I only use one computer, and I have been using my MacBook Air 2015 for ages now. I’ve squeezed out every last drop of juice, but it has become unbearable. It was just too slow. Why did I wait so long? Apple had this huge keyboard mess, and also to be honest I wasn’t a…
Category: Happiness
How to Balance Creative Work vs. Inspiration: Jim Collins’s Simple Life Tracking Spreadsheet
Last year, I started tracking my creative hours with the help of Jim Collins’s simple life tracking spreadsheet: How many hours spent doing creative work A quality score for the day (+2, +1, 0, -1, -2) A note of what happened that day Here’s how my sheet looks like: Download Excel Template Number of Creative…
YouTube Experiment: Attracting People With Tesla Videos, and Teaching Them Secret Lessons
Sometimes, new projects come unexpected. Last week, I felt the urge to create my very first YouTube video, reacting to a stock analyst warning about Tesla stock. The video was more successful than I ever hoped possible, reaching 500 views in just a few days. So an idea was born: Today, I created my second…
2020 Year in Review
This year was a good reminder that most major events come unexpected and are unpredictable. It’s always fun to write down some hopes and expectations, but the reality often turns out to be different. As always, the best thing we can do is to focus on our input (what we control), and not worry about…
Show up for a decade
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” — Bill Gates Good things take time A human needs 20 years to grow into an adult A tree needs 10 to 30 years to reach full size An olive tree needs 65 to 80 years…
Life Lessons from Kai-Fu Lee
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the former President of Google China, artificial intelligence expert, venture capitalist, and author of the wonderful book AI Superpowers. He recently gave a talk, highlighting his key life lessons: 1. Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life At Columbia University, he fell in love with…
Think Twice Before You Wish to Live Forever
“Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.” — Steve Jobs Human mortality is one of the strongest forces we have, helping us focus on what is truly important, and pushing us to get things done. Imagine…
My 14 Year Blogiversary: The Benefits of Writing Online
In August 2006, that is 14 years ago, I started this blog. Writing online has been one of the best things I started in my life. In the early days, it led to founding my influencer marketing startup Trigami. These days, it’s a tool for clarifying my thinking and sharing ideas with the world. A…
The Hedgehog Concept
A useful tool to find your mission in life is the Hedgehog Concept, developed by one of my favorite business thinkers, Jim Collins. It’s very simple. Find the intersection of the following three circles What are you deeply passionate about? What can’t you stop thinking and talking about? What can you be the best in…
Jim Collins: 10 Suggestions for Young People
1. Build a personal board of directors: based on character, not accomplishment. Mentors you don‘t want to disappoint. People on your board don’t need to know that they are there. 2. Study yourself like a bug: what is this bug? What is this bug genetically encoded for? It’s all about non-judgemental empirical observation. Define your…