Forty seconds. That’s how long most people can work on a computer before they are distracted or interrupted. That’s not enough time to get your work done, obviously, so the question becomes: how can you focus better? Productivity expert Chris Bailey says that we can engage hyperfocus, a mode in which we focus on a […]
Ghost Your Business
When you’re building a company, you’d do anything to help it thrive. But the best thing you can do for your long-term financial health is to become as inessential as possible. In short, you need to become a ghost. It’s not enough for your business to succeed. You also need to sell it someday—and that […]
New Tools Require New Tricks
Many of us shifted our work and social lives into the virtual world of Zoom for long stretches of the pandemic. The company went from being popular to essential almost overnight: from 10 million users in December 2019 to 300 million in June 2020. Now that’s growth! While our reliance on Zoom has tapered off […]
Was WeWork a Unicorn? Or a Cult?
Adam Neumann, WeWork’s co-founder, never learned to code and rarely used a computer. So how did he seemingly take over Silicon Valley? Moreover, why was he paid so much to leave? It may seem like ancient history now, but more than a decade ago, when WeWork started attracting deep-pocket investors, Neumann was described as the […]
The Outcome Mindset
The work-life struggle is real. It’s an unfortunate fact that productivity tends to decrease in relation to how busy we are. It’s hard to set priorities when everything is important. Here’s a trick you can try the next time you’re struggling at work or at home: try to focus on outcomes. Whether you’re creating a […]
Why Big Government is Bad News
Too many people see the federal government as a parent, entrusted with the responsibilities of handing out allowance and enforcing the rules. At least that was the view of Milton Friedman, the figurehead of the Chicago school of economics and the thinker who, according to the Wall Street Journal, “reshaped modern capitalism.” According to Friedman, the […]
What Bad Economists Always Miss
With high gas prices, rising inflation, and far-reaching ripple effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, economists around the world have been busy trying to sort out what’s next. They’re on the news, on social media, and in the newspapers of record all day, every day—and it can be hard to know who to believe. As you […]
A World Without Work?
Tech entrepreneur Jeff Booth is very worried about the future. Technology, by its nature, tends to drive prices down. In theory, that should be a good thing. But our economic structures weren’t designed for a society driven by low prices. Under current conditions, less jobs and less money would spell disaster. With the increasing technology […]
Money is a Collective Delusion
Long ago, societies relied on the barter system, where people paid each other in goods and services. These days, you can’t pay for Amazon Prime with chickens or sacks of grain, or buy a new phone with a stack of animal skins. Instead, we use financial instruments like cash and credit and debit cards. But […]
Thinking About a Job Change?
The labor market has been especially volatile over the last few years, which has led to many people contemplating major career moves. But making a big change can be intimidating. For married couples, and especially people with children, the calculus is very complicated. Here’s a modest proposal: try implementing small changes before you make a […]
