Academia has some serious problems. I give a lot of talks to graduate students on what they can do after graduate school, though the following applies to undergraduates too. Many of them are worried about finding jobs. I grab their attention every time with this question: When I was getting my PhD in physics, I thought the only fields I could go into were academia to become a professor, industry[…] Keep reading →

This summer’s #1 bestselling business book, Triggers, by Marshall Goldsmith, describes how not to worry about things not worth worrying about. I’m going to improve what he wrote. He created an acronym, AIWATT, which he rhymes with “say what,” short for the first six words of this question: Am I willing, at this time, to make the investment required to make a positive difference on this topic? If you are[…] Keep reading →

My colleague and friend, Tim Francis, whose online course I took and loved on moving a business online, told me about how simplifying his life is improving it. I sent him a link to my post, “Less, please,” which got him looking at his bookshelf. In a few minutes he went from describing the books’ value to questioning it to seeing value in the freedom of not books and putting[…] Keep reading →

“He’s so lucky! He never puts on weight!” “She’s so lucky! She loses weight so fast!” I hear people say things like that all the time. If I eat one unhealthy meal, I can see it on my belly. But then even after running a marathon I don’t see that fat go away. Fat goes on immediately and takes a long time and a lot of work to get off.[…] Keep reading →

The college course catalog fascinated me—hundreds of courses in dozens of subjects from amazing teachers. I wanted to take them all! Choosing four or five course from them was wonderful torture. Choosing which to take wasn’t nearly as hard as choosing which not to. I used to think, “I’ll take these two courses … which will set me up for this major … which will set me up for this[…] Keep reading →

If you believe you’ll never make CEO, start a company, lose weight, or any other goal, no matter how much you change your behavior to achieve it, your belief will undermine that behavior. If you’re lucky, you may stumble into an experience that changes your beliefs, which may sustain your behavior, but I wouldn’t count on it. In general, if you change behavior but not the belief that motivated the[…] Keep reading →

In March I performed a story at Stand Up For Passion, a growing series of events where people tell stories about passionate events in their lives. They posted the video of my story and here it is. I hope you like it. The events are happening increasingly all over the world. The next one in New York City is October 6. I recommend attending one. Here are the speakers from[…] Keep reading →