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So of course I’m on a plane this morning and the guy next to me is doing the elbow thing. You know what I’m talking about. He’s leaning into the armrest with his elbow and it’s clearly touching mine, but he doesn’t care. I, on the other hand, am deeply disturbed. I always wondered how [...]
Have you ever noticed in movies that monasteries, secret martial arts dojos, and other places of secret knowledge are always high up in the mountains? Right now I’m thinking specifically of Batman Begins, Kill Bill II, Lord of the Rings, and pretty much every movie ever where a character needs to develop skills (usually with [...]
Next time I’m on a plane with a child yelling behind me, I’m just going to start yelling too. Whenever this kind of thing happens I’m always thinking “Hey kid, you’ll have plenty of time to complain as an adult. Right now, this is quiet time. So shush.” Thing is, we all have social roles. [...]
I’m pretty sure women will be taking over the world someday. Think about it. How are men better than women, and how are women better than men? If we work from stereotype: Men are stronger Men have more mathematically-oriented minds These two things above can be taken care of by machines and/or society. Anything heavy [...]
I’m going through a lot of stuff this week. Basically I’m reading old books and trying to figure stuff out about myself, asking hard questions, and so on. It’s working but it’s tough going and occasionally kind of upsetting. You come face-to-face with realizations you may not like, and when that happens, you have to [...]
Wow. This is a fascinating study. I’ve always found it pretty interesting that the interest we have on our CEOs being on Twitter is largely based on them being previously unavailable. That ambiguity, that “what are they really like” feeling that leads to them becoming quasi-celebrities, is a big part of what draws people in. [...]
They’re not about social media– they’re not even about the internet. I have a lot of books that have changed the way I think, but almost none of them have to do with the web. Most of them have to do with understanding yourself better, seeing your own potential, or building good habits (ie, the [...]
Free was a great book. But I don’t think it went far enough. The premise of Chris Anderson’s book was awesome: When something gets too cheap to meter, it will inevitably become free, so you should act as if it is free. Since every abundance causes another scarcity, you will be able to make money [...]
What is the filter ladder? I came up with this concept while talking to a Harvard professor I met at the airport the other day. He asked how I dealt with information overload and, as I explained it to him, I realized that his filters were higher than mine. In other words, I was willing [...]
If you’re like me, you’ve been plagued with computer problems your whole life– just not yours. I bought my parents a Mac Mini a few years back. It was a stop-loss mechanism to help me spend more time with them. It worked. Now I hang out and have supper instead of fixing their computer problems– [...]
Human sacrifice doesn’t just appease the gods– it’s also what builds a community. Last year, when I came back from Japan, I had to fly in from Narita Airport in Tokyo straight to Toronto. When I arrived, I realized I wasn’t going home but to a conference instead. But I was exhausted, so I didn’t [...]
I wonder: Is this the last time I’ll visit a bookstore? It’s about two weeks before the release of the iPad in Canada, and I’m at Indigo reading Do More Great Work (it’s crazy good btw). I saw it on Amazon and wanted it right away, so I picked it up here because I wanted [...]
Not just me, though; you think you’re smarter than everyone. Things would be different if you didn’t. You would actually do the exercises that book tells you to do, instead of just reading it through. You would listen to good advice, even (especially if!) if it made you uncomfortable. You would turn off email/Twitter instead [...]
A few months ago, I had trouble moving a couch. I had just bought it earlier that afternoon and it was being delivered around 6 PM, so there I was waiting in my house by myself, thinking: “I need someone to help me move this couch.” For some reason, I couldn’t call anyone. Even worse [...]
Quit one thing and it puts everything else into question. Noticing that you are capable of living without any single one thing puts into question everything else you consider essential. And once you know that something vital really may not be, how can you not try removing it? Provocative amputation is a form of Po– [...]
I recently realized that I’ve been playing capoeira since 2004. Have you ever been really serious about something, taken some “time off,” and then suddenly realized you’d never gone back the way you wanted? Maybe this happened with school or with art, working out or writing a book? Well, that’s the feeling I had when [...]
