Sometimes it seems as if the world is just deliberately trying to piss you off. Assholes are everywhere.  Events conspire to frustrate you.  Even inanimate objects like your phone seem to be deliberately driving you crazy. To not only survive, but thrive at such times, you must first realize that the key word in the above paragraph … Continue reading See Things As They Are →

In a small, growth-minded company, there are three key qualities to look for in a “tech” hire: Technology skills – Duh.  This isn’t necessarily the most important quality, but naturally it’s up there.  No tech skills, no tech hire.  What we’re looking for here isn’t gobs and gobs of experience, but fluency in at least one … Continue reading Three Key Qualities of a Good Tech Hire →

What is a “Deep Dive”?  You’ve probably heard the term before, but what exactly does it mean? It means doing something that very few people can.  It means spending (depending on the complexity of the subject) hours, weeks, months, or even years exploring something very specific. And we’re not talking about reading.  Reading is useful but it can easily become a crutch. … Continue reading Going Deep →

Public speaking is hard.  Yes, it can be terrifying, but it’s also very difficult. One of the critical (and well-known) keys to being a good public speaker is:  know your material. Know it cold, inside and out, backwards and forwards so that you can recite it while drunk and hung upside down from a crawler crane. … Continue reading Grabbing Your Audience With Two Hands →

What kind of commitment is required to move a mountain? Let’s take Joe.  He’s committed to moving the sucker, so he wakes up, checks his email, rolls up his sleeves, moves a few rocks, hops online to check the news, moves a few more rocks, has lunch and reads a couple of articles on solar … Continue reading The Art of Mountain-Moving →

Sometimes pain isn’t the worst thing you can endure. It can be worse – much worse – to sit around wondering if you could have done something special if you’d only pushed through the pain. Pain is discomfort.  Regret, on the other hand, is an ever-present agony that takes a long, long time to go away. … Continue reading There Are Worse Things Than Pain →

We’ve all been trained to expect scarcity.  It’s built into our lives.  Water will become scarce.  Food is scarce.  Oil is scarce. “Be afraid.  Everything is running out.” But what if that’s not true?  What if technology is creating a world in which our most precious resources are going to become, for all reasonable purposes, … Continue reading Not As Bad As It Sounds →