These days, we hear much said on social media — surely too much — in favor of the “hustle culture” and the “grind mindset” (or, abbreviated for maximum efficiency, the “grindset”). Dedication to your work is to be admired, provided that the work itself is of value, but the more of a day’s hours you […]

Everyone is always doing their best. Given their situation, priorities, and awareness (the circumstances), people make choices. If we want to change how others respond, we need to change their circumstances and how they see their options.

“Early cookbooks were fit for kings,” writes Henry Notaker at The Atlantic. “The oldest published recipe collections” in the 15th and 16th centuries in Western Europe “emanated from the palaces of monarchs, princes, and grand señores.” Cookbooks were more than recipe collections—they were guides to court etiquette and sumptuous records of luxurious living. In ancient […]

Here’s a quick tactical riff about how we name things. It’s worth considering that: If you’ve got four initiatives going on, numbering or even lettering them can’t help but communicate a priority to others. Considering flavoring them instead. When there’s an orange, a blue and a pink project, we can see that they’re separate and […]

“May you live in interesting times,” goes the apocryphal but nevertheless much-invoked “Chinese curse.” Egon Schiele, born in the Austria-Hungary of 1890, certainly did live in interesting times, and his work, as featured in the new Great Art Explained video above, can look like the creations of a cursed man. That’s especially true of those […]