I’ve written before about why deciding is hard. One of my most helpful (to me) insights was that the difficulty in deciding is not figuring out which option I like, but working up the nerve to get rid of the options I don’t choose. Our language illustrates this challenge — the -cide in decide is the same -cide as in pesticide, insecticide, etc. It means to kill, reiterating that the[…] Keep reading →

Exercise helps everything. I can’t think of any time or situation exercise doesn’t help. Whenever I’m not sure what to do, I think, “exercise can’t hurt.” Even if all I do is a burpee or two, I find it clarifies my thoughts. I’ve never found a case where exercise worsened a situation. Even if I’m in an insane hurry, where I feel every second counts, a push-up or two barely[…] Keep reading →

Illustrative labels can help, as opposed to evaluative, judgmental ones like yesterday’s post. I love the term “Monkey Mind.” I heard it from a friend who teaches yoga. Without hearing any explanation I immediately understood its meaning and saw how the term helped understand a concept. When you increase your self-awareness you start to notice how your mind works. The less you know how to manage it, the more it[…] Keep reading →

The other day I saw a post for a headline that caught my eye “On Scale of 0 to 500, Beijing’s Air Quality Tops ‘Crazy Bad’ at 755” because I was just in Beijing. I remember early one evening looking up in the sky and seeing a low flying airplane. Actually, I only saw its lights in the smog. I got confused looking at it because it looked close, so[…] Keep reading →

Richard Feynman, one of my heroes, Nobel prize in physics winner, and entertaining guy, had concise advice in his commencement address to Caltech relevant to yesterday’s post on not fooling yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool. Here’s the text of the full speech, which is famous in scientific circles for his concept of “cargo cult science“,[…] Keep reading →

I can’t help reposting a comment I put on another site. Readers here know that while I don’t eat meat I don’t consider avoiding it virtuous or better. I don’t consider not eating meat any more healthy, virtuous, humane, delicious, or whatever than eating meat. I don’t understand why so many people who eat meat call themselves vegetarian. What do they gain? As best I can tell they consider not[…] Keep reading →

Here is an overview of my recent section on Objections and Blocks with links to all the articles. If you haven’t already, I hope they help you learn to look forward to objections and blocks as signs of progress, that your project is significant, and as guidance for how to proceed. As I began the series Whether you want to lead or motivate others or yourself, deciding to lead means[…] Keep reading →