics and anatomy related to sound. Since the 1500s, scientists had concluded that sound waves travel via the air and also travel four times faster via water. They had also figured out the anatomy of the ear and how it “received” sound. …
