Category: Living in trouble
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The truth we can’t find
To some extent, I think the rise of 'fake news' or propaganda, or whatever it is, relates to our inability to handle uncertainty. We hear something we don't want to believe, we worry it may be true, then we look for disproof. When we see something we like, we decide that must be true. We…
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The Casino-ization of Facebook: don’t mistake clicks for friendship
I'm not saying the Facebook isn't a good tool for maintaining relationships. I'm saying that using Facebook indiscriminately can lead one to believe that it's a substitute for friendship. How We Get To Next: The Uneasy Blurring of Work and Play, 2016-Nov-22 by Tom Chatfield If social media is a form of play, what does it…
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Understanding irrational behaviors
What I love about Daniel Kahneman is that he's opened our eyes to the fact that just because behavior is irrational, doesn't mean we can't understand it. We CAN understand and control irrational behavior, and we don't have to control all of it… Just the part that's doing us harm. I recently discovered the writings…
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How public schools can better speak for themselves
What I love about this story is that it offers a method for schools and other institutions to shift perceptions and behavior in their community. Lots of big city school districts have public relations departments, but few of them "work smarter" to make change the way this team does. It's very inspiring, and I recommend…
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The pitfalls of being a problem solver
When I arrived at Columbia Business School, I was delighted to discover that every subject was just about solving problems. Instead of explaining things, we we always expected to propose solutions. Of course, the problem with business school is we seldom had the opportunity to execute a solution, and even if we did, we weren't around long…
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Investors have a lot of investments, but entrepreneurs have only one life
Recently, I've been talking to many people about possible projects and jobs. They are distressed when I tell them my hourly rate. They respond… so consider that you're hardly making anything now, wouldn't a lower rate be better than nothing??? Uh, no. (Explained below.) VentureBeat: Why I turned down 500k, pissed off my investors and shut down…
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Advice to heed before you give or take advice
Sharing our problems and challenges is a great way to build trust. Unfortunately, that behavior inspires many people to try and solve our problems. If you have that inclination please squelch it. And if you can't, consider these words. The whole article is highly recommended–learn the context of this advice! First Round Review: Advice is…
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Ways to protect your price when negotiating a sale
Whenever we have to negotiate a sale, we confront the fact that sellers and buyers naturally disagree about price, based on the endowment effect. Science has demonstrated a bias among owners to over-estimate the value of any item they possess. This bias does not make the potential buyer correct, but it ought to give the seller…
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With creating new things, beware the How overwhelming the What
Dave Owens at the Vanderbilt University business school agrees that everyone is creative, and he also notes that in many business, people who don't see themselves as creative professionals have major influence over how things are created. And that changes the what. So if we're planning a new product or process, we have to be…
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To lead our teams to greatness, we have to spend more time showing them how to work together
My experience over the years is that when managing a team, selecting the right members is much less important than creating the right conditions so they can work. In volunteer projects, we often have no control over the participants. What a relief to find that how people are allowed to behave matters more than anything they…
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