If you want to get a lot of people’s attention, tell them how they can get “more.” More what? Fame. Money. Power. Influence. Hair. Bandwidth. Page views. Productivity. Fans. Followers. Downloads. Apps. Kardashians. Fast food for a buck. Pretty much anything … except maybe gray hair and wrinkles. We’ve somehow[…] Read On
I love getting email from readers, especially hate emails like this friendly missive from a gentleman ostensibly named “Doug” (Warning: expletive alert … even though I bleeped some of them, it’s still pretty raunchy): I’m an aerospace engineer who can’t get a job. I won’t go into the specifics because[…] Read On
Max Levchin is a very smart guy. He’s the former CTO and cofounder of PayPal, a member of the PayPal mafia that spawned much of Web 2.0, and the chairman and largest shareholder of Yelp. And when it comes to cyber security, fraud, and encryption, the guy knows his stuff.[…] Read On
Fear. Once it takes hold of you, that powerful emotion is nearly impossible to control. That’s no accident. Fear and the fight-or-flight response it induces have been fundamental to human survival for millions of years. Without it, none of us would be here. So it should come as no surprise[…] Read On
In case you missed it, actor Sean Penn wrote a long, rambling piece for Rolling Stone about “El Chapo” Guzman, the Mexican drug lord who recently escaped from prison. Somewhere in the 10,000-word essay is a surprisingly trite, pandering, and frankly embarrassing interview. More interesting is the way Penn seems to[…] Read On
GROUPTHINK: a pattern of thought characterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics. We live in a sound bite culture. That’s fine for the media, headlines, and tweets. But when words take on a life of their own – when they dictate our actions[…] Read On
When you spend decades working with top executives, you really can’t help but observe what works and doesn’t work over the long haul. One thing I’ve noticed, it’s not intrinsic characteristics or personal habits that determine whether you’re successful or not. It’s your behavior. What do I mean by “behavior?”[…] Read On