Best practices are average People are often advised to “follow best practices”, and it’s not bad advice. Carefully following in the steps of those that have gone before us is a safe way to proceed. At the same time, best practices are designed to be limiting. In his book “Clear Thinking“, author Shane Parrish warns that best practices are always average:Doing something different means you might underperform, but it also means you might change the game entirely. If you do what everyone else do...

Best practices are average People are often advised to “follow best practices”, and it’s not bad advice. Carefully following in the steps of those that have gone before us is a safe way to proceed. At the same time, best practices are designed to be limiting. In his book “Clear Thinking“, author Shane Parrish warns that best practices are always average:Doing something different means you might underperform, but it also means you might change the game entirely. If you do what everyone else do...

The insatiable need to know more As time goes on, I’m finding that people who are always striving to learn more tend to have more success in business. From my vantage point, it seems to cover two areas:Learning timeless best practices for running a business (and the learning there never ends).Keeping up with industry trends and innovations to take things further.There was a point in the past where you could essentially just keep things steady, but the time for that is gone and constant learni...

The insatiable need to know more As time goes on, I’m finding that people who are always striving to learn more tend to have more success in business. From my vantage point, it seems to cover two areas:Learning timeless best practices for running a business (and the learning there never ends).Keeping up with industry trends and innovations to take things further.There was a point in the past where you could essentially just keep things steady, but the time for that is gone and constant learni...

Over the past few years we’ve seen a slow decline in the value of having “followers” on social media, as the algorithms continue to shift to show content to all users as they see fit. YouTube, while it’s changing quickly, is an example of the old model. More often than not, videos are shown to users that have specifically subscribed to a channel and not to as many other users on the platform. For example, look at the videos from WIRED; they have over 11M subscribers, but very few videos get e...

Over the past few years we’ve seen a slow decline in the value of having “followers” on social media, as the algorithms continue to shift to show content to all users as they see fit. YouTube, while it’s changing quickly, is an example of the old model. More often than not, videos are shown to users that have specifically subscribed to a channel and not to as many other users on the platform. For example, look at the videos from WIRED; they have over 11M subscribers, but very few videos get e...

In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. **Mon, May 6: The value of having social media followers is plummeting**More social networks are starting to move to algorithms that prioritize content over followers, meaning any piece of content has a chance to do well (or fail), regardless the number of followers that you have. **Tue, May 7: Value is what people perceive it to be**What is “value” to you? It’s what...

In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. **Mon, May 6: The value of having social media followers is plummeting**More social networks are starting to move to algorithms that prioritize content over followers, meaning any piece of content has a chance to do well (or fail), regardless the number of followers that you have. **Tue, May 7: Value is what people perceive it to be**What is “value” to you? It’s what...

For those of you over 40, you can likely still remember the “good old days” on the internet, back when people set up their own places to visit, rather than relying on a handful of huge companies trying to lock your attention inside of their walls (which is very likely how you found this post). Molly White recently wrote an amazing piece about the history of the web, but she’s not giving up hope that we can return there. Here is some of what she said:Social networks have become “the web” for m...

For those of you over 40, you can likely still remember the “good old days” on the internet, back when people set up their own places to visit, rather than relying on a handful of huge companies trying to lock your attention inside of their walls (which is very likely how you found this post). Molly White recently wrote an amazing piece about the history of the web, but she’s not giving up hope that we can return there. Here is some of what she said:Social networks have become “the web” for m...

There are many types of conversations that we can have with others, but one of my favorites is a “learning conversation”, as explained by Charles Duhigg in “Supercommunicators“:Our goal, for the most meaningful discussions, should be to have a “learning conversation.” Specifically, we want to learn how the people around us see the world and help them understand our perspectives in turn.Even if it’s someone that you disagree with (or especially if it’s someone that you disagree with), understa...

There are many types of conversations that we can have with others, but one of my favorites is a “learning conversation”, as explained by Charles Duhigg in “Supercommunicators“:Our goal, for the most meaningful discussions, should be to have a “learning conversation.” Specifically, we want to learn how the people around us see the world and help them understand our perspectives in turn.Even if it’s someone that you disagree with (or especially if it’s someone that you disagree with), understa...

Many stores offer special deals on “loss leaders” — products that are sold very cheap, often at a loss, in order to entice customers into the store to buy other things that are substantially marked up in price. One store that doesn’t do this is Costco. Generally speaking, they try to simply keep low margins on everything that they sell; nothing at a loss, but nothing with a huge margin either. The “Acquired” podcast did a great episode on Costco recently, and the hosts explained loss leaders ...

Many stores offer special deals on “loss leaders” — products that are sold very cheap, often at a loss, in order to entice customers into the store to buy other things that are substantially marked up in price. One store that doesn’t do this is Costco. Generally speaking, they try to simply keep low margins on everything that they sell; nothing at a loss, but nothing with a huge margin either. The “Acquired” podcast did a great episode on Costco recently, and the hosts explained loss leaders ...

In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. **Mon, April 29: “What is spam”, 10 years later**It’s been 10 years since Seth Godin wrote his famous “What is spam?” post, and things have likely only gotten worse since then. **Tue, April 30: Summaries can create blind spots**I love reading a good summary when I can, but there are many opportunities for blind spots within them. **Wed, May 1: Teamwork requires trust...

In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. **Mon, April 29: “What is spam”, 10 years later**It’s been 10 years since Seth Godin wrote his famous “What is spam?” post, and things have likely only gotten worse since then. **Tue, April 30: Summaries can create blind spots**I love reading a good summary when I can, but there are many opportunities for blind spots within them. **Wed, May 1: Teamwork requires trust...

We’ve always heard about how bad “half-baked ideas” usually are, but every idea goes through that stage at some point. It certainly could be problematic to move forward with a half-baked idea, but having a half-baked idea means that you might be on to something good. In his book “Steal the Show“, author Michael Port explains his thoughts on this when working with the local District Attorney (DA):In fact, the DA loves to poke holes in things and even relishes the role. The DA justifies his adv...

We’ve always heard about how bad “half-baked ideas” usually are, but every idea goes through that stage at some point. It certainly could be problematic to move forward with a half-baked idea, but having a half-baked idea means that you might be on to something good. In his book “Steal the Show“, author Michael Port explains his thoughts on this when working with the local District Attorney (DA):In fact, the DA loves to poke holes in things and even relishes the role. The DA justifies his adv...

The word “value” gets discussed and dissected in business quite a bit, but what does it really mean? At the end of the day, it means whatever the customer wants it to mean. I once bought a $5 bottle of Coke and was happy to do it. Given the situation, the value was high. I also find some of the services that we pay for to be an incredible value and I’m happy to pay them. When it comes to other services, there’s a common thought that effort=value, but that’s not usually true. Just because some...

The word “value” gets discussed and dissected in business quite a bit, but what does it really mean? At the end of the day, it means whatever the customer wants it to mean. I once bought a $5 bottle of Coke and was happy to do it. Given the situation, the value was high. I also find some of the services that we pay for to be an incredible value and I’m happy to pay them. When it comes to other services, there’s a common thought that effort=value, but that’s not usually true. Just because some...

For most of us, we can look back at ourselves from 10 years ago and think “wow, I had no idea what I was doing”. It’s uncomfortable to appreciate, but it stands to reason that in 10 years we’ll look back at ourselves today and think the same thing. In his book “Clear Thinking“, Shane Parrish says it like this:We have a limited perspective. It is very hard to understand a system that we are a part of. Just as you look back on your sixteen-year-old self and wonder what you were thinking, your f...

For most of us, we can look back at ourselves from 10 years ago and think “wow, I had no idea what I was doing”. It’s uncomfortable to appreciate, but it stands to reason that in 10 years we’ll look back at ourselves today and think the same thing. In his book “Clear Thinking“, Shane Parrish says it like this:We have a limited perspective. It is very hard to understand a system that we are a part of. Just as you look back on your sixteen-year-old self and wonder what you were thinking, your f...