Hey there, I’ve been a major slouch with getting Volume 3 out. I’ve had some interesting times lately, but the delay is mostly because I’m a procrastinator extraordinaire. The 80/20 rule is easier to preach than practice… Apropos of keeping up with this newsletter, a helpful tip from productivity expert Tim Ferriss: when starting a […]
German scientists pioneer process preventing death of 4-6 billion male chicks per year
I’ve been a vegetarian/pescatarian for a bit more than two years now, owing to a mix of environmental and ethical concerns. I think humans are evolved to be omnivores, but if we can be 99% as healthy without causing suffering or harm to other beings, that’s a tradeoff I’m comfortable making. Not judging or preaching, […]
On my Vipassana Course
I did a 10-day Vipassana silent meditation retreat from November 7-18, 2018. Here are some thoughts regarding the experience. Background re: Meditation: First, I’ve been meditating on and off for the past four years, ever since I heard about Headspace. I actually discovered them while doing some branding research, and loved the strength of the […]
On unconditional love
After getting back from my 10 day Vipassana course (I haven’t put up the blog post on that experience yet, but it’s coming), I started thinking a lot about the nature of love, and unconditional love in particular. I’ve been in a number of romantic relationships in my life, and as evidenced by the fact […]
Use your head for yourself, heart for others
I learned a lot as a child by soaking up the wisdom of my elders. My father often brought me along when he called on friends and I sat with him when he entertained visitors in our home. While I was visiting my family in July, we received a visit from a worldly and well-read family […]
Google under threat – Facebook M and iOS9
Two new services from Google’s main rivals are poised to undercut Google’s ad revenue Figure 1: Credit – ZDNet; using 2013 financial data. More recent data looks even more extreme since Google’s sale of Motorola to Lenovo. Ad revenue subsidizes pretty much all of Google’s crazy adventures, from self-driving cars to creepy robots. Facebook and Apple fired two heavy […]
Pocket vs. Instapaper – sacrificing growth for revenue
About a year and a half ago, Instapaper was the app of choice for saving articles to read later. The service saved the article on your web browser, stripped away all the formatting and compiled it in one place for you to read when you actually had the time. Instapaper was super-convenient and innovative. They […]
On meditation
Andy Puddicombe, former monk and founder of Headspace.com I’m always on the lookout for tips, tricks or systems that can help me increase my productivity or reduce strains on my willpower. Most of the work I do these days is on a consulting basis, so I don’t have a manager to prioritize my tasks or make […]
Talk at Reinventing Organizations Berlin
My friend Sebastian invited me to a talk by Frederic Laloux on the next paradigm for workplaces/ organizations. Here’s a YouTube video of one of his talks: Key takeaways: High complexity environments require distributed self-management; hierarchies cannot use traditional command and control. Hierarchies do emerge even in what Laloux calls “teal” organizations – his prescriptive […]
Better workplace outcomes – a page from sports science
Image credit: Daily Mail As sports leagues and teams increasingly become lucrative businesses, teams are finding significant value by paying attention to previously ignored variables. Companies outside the sporting world should take note. The English Premier League has had a massive 14% compound annual growth rate since its founding in 1992 and recently auctioned its […]