Reading Time: < 1 min In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, May 6: The value of having social media followers is plummetingMore social networks are starting to move to algorithms that prioritize content over followers, meaning any piece of […]
Every idea is half-baked at some point
Reading Time: < 1 min We’ve always heard about how bad “half-baked ideas” usually are, but every idea goes through that stage at some point. It certainly could be problematic to move forward with a half-baked idea, but having a half-baked idea means that you might be on to something good. In his book “Steal the Show“, author Michael Port […]
Learning conversations
Reading Time: < 1 min There are many types of conversations that we can have with others, but one of my favorites is a “learning conversation”, as explained by Charles Duhigg in “Supercommunicators“: Our goal, for the most meaningful discussions, should be to have a “learning conversation.” Specifically, we want to learn how the people around us see the world […]
Your future self will wonder what you were thinking
Reading Time: < 1 min For most of us, we can look back at ourselves from 10 years ago and think “wow, I had no idea what I was doing”. It’s uncomfortable to appreciate, but it stands to reason that in 10 years we’ll look back at ourselves today and think the same thing. In his book “Clear Thinking“, Shane […]
Loss leaders are aimed at dumb customers
Reading Time: 2 min Many stores offer special deals on “loss leaders” — products that are sold very cheap, often at a loss, in order to entice customers into the store to buy other things that are substantially marked up in price. One store that doesn’t do this is Costco. Generally speaking, they try to simply keep low margins […]
Value is what people perceive it to be
Reading Time: < 1 min The word “value” gets discussed and dissected in business quite a bit, but what does it really mean? At the end of the day, it means whatever the customer wants it to mean. I once bought a $5 bottle of Coke and was happy to do it. Given the situation, the value was high. I […]
The value of having social media followers is plummeting
Reading Time: 2 min Over the past few years we’ve seen a slow decline in the value of having “followers” on social media, as the algorithms continue to shift to show content to all users as they see fit. YouTube, while it’s changing quickly, is an example of the old model. More often than not, videos are shown to […]
The Sunday Summary: Spam, summaries, and teamwork
Reading Time: < 1 min In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, April 29: “What is spam”, 10 years laterIt’s been 10 years since Seth Godin wrote his famous “What is spam?” post, and things have likely only gotten worse […]
Accept the inevitable
Reading Time: 2 min There are things in this world that we can and should choose to fight against — improving the climate, housing the homeless, and uncovering cures for various diseases. We might not win all of these fights, but they’re good ones to take on. On the other hand, some things are inevitable, mostly related to technology, […]
Failure comes from a failure to imagine failure
Reading Time: 2 min “Be prepared” has been the motto of the Boy Scouts since 1907, and it’s good advice. Being prepared is rarely a bad idea and can help immensely when you unexpectedly need it most. In his book “Clear Thinking“, author Shane Parrish gives some examples of how being prepared makes you a better “problem anticipator”, which […]