The Expert
I responded to a job post recently that was asking for people who are experts in a handful of different specialties. I understand what they're asking for, but I have a particular bone to pick with the word "expert". Two things: First, people always tend to assume they know more than they think they do. It's a neat little trick our egos play on us to make life bearable. Even right out of the gate,...
Thought Leadership
Clearly, blogs are a powerful medium through which people can offer ideas, at little or no cost to themselves, to as wide of an audience as is willing to read them. But blogs have a bad reputation because in their early days, a lot of people treated them as online diaries. For lots of people, a negative impression formed, as the result of the self-expression and self-importance that characterized the posts on LiveJournal. But it's...
Rule of Humility
"Rule of law" is a legal term referring to the concept that no sovereign should be above the law. In other words, the President of the United States should be held accountable for the same crimes he commits as any other citizen of this country. I've met my fair share of people who are still furious with Bill Clinton and the fact that he got away with perjury without being impeached. Perhaps it doesn't always...
Broken Windows
Thanks to Malcolm Gladwell, most people have heard of the broken windows theory, or the notion that a small, seemingly insignificant sign of decay, disrepair, or apathy can end up having a big impact. A single broken window, if left unfixed, gives people the impression that the neighborhood is in decline, and this changes people's behavior. It can theoretically lead to more "broken windows". But it's not the broken window that does it. It's the...
ZeroTrash
Last January, it finally got to me. I live in the downtown area of a relatively small city; it has a lot of the problems that any normal metropolitan area would, but most of them are far less severe than in larger cities. The one that started catching my attention: litter. This was a gradual process...like a nagging feeling in the back of your mind. I kept seeing people's old Starbucks cups and fast food...
You're Sitting On A Masterpiece
Boy, do I know that feeling. Inspiration strikes, and you dream up an idea for a book, or product, or some piece of art you can make. (I love it when a plan comes together.) And then, once we have the idea worked through in our heads, what do we do next? As the Fonz said: we sit on it. The reason is simple: we don't want to mess it up. We have no business...
Hackers Built My Hotrod
Recently, researchers determined it was possible to get into the computer system inside of an automobile and tamper with the functioning of the car's internal computer. And yes, there's potential there for messing with the braking system. As of right now, these kinds of attacks against a car require that attacker to be inside of the automobile. What that means, for now, is that we're perfectly safe driving around in our cars, but you probably...
Categorical Rejection
Our brains are wired so that if something doesn't fall into a category, then it's invisible. If we can't classify it, then we have a harder time making sense of it, so we ignore it. The last time someone recommended a particular author or band to you, what was the first question out of your mouth? This helps us find what we like, but human beings largely use categories to filter out what they don't...
What People Do
What I see a lot of people doing:Trying to get others to take an interest in them, but not making any effort to take an interest in others.Talking and trying to get others to listen, but not listening to others.Trying to hide their mistakes, instead of acknowledging and apologizing for them.Expending tons of energy to get other people to change their minds, but expending almost none trying to change their own.Do the former and you're...
Noodles
Starting is pretty easy. I have lots of ideas for projects to do. Over the past few years, I've bought a lot of domain names for sites I didn't end up building, put in time writing pages of books that I'll probably never finish, and bought materials for art projects that I'll never complete. Ideate, start, but it doesn't pan out. Of course, this is my fault, but I'm okay with it. Enough projects get...