I love shortcuts—especially if I’m not supposed to use them. Why can’t I avoid right-angle paths and use the hypotenuse instead? That saves me some time. Can I make my exercise easier? I can—and I too often lose the value of the exercise. So shortcuts aren’t always good or always bad. The context matters. Shortcuts […]
What Do You Gain or Lose with Shortcuts, Rules, and Laws? Read More »
When we were kids, we outgrew our clothing, sometimes at an alarming rate. (I vividly remember one summer when my older daughter needed a new pair of sneakers every three weeks.) Later, as we changed from childhood to our teenage years, we outgrew our interests. Some of us have outgrown jobs and found new jobs.
When Did You Last Outgrow a Friend—Which Allowed You to Create Your Better Life? Read More »
When you were a child, your parents made all the decisions for how you lived. I distinctly remember thinking it was “so unfair” that I had to go to bed and not read more. Yes, I was one of those kids who read under the covers with a flashlight. Even as adults, we live in
How Do We Balance the Power to Make Decisions with Who Feels the Outcomes? Read More »
Have you ever been in a situation with too much light, smell, sound, or cold/warmth? Or you took a bite of something, expecting a subtle taste—and felt overwhelmed with the taste you got? That’s a sensory overload. We learn to filter out the “noise” from the signal when we feel sensory overload. And some of
What Filters Do You Use to Manage Sensory Overload? Read More »
(I can’t write about the shooting in Texas. My heart is too heavy. Instead, I’ll write about problems we can solve.) At a recent dinner, friends described this problem: “On a recent flight, we took off late. Many people on the plane had connecting flights. The flight attendants made the obligatory announcement about waiting for
When Is a Small Application of Money the Right Tool to Solve This Problem? Read More »
I have a new nonfiction book in the 2022 Write Stuff Storybundle this week (the bundle is only until March 10 or so). While you might not have heard of some of the writers, I’m sure you’ve heard of Lawrence Block. He’s a multi-award-winning mystery writer. His contribution to this bundle is a memoir. The
Longevity and Success: How and When Do You Choose to Show Up? Read More »
In our daily lives, we manage all kinds of risks. We fill up our cars with gas so we get to where we’re going. In addition, I’ve learned to check the maps before I leave. That’s because the map in my head has pruned several non-local roads because I barely drove anywhere during the pandemic.
How Do We Manage Risks Without Theater (the Illusion of Management)? Read More »
I learned something new this week, about falsifiable and non-falsifiable claims. When we use hypotheses to examine the world around us, we look for observations that can disprove that hypothesis. In other words, we want to see if we can make the experiment fail in some way, to understand more. As an example: Hypothesis: All
How Can We Honor Other People’s Values and Move to Falsifiable Claims? Read More »
For years, I was a terrible photographer. When I took pictures of Mark and the children, I often cut off the top of Mark’s head. That was back in the days of film cameras and I never quite understood how to frame pictures. Until we developed those pictures, I didn’t realize how narrow my focus
When Do You Choose to Narrow or Extend Your Focus? Read More »
How Much Balance Do We Need to Excel and Succeed? I’m a sucker for the Olympics. You name the sport—yes, even ones I don’t know or understand—and I can spend hours transfixed. Not because of the sport itself, although I often wonder how people chose that specific sport. But because these athletes use physical, mental,
How Much Balance Do We Need to Excel and Succeed? Read More »