If you want to get anything done, there are two basic ways to get yourself to do it. The first, more popular and devastatingly wrong option is to try to motivate yourself. The second, somewhat unpopul

Search Find anything you save across the site in your account Annals of Technology A trivial problem reveals the limits of technology. February 5, 2018 For printer engineers, solving paper jams is “th

Credit...Kim Ryu Doctors Moral Distress in Neurosurgery Is it in the patient’s best interest to go through surgery if the chance of meaningful recovery is vanishingly small? Credit...Kim Ryu By Aug. 1

I think I’ve spent my whole career trying out the next cool productivity software or system. It almost always fails. I tried as many of these things as I could but it just falls by the wayside. Basecamp, Reminders, Todoist, Trello, Bullet Journal, Post-It Notes… Jira. I’m joking on that last one;…

The following is an adaptation from Adam Minter’s, “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale.” In it, he tracks multi-billion dollar international business of secondhand goods. The manufactur

Helpful kids are happy kids: Pitching in with household jobs builds confidence and gives children a sense of belonging, psychologists say. Sisters Angela, 12, Gelmy, 9, and Alexa Natali, 4, know this

I’ve heard a lot of ridiculous statements: “I’m sure we’ll find parking.” “I’ll just check Facebook for five minutes.” “I’ll skip dessert.” But perhaps the most absurd is the adage: “If you’re a rente

To drive or to be driven. Is that the question? 73 Mind-Blowing Implications of Driverless Cars and Trucks 19 min read· Feb 9, 2018 -- I originally wrote and published a version of this article in Sep

Lately, I’ve been talking to many of my friends about getting their books published. Not that they have big, fat manuscripts lying around just waiting to be published. No, no — most of these people aren’t even thinking about writing a book. I’m the one who says they have a book in them that’s…

When it comes to work, everyone has their own methods for getting tasks done. But it turns out that the most successful people tend to have similar habits. Or, so says Laura Vanderkam, author of a new

Back in 2006, when the iPhone was a mere rumor, Palm CEO Ed Colligan was asked if he was worried: “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “

From code to crickets: My struggle to market Logfolio after launch simplicio 3 upvotes 11 comments 5 tough marketing truths and how you fix them vbonora 6 upvotes 10 comments How the 50-50 rule transf

Getting Things Done is a time management technique that took the world by storm when it was first published in 2001. It was created by David Allen after years of research and practice in the field of

Maya Angelou suggests there are four questions that we’re all unconsciously asking each other all the time. We ask the people we love, we ask the people who matter to us professionally, and on a broader level, we ask the people we encounter as we go about our everyday lives: the cashier who takes…

Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those…

It’s well known that you get an advantage by making the first move in a price negotiation: If you’re the seller, for example, and you offer a price before the buyer does, a higher quote from you will

Jun Cen A friend of mine once had a curious experience with a job interview. Excited about the possible position, she arrived five minutes early and was

By Michael Liebreich, Chairman of the Advisory Board and Angus McCrone, Chief Editor Bloomberg New Energy Finance One of the key characteristics of complex systems, such as the world’s energy and transport sectors, is that when they change it tends not to be a linear process. They flip from one…

Happy 2017! As a kid, I just sort of took for granted that stuff got better every year—TVs got bigger and then thinner, cars got a little faster, and computers got unbelievably better on an exponential curve. As an adult, I realized that the future is not guaranteed to be better. The default is that…

By Tom Streithorst Imagine Beyonce’s stylist’s hairdresser’s cousin tells you exactly what happened in that elevator between Solange and Jay Z. The story is compelling, explains obscure lyrics in Lemonade , makes intuitive sense. You can’t wait to tell your friends. Everybody chatters excitedly…

Zeke Gabrielse Reformed bondservant of Christ. Rubyist. Hacker. Entrepreneur. Dec 20, 2016 About two months ago, I wanted to go on a vacation. I had the hotel

R obert Lustig is a paediatric endocrinologist at the University of California who specialises in the treatment of childhood obesity. A 90-minute talk he gave

A $27,500-a-month facility in Evanston, Ill., is attempting to turn stuck millennials into adults.

1 The Vertiginous March of Technology …

Every few months someone comes out with a new article on how to defeat email overload, and like the most recent diet fad, it gets some love and then goes away. Only, the volume of email continues to grow and the death of it is greatly exaggerated. I have a few friends that prefer texting and/or…

version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"? Flickr/Eneas de Troya Ever feel like you’re just not getting enough done? Know how many days a week you’re actually productive? People work an average of 45 hours a week; they consider about 17 of those hours to be unproductive (U.S.: 45 hours a week; 16 hours are…

Let me tell you the story of an “unskilled” worker in America who lived better than most of today’s college graduates. In the winter of 1965, Rob Stanley graduated from Chicago Vocational High School, on the city’s Far South Side. Pay rent, his father told him, or get out of the house. So Stanley…

Sometimes, life seems upside-down. I originally wrote this post months ago, but I’ve been too self-conscious to publish it until now. This quote convinced me to put on my big girl pants: “The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your…

As a follow-up to my recent piece, Tips for Summer Interns of 2013, I have been asked to provide pearls of wisdom on surviving a sporting event with your boss. As an international bon vivant, hopefully I have put something in here for everyone – well almost everyone. If you’re going to a hockey…

The End is a series about end-of-life issues. When my husband died from cancer last March at age 37, I was so grief-stricken I could barely sleep. One afternoon, I visited his grave — in a field high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, overlooking the Pacific Ocean — and lay on top of it. I slept more…