I was in a funny conversation recently.
Two women were ordering wine at the bar. One asked for the wine list. The other ordered right away, “Pinot Noir, please.” This introduced a brief but memorable exchange. Ms. Pinot Noir always drank pinot noir because, she had read, it was better for you. Ms. Pinot Noir wasn’t [...]
Cuil (pronounced cool) was mentioned today in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I did a search for “thoreau”.
Note the lack of advertising. This won’t be permanent but none of you have had experience searching without the influence/interference of it. Give it a shot. You may live longer.
Or you may not.
Here’s [...]
I found this post by Merlin Mann at 43 Folders (a great site - one that has been a huge influence over the past two years). It’s a brief glimpse into a conversation between Obama and someone in the British Government. Merlin says it is with the British Prime Minister Cameron Brown but Brown is [...]
I’m a big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. In a nutshell the book teaches you how to be organized. The basics of that book are summed up as capture, organize and do. You capture all the “stuff” that comes your way. Stuff is anything that you have to [...]
But not nearly as smart as others. I’d like to know more, though a consequence of knowing more is realizing how little you know. One way to “know more“ is to read. Read a lot. Most importantly read things (books, articles, essays, blogs) by people smarter than you.
One person that I’m pretty sure is smarter [...]
Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford in 2005
Whether you go to college or not (Steve didn’t) this speech should resonate. It has echoes of Emerson’s Self-Reliance. Steve tells three stories each bearing its own message. In the first he talks about connecting the dots. Looking back at the unorthodox path that he took Steve realizes [...]
We all know that reading is important. How many of you spend much time writing? With the internet and the rise of e-mail, blogs and forums many of us are spending more time writing as a form of communication. But how often do you craft something? By crafting something I mean having an idea, putting [...]
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
The litany [...]
Reading is an important skill. According to Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book it’s one that most of us don’t really develop. Ok, so must of can read in the sense of reading a sentence. What Adler is talking about is reading for information. To be faced with a book and decide what [...]