Two-and-a-half weeks ago I decided to avoid buying any food with packaging for a week. I’m on eighteen days and counting. I didn’t try to come up with a perfect rule because trying for perfection kept making me delay trying. I settled on the rule that I wouldn’t buy food that had any packaging or get food at a restaurant. I’d figure out on the fly what to do in[…] Keep reading →
This morning I read New York magazine’s weekly listing of bars and restaurants, describing fun places in the city to go to. They have a section listing some activities called “The Cut,” which I think means these are the activities that “make the cut” of their curating. I used to read the listings to find things to do. The section is for that, and I presume many people use it[…] Keep reading →
Following up yesterday’s post, “The basics: more simple and valuable than you think” about how the masters tend to focus on basics, I found a series of videos made by a great basketball player, Michael Jordan. He’s made few instructional videos. He could do things no one else could and made them look easy. He can teach anything he wants. So what does he teach? Simple basics. Things like getting[…] Keep reading →
Any performance-based skill development follows a similar pattern. I’ll describe it for playing guitar, but it follows for leading, acting, sports, any other musical instrument, singing, etc. The instrument: First you have to learn the instrument. If you don’t know its parts and how it’s assembled, you can’t do anything with it. Your skill: Next you have to learn how to move your fingers. You can’t play music until you[…] Keep reading →
Following up on “Passions, you create,” which I recommend rereading, where I wrote about passion not being something you happen to find, like if you just turned over enough rocks you’d find it… Everyone has the same potential to develop passions, as far as I can tell. If all you do is turn over rocks but never dig in—that is, look at what others do and think about those things[…] Keep reading →
Minutes after posting yesterday “If you have “too much to do†or “not enough time,†you’re not getting more done. You’re annoying.“, I realized I overstated myself. I realized it because I met a friend working on a small number of projects and getting them done, but still busy. I realized I wrongly included him and people like him who know their priorities in the larger group of people who[…] Keep reading →
I first noticed it in the last semester of business school when most students were complaining about having to choose between job offers. All the offers more than met their standards. Dwelling in their decisions instead of choosing and living their lives made them miserable instead of enjoying themselves. What made them miserable wasn’t that they had multiple offers—that is, the problem didn’t come from outside. The problem was their[…] Keep reading →
Why do I talk about my daily habits so much? I was talking to a friend yesterday about them. She told me she didn’t get to exercise as much as she’d like, especially in busy times, and asked how I found time to exercise and write every day. I asked how she got anything done without a daily routine. A daily routine gives you and your day structure. Losing that[…] Keep reading →
You have opinions about race, sex, homosexuality, class, politics, and other controversial topics. You probably only talk about them with people closest to you. Most of us won’t touch them with a ten-foot pole, knowing how one public statement can destroy a life. We believe we don’t have that freedom. If you don’t believe you have it, you can’t do it. How about talking about them to the media for[…] Keep reading →
