It Is What (You Think) It Is
The world around us is not simply the way it is; it's the way we think it is. Reality is perception. It's the way we interpret it in our brains. Things are the way we think they are.
Not a new concept, or even that insightful. But to this, it's worth adding: things have the potential to be what you think they can be. That's your opportunity.
"...or Current Resident"
This is a phrase indicative of a complete and total failure on the part of the marketing department that sent it. When a piece of junk mail lands in my mailbox and it's addressed to "James McGaw [or some former resident's name] or Current Resident", the message I get out of it is: "We don't know or care who you are, we don't really care who opens this envelope, and we're not even sure if...
The Virtue of Miscellaneous
When I was in middle school, I read a lot of fiction to pass the time. Most of it was the likes of Stephen King and other horror writers who wrote about fairly macabre things. And because I aspired to be a writer, I did everything I could to emulate their styles. The plots I devised were about weird and supernatural things happening to ordinary people in otherwise ordinary circumstances. I was writing for the...
In Defense of New Media
The Protestant Reformation happened because of Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses. The widespread dissemination of this publication ultimately allowed this historical event to take place. And its mass production wouldn't have been possible without the recent invention of moveable type, which allowed lots of copies to be printed at once. And this invention did, unquestionably, change the course of history. Prior to moveable type, the only way to mass produce copies of a book was to...
Starting Without a Goal
Activity doesn't equal accomplishment, but the former necessarily comes before the latter. Figuring out exactly what you want to accomplish is easier while taking action.
Worthwhile accomplishments are often only recognizable to hindsight. Foresight bias is usually predicated on the fear of criticism, and that only serves to keep us from doing important things.
Finding Versus Discovering
The two sound functionally equivalent, but they're actually quite different. The distinction lies in the intent of the searcher. You find something when you seek out a particular thing and successfully locate it. You discover something while browsing, and you come across something you weren't necessarily looking for. Columbus discovered America while he was in the process of trying to find India. Making something easy to find isn't quite as easy as it sounds. I...
Good Powerpoint
I met a woman from Denmark earlier this week who's currently working in the United States as a consultant to businesses. According to her, she helps people prepare Powerpoint presentations. In her words, she tries to make them "more visually striking and not just full of lots and lots of text". Who knew you could do that for a living? And I was glad to hear it, because anyone who's had the misfortune of spending...
Movements Don't Begin With a Leader
They start with the first person who chooses to stand up and follow that leader. Until that happens, there is no movement, just a person with an idea, and without followers, they're not a leader. A lot of us are sitting around waiting for inspiration to strike, for that perfect idea to champion, so we can stand up and start leading people. We're waiting for that "dare to be great" opportunity to cross our paths,...
What Do You Do When You Aren't Doing What You Do?
Whenever we're in social situations with strangers, like at parties or seated on a plane, the first question we tend to ask one another is "What do you do?" This is surprisingly pervasive in our culture, and I'm told that it's a less common question to ask in other places in the world. The implication, of course, is that we're defined in large part by what we choose to do for a living. The problem...
Weather Collective
About 100 years ago, Sir Francis Galton took an ox into a marketplace and asked lots of people to guess how many pounds the ox weighed. The individual guesses came from a diverse sampling of people, who weren't educated, and it was Galton's intention to demonstrate that the guesses of a few people would be close to the actual weight of the ox, while most of them would be way off the mark. The guesses...