Ten years ago this month, I wrote an article on this blog titled, “What are You Going to Be Exceptional at in 10 Years?” In the article, I picked two skills I wanted to get good at over the following decade: writing and micro-entrepreneurship. I’m not sure why I felt the need to write “micro-entrepreneurship” […]
Do You Even Want Success? (The Perils of Achievement Bias)
Biases distort our perception of reality. Consider survivorship bias. This is the fact that when viewing a group, you often only have the ability to look at the success stories, not the losers. As a result, you may be deceived that certain traits matter because they show up in all successes (even if they also […]
There is No “Real” You
Be yourself. Be genuine. Show people who you really are. Our culture is obsessed with authenticity. But what if the entire idea of being authentic is based on a lie? There’s a pervasive belief people hold that the person they appear to be is not who they actually are. Underneath all the masks, there’s a […]
Useful Mental Model: Normal Distribution
Some ideas are so powerful and useful that once you understand them deeply, you start to see them everywhere. One of those ideas is the normal distribution. Normal distributions, also known as bell curves or Gaussian functions look like this: They have a fat lump in the middle and two “tails” that stretch off in […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.