In Over Your Head

Month: April 2010

  • The Elbow Thing

    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…

  • Why We Climb Mountains

    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…

  • Subverting Social Roles

    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.…

  • Why Women Will Take Over the World

    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…

  • What Are You Really About?

    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…

  • Are you showing up TOO often?

    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.…

  • Read This Now: 5 Books That Can Change Your Life

    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…

  • Act on the Inevitable Today

    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…

  • The Filter Ladder

    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…

  • Do You Read the Manual?

    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–…