August 8th, 2008 | Published in Life, Psychology, Quotes, Relationships
But if money doesn’t do it for people, what does? What seems to be the most important factor in providing happiness is close social relations. People who are married, who have good friends, and who are close to their families are happier than those who are not.
—Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice (2004), p. 107
August 7th, 2008 | Published in Psychology, Quotes, Writing
Saying something short is not the mission—sound bites are not the ideal. Proverbs are the ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound.
The Golden Rule is the ultimate model of simplicity: a one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.
—Chip & Dan Heath, Made to Stick (2007), p. 16
August 6th, 2008 | Published in Art and Design, Quotes, Work
If you don’t create a little confusion, it’s unlikely you’ve built something remarkable.
August 5th, 2008 | Published in Philosophy, Quotes, Religion, Work
For human beings the spiritual and the practical are, and should be, inseparable. Alone, practicality becomes dangerous; spirituality, alone, becomes feeble and pointless. Alone, either becomes dull. Each is the other’s discipline, in a sense, and in good work the two are joined.
—Wendell Berry, “Preserving Wilderness” in Home Economics (1986), p. 145.
August 4th, 2008 | Published in Internet, Technology, Videos
Here is an excellent 20 minute presentation by Kevin Kelly about what he sees the next 5,000 days of the web looking like:
August 1st, 2008 | Published in Business, Psychology, Quotes, Work
Imagine you’re the CEO. I come to you with an idea that you think is very good. Rather than just pat me on the back and say, “Great idea!” your inclination (because you have to add value) is to say, “Good idea, but it’d be better if you tried it this way.”
The problem is, you may have improved the content of my idea by 5 percent, but you’ve reduced my commitment to executing it by 50 percent, because you’ve taken away my ownership of the idea. My idea is now your idea—and I walk about of your office less enthused about it than when I walked in.
That’s the fallacy of added value. Whatever we gain in the form of a better idea is lost many times over in our employees’ diminished commitment to the concept.
—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (2007), pp. 48-49.