Explorations

Human behavior, storytelling, and more.

Innovation

3 min read

Working Smarter Sometimes Means NOT Adopting New Technology

In my book Smartcuts, I shared many examples of how to use technology to give a business or individual a “platform advantage” to make their hard work...

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3 min read

The Trouble With Best Practices

This article originally appeared in Fast Company. IN THE LATE ’70s, Palo Alto-based entrepreneur Debbi Fields tried to get a loan to start a cookie...

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burden of proof pudding

3 min read

How Mastering Burden Of Proof​ Will Make You A Better Decision Maker

Conspiracy theory culture is on the rise in general. But in my observation, even the most reasonable people have a conspiracy-related problem in the...

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innovation

5 min read

Why Bad Ideas Are Good For Innovation

Mark Tigan, civil servant of the village of Winooski, Vermont, was thirty-two years old when the president of the United States called to shut him...

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quotes by pablo picasso to inspire innovative ideas

3 min read

5 Of My Favorite Innovation Lessons... From Picasso

Apple Computers is well-known for minimalist product design; its notebook computers are carved from a single block of aluminum to eschew seams....

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getting out of your comfort zone

4 min read

Overcoming Cognitive Entrenchment, So We Can Make Breakthroughs

Early in my career, I got some advice from a CEO I looked up to:

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healthy skepticism

7 min read

The Art (And Benefits) of Productive  Skepticism

Let's talk about thephrase “take at face value” for a moment. In dictionary terms, it means “to accept something as it appears, without looking for...

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problem solving

3 min read

How To Use Second-Order Thinking For a Creative Problem-Solving Process

In the late 1950s,the Chinese leader Mao Zedong launched a campaign to get rid of four types of pests he deemed responsible for the “transmission of...

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fake news

4 min read

Nobody Wants To Be Wrong, So Why Do People Believe Fake News?

Recently, I spent over a year researching the little-known history ofhow the CIA used fake news to overthrow the government of Guatemalain the...

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