Category Archives: Art

Showing Up

As you go through life, you’ll meet the people who have it all figured out. The girl who, in 8th grade, starting taking zoology classes at the local junior college because she knew she wanted to be a Giraffe veterinarian. … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration | 4 Comments

Declare Victory or Failure

Whenever you start a project, you should have a plan for finishing it. One outcome is to declare victory, to find that moment when you have satisfied your objectives and reached a goal. The other outcome, which feels like a … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Choice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Leading, Quotes | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Systematic Learning

Chris Guillebeau was interested in building a lifestyle business (i.e. something that requires little startup capital and lots of flexibility).  Instead of picking a business at random, Chris did what we should all do. In The $100 Startup, Chris started … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Inspiration | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

You’re Always Allowed to do Big Work

No matter what position you’re in, whether it’s janitor or CEO, a huge part of your day is spent doing “small work”.  This includes the clerical stuff, the scheduling, the filing, the organizing, and all the other things that just … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Choice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

On Plagiarism

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing. – Salvador Dali Or, as Mark Twain explains in more fervent prose: Oh, dear me, how unspeakably funny and owlishly idiotic and grotesque was that ‘plagiarism’ farce! As if there … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Quotes | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Opportunity Cost

How much does it cost to help your friend move on a Saturday?  What if you had planned to take your son to a ballgame?  What if you had planned to work overtime? There’s a cost to everything you do, … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Choice, Money, Productivity | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Link Dump

How do good hotels stay always feel so fresh and clean?  Lots and lots of manpower. How the cast of friends banded together to leverage their per episode salaries into seven figures.  Great negotiating story.  Ctrl+F “breakout”. 7 Useless Money-Saving … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Inspiration, Money, Negotiation, Photography | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Why Your Food Doesn’t Look Like The Ad

Great marketing from McDonald’s, showing exactly how they get their food to look so good in photos: Instead of ignoring the question, avoiding it, or getting defensive (by say, comparing their products to other fast food chains’), McDonald’s opens up … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Business, Marketing, Photography, Video | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Taking Control of Your Life: Concierge Medicine

Dr. Solis was on the edge of burnout after 21 years of running a traditional medical practice.  Trying to see between 30 and 40 patients a day, keeping track of a roster of over 3,000 patients, and dealing with endless … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Choice, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Marketing, Video | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Changing Tides

Digital delivery and consumption has completely changed the publishing industry.  For thousands of years, reading was something you did by yourself.  Unless you announced it, nobody knew if you even opened a book you bought, let alone finished it.  Now, … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Marketing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Lazy, Weak and Dumb

People overwhelmingly think they’re smarter, stronger, more industrious and better looking than they really are.  To some extent, this is healthy.  If most of us realized how ugly and dumb we really were, we’d have trouble leaving the house, landing … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Diet, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Money, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How To Succeed (Advice from Seth Godin)

Advice from Seth Godin: You don’t need all of these, and some are mutually exclusive (while others are not). And most don’t work, don’t scale or can’t be arranged: Be very focused on your goal and work on it daily … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Inspiration, Relationships, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Compared to What

It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re doing well if you compare yourself to your peers who are doing worse than you.  Unfortunately, this is a recipe for mediocracy.  Eventually, your self-induced laziness lets your peers catch up and then … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hard Work Is Never Wasted

In school, a lot of kids ask “When will I ever need to know this?”  Why do I need to know how to solve for x?  Who cares whether Amenhotep or Ramesses ruled Egypt first?  When will I ever need … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Psychology, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The $144,146,165 Button

Tiny changes can have massive results. Need proof?  Three buttons in a cab can increase tips 220%.

Posted in Art, Business, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Marketing, Persuasion, Psychology | Tagged , | Leave a comment