Some things just never quite add up — Equal vs. Just Here’s a fun fact: Nearly every single song you’ve ever listened to has been out of tune. Ever-so-slightly out of tune, but out of tune nonetheless. That’s because all modern instruments are tuned using a method called Equal Temperament. In a nutshell, Equal Temperament makes all music slightly out of…

Who knew human psychology was just calculus in disguise? — “It’s Pretty Good” Countless times, with countless individuals, when I’ve asked the other person how they’re doing, the conversation went something like this… “Are you happy where you are?” “Well, I guess, sort of, maybe.” “Why don’t you leave and try something new?” “Because it’s pretty good. And who knows if somewhere else…

Exploring a classic piece of startup advice — The Rundown You may have heard the expression “Do things that don’t scale.” The idea is that early stage startups are able to leverage highly inefficient ways of accomplishing goals, ways that larger companies cannot leverage. My favorite personal example of doing things that don’t scale comes from the early days of…

A strategy for expanding your network and making new friends — Introducing Others In the past few months, I’ve made a conscious effort to do something new: I began introducing acquaintances of mine to one another. …

Once it’s successful, what does a company do next? — A Fork In The Road Recently, I’ve been discussing strategy with a number of companies facing a common decision point. Despite being spread out across industries, they’ve all reached a level of success with whatever their core product or offering is. And now they’re asking the same question. …

Let’s Build A New Social Platform From Scratch — The Idea I believe it’s possible to build an ideal social network that has all the conceptual benefits of social media while addressing the fundamental issues with today’s platforms. Here’s how it works. Imagine a platform where every new user is given 1,000 points when they join. As they see content they…

Spotify announces the addition of 150,000+ audiobooks to Premium — Another Seismic Shift On September 20, 2022 (just over one year ago), I published an article titled The Future of the Book Industry Starts Today. In it, I announced that Spotify was launching audiobooks, its third official format (after music and podcasts). …

When hiring, experience is often valued too highly despite being less predictive of success — Experience Doesn’t Matter (…As Much) People gasp when they hear me say it. Or at the very least, they roll their eyes. “When hiring,” I say, “prioritize experience below most other things.” Or, more bluntly, “Experience doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think it does.” I’m not talking about personal experience, the ability to…

Exploring why some content spreads… and most content doesn’t — The Forgotten Sundial I’ve been on a reading hot streak lately. A number of the books I’ve read this year are among the best I’ve ever read. Particular among them was a novel called The Sundial by Shirley Jackson (whom you might know as the author of the short story The Lottery). …