733 Shares When life gets hard, when things don’t go my way, when a project doesn’t quite work out the way I planned, or when I want to sleep but can’t—like right now—I think of thinkers and leaders from the past and I remind myself that things could be much, much worse. Friedrich Hayek had to flee when the London School of Economics was moved to Cambridge during World War II (his friend and intellectual rival John Maynard Keynes apparently helped him find accommodations). Ludwig von Mises was chased out of Europe by... More »
84 Shares Here’s a scenario that might sound familiar: you are listening to a speech or presentation, or perhaps you are reading an article, an essay, or a report, and it becomes clear that the writer is using words without communicating. Some essays, articles, and books might be pleasant to read because the language is colorful, and a speaker might make pleasant, sincere-sounding noises. No doubt some of your my writing or speaking can be described this way. If you don’t think yours can, just wait. As you improve, you will expect more of... More »
Review of Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style (2004, Harper Perennial, Paperback) Virginia Postrel’s The Substance of Style is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. Postrel has a rare combination of talents: her writing is fluid, vivid, and memorable, her writing is informed by careful economic reasoning, and despite her expertise she doesn’t assume that her aesthetic and cultural choices are self-evidently better than anyone else’s. In a quote from a review in The Guardian in the inside cover of the paperback edition, Steven Pinker writes: “In... More »
82 Shares No matter where you are in your intellectual journey, the ability to assemble and analyze large amounts of complex information is a skill that can pay large dividends both in monetary terms and in terms of your overall satisfaction with life. What follows is a very short guide and template for writing excellent research papers. Re-Evaluating Road-Crossing: The Chicken Was Pushed A Short Guide to Writing a Research Paper Abstract The Abstract is usually 100-150 words long. The abstract tells the reader what you have done and why it is important. Your... More »
Review of Bill Hybels, Holy Discontent: Fueling the Fire that Ignites Personal Vision. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007. What really sets you off? What are the things in life that really get your blood boiling? In this short, provocative, and easy-to-read book, Willow Creek’s Bill Hybels uses his pastoral fluency to challenge the reader to consider what he calls their “holy discontent,” which consists of a sort of God-given righteous indignation and to channel this discontent in positive directions. The back-cover blurb summarizes the book very concisely: “Hybels invites you to consider... More »
71 Shares According to virtually every religious and ethical tradition, meaningful charity does not draw attention to the giver, and dignified charity does not draw attention to the recipient. Here I will offer an economist’s perspective on the Biblical injunction to “let not the right hand know what the left is doing” in charitable giving and will argue that this results in more efficient charity (meaning that it increases the bang we get from every charitable dollar) in addition to strengthening the moral community. One reason economics is a dismal science is that it... More »
Review of Josh Waitzkin, “The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance.“ New York: Free Press, 2007. Josh Waitzkin has led a full life as a chess master and international martial arts champion, and as of this writing he isn’t yet 35. The Art of Learning chronicles his journey from chess prodigy (and the subject of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer) to world championship Tai Chi Chuan with important lessons identified and explained along the way. Marketing expert Seth Godin has written and said that one should resolve to... More »
106 Shares Patrick Ritchie is the author of The Credit Road Map, an in-depth look into how the credit world works. He is a certified instructor with the Arizona Department of Real Estate. Patrick is a guest lecturer for The Ohio State University and Arizona State University MBA programs. His book is approved by the National Association of REALTORS® and is required reading in finance and real estate classes at major universities. He and the author worked together at Winding Hollow Country Club in New Albany, Ohio in the mid-1990s. On Credit 1. Why... More »
Richard Truman. 2006. Bear Bryant, CEO. Sweetwater Press. Legendary coaches are great sources of inspiration and wisdom, and Paul W. “Bear” Bryant, the iconic coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide from the late 1950s through the early 1980s, is revered as something approaching a minor deity in the state of Alabama. There is a museum named for him at the University of Alabama (my alma mater), and every year adds a new pile of books to the literature on the man and his legacy. Last Christmas, I was given a copy of... More »
61 Shares My son was born on July 31, 2008. To prepare for the trials and travails of fatherhood, I spent my Sunday mornings working in our church’s preschool ministry. It was really, really fun, and I look forward to getting back to it over the next couple of weeks (I’ve taken a hiatus because of travel and fatherhood). In the process, I learned a lot about productivity, management, and life. Here are a few lessons from working with kids: It happens. You know what I mean. It happens, it’s messy, and it stinks. ... More »
261 Shares If you’re reading this, odds are you are a knowledge worker whose time is very valuable and who requires large chunks of uninterrupted time in order to do whatever it is you are being paid to do. You aren’t cranking widgets. Instead, you’re trying to discover the history and social significance of widgets across cultural contexts, or you’re trying to design a revolutionary new machine to produce widgets, or you’re looking for ways to improve the widget supply chain, or you’re working for an upstart start-up beta-testing widget 2.0. Your time is... More »
It was Monday, December 29 and I wasn’t happy. I had spent part of the morning at home working on odds and ends and another part of the morning at the office working on a book review and a few other things. I was in a funk because I’d forgotten to answer an email from a friend and mentor asking about having lunch today, I had a billion little things to do, and to top it off, I had to go to the local inspection station for a third emissions test to... More »
33 Shares My mother was the secretary at Glennwood Baptist Church in Morris, Alabama for about eight or nine years. My parents attended Glennwood for a while, and the pastor (David Bays) is someone I respect and admire very greatly. Even when I moved to St. Louis, after I got married, and after Shannon and I moved to Memphis, we continued to get a newsletter from Glennwood, and I enjoyed staying abreast of what is going on there. The newsletters that came to our house changed shortly after I defended my dissertation in... More »
Productivity expert Jason Womack is working on a project aimed at teenagers on the careers of tomorrow. He asked me to contribute a few ideas, and he graciously agreed to let me turn it into an article for Lifehack.org. From where I sit, there are a couple of very broad categories in which people can expect to excel in the future: 1. Data Analysis Data and computation have never been cheaper than they are this morning. They are cheaper than when I first wrote this in October, they will be cheaper this... More »
34 Shares Gerald M. Weinberg has written dozens of books and hundreds of articles on computers, technology, consulting, and the craft of composition. Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method is an excellent survey of the methods he has used in order to produce this voluminous output. The comprehensive table of contents provides the reader with a clear, useful map of what lies ahead, and the exercises sprinkled throughout this short, readable book make it a valuable addition to any writer’s bookshelf. (p. 6). Weinberg begins with a clear principle that we would all do well... More »
