9 Expert Insights That Will Make You Productive, Successful And Smart
pert Tip #1: How To Be More Creative Your first idea is rarely the best. Always keep pushing and generate more possibilities. Advice from Andrew Goldberg, writer on Family Guy: I’m a big fan of writing "alts" (versions). If I come to a joke spot, even if I’m working on my own stuff, I’ll often write three or four or five different alts, and then I’ll show it to friends, show it to my wife, show it to my manager, show…
7 minutes
Where does the best advice come from?
re and more I'm seeing the power of giving -- and taking -- advice. In my interview with Jeffrey Pfeffer (Stanford professor and author of Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t) he said the best way to build a strategic relationship with someone far more powerful than you was merely to ask their advice: I would say that the fundamentally best way to build a relationship with someone is to ask them for their advice. And/or what you can often…
3 minutes
Are you worrying enough?
body likes to worry. And of the big five personality traits, being neurotic is almost always a bad thing. We can talk about the pros and cons of introverts and extroverts, or debate the upside and downside of being conscientious but neuroticism always seems to be a negative. However, there are a few exceptions. Worrying, in reasonable amounts, ups your game by making you aware of problems and more likely to address them. For instance, it can make worriers better…
3 minutes
Dan Ariely Explains When Your Irrational Behavior Is A Good Thing
bsp; Dan Ariely teaches psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University and is the bestselling author of three books I love: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves Here's one of his TED talks: Dan has an online course called "A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior". You can check it out here. He and I spoke about…
5 minutes
5 ways “where you are” might be more important than both “who you know” and “what you know”:
bsp; 1) Happiness Want to be happier? Sad as it may be, part of happiness is generated by your relative status. Research shows people are happier living in a rich neighborhood in a poor county. 2) Creativity Do creative work at home. Do boring work at the office: On the uncreative tasks, people were 6% to 10% less productive outside the lab. The fall-off was steepest among the least productive third of workers. (People who reported procrastinating on their homework were also, unsurprisingly, poor…
4 minutes
Howard Suber Of UCLA Film School Explains How To Tell A Story
bsp; Howard Suber is one of my mentors. He founded the graduate program I was in at UCLA and has taught literally thousands of students about the power of film and narrative structure. From his bio at UCLA: During his 40 years on the UCLA faculty, Howard Suber helped establish and also chaired the UCLA Film Archive, the Critical Studies and Ph.D. Programs, and the UCLA Producers Program. He is a former Associate Dean, recipient of UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and has been…
5 minutes
How do you find the best mentor for you?
bsp; Mentors have been essential for me. No matter how many books you read or how much time you spend researching on the web, mentors are still a crucial part of learning in any arena. So how do you find a great one? Daniel Coyle goes through the research in his excellent book The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills and pulls together five points: 1) Avoid Someone Who Reminds You of a Courteous Waiter …one who focuses his…
4 minutes
NYT Bestselling Author Ramit Sethi explains the secrets to managing money, negotiating and networking
friend Ramit Sethi is the NYT bestselling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. He's also well known for his blog of the same name. What's always interested me about his work is that it's based on psychology and a strong, practical knowledge of how people really behave. Subscribers to my free weekly newsletter get access to extended interviews. Join here. ——————- The Secret to Managing Your Money: Systems And Big Wins Ramit: One of the things that I talk about…
5 minutes
