Month: June 2010
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You need tension
If you want to change, create tension. Some people join the army to do this. I don’t know if it works for them. Thankfully there are other options. Place limits on yourself, even though you don’t need to. Break up your unhappy relationship, even if it’s comfortable. Stop talking, stop going out, or change your…
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I don’t wanna… I’m not used to it
This really got me thinking. I was telling an acquaintance of mine who wanted to lose weight about how a bunch of us had made a lifestyle change, eating paleo and working out using Crossfit and MovNat principles. They were interested in it but their response struck me as odd. I realized that I’ve heard…
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Cop Bots vs Robber Bots
A simple metaphor for an important phenomenon. I’ll explain. Cop bots are the enforcers. Google is an organizing algorithm but, more importantly, it’s also an exclusion robot. It says “you’re in,” and “you’re out.” It has to be very good at this, or it makes no money, and the robot gets shut down. Spammers are…
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The Perfect Watchtower
It occurred to me this morning that checking email often may be a feature, not a bug, of information culture. Productivity people talk all the time about how you have to stop checking email, you have to stop checking Twitter, in order to start doing real work. I’m not sure checking email is the problem.…
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Cultural Transparency ÷ Risk = Upward Mobility
These are just notes. Some of the links may be incomplete but the basis, I think, is strong. Theory: The more you can find out about your culture, the more you’re capable of moving upward. This is buffered by risk, which prevents people from acting based on potential repercussions. Huge mouthful, I know. Let’s break…
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Raise Your Hurdles
Two things came together this weekend to get me thinking about direction. I’ll tell you the story, maybe it’ll work for you too. Last week, my friend Justin and I suggested we trade books for a month, so that I could get him thinking with mine and he could get me thinking with what he…
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How to get paid for what you do for free
Bartenders make $500 a night in tips. Baristas make $20. Their drinks are equally complex. They serve similar numbers of clients. They perform the same job, but during different hours and in different settings. Why do bartenders make so much more? It isn’t performance. Some bartenders are sloppy, and some baristas are excellent, but their compensation…
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Your Happiness Area Code
There are three measures of success. If you follow them, you should have everything you want. The first of the three is direction. If you don’t know what your end goal is, no amount of grit or dedication will get you there. There is some guesswork involved in all of our lives, but if we…
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The White Shoe Theory of Wealth
Every external behaviour is a tell for an internal belief. Yesterday, I spent time on a panel with Karl Dubost, whose website blocks search engines from finding him. This external behaviour is a tell for something he believes in. Can you guess what that is? Today I heard a story where someone was talking about…
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Two Great Local Business Uses for Foursquare
These examples are simple, but they prove a point. Uses of social media have to be timely or they lose their value. The stuff below works, and impresses me, right now, but it’ll become common later. Use them before that to leave an impact, ok? FAIT ICI, a local shop that focuses on local, organic…