ocrastination. The bane of productivity, the thief of time, the reason why you’re currently reading this instead of doing that thing we both know you need to do. In the world of procrastination, time ceases to exist in its linear form. Hours stretch like taffy in a carnival booth, and you find yourself doing things you never knew you had an interest in. Suddenly, you develop an intense interest in organizing your spice rack. Did you know paprika comes in…
until very recently, most of our experiences with AI boiled down to shouting "ALEXA, STOP!" AI means “artificial intelligence”? More like “Awkwardly Inept”, if you ask me. But things have changed... Enter ChatGPT, strutting onto the scene like a rock star. Suddenly, AI wasn't just a voice in a box that occasionally understood your mumblings; it was like having a chat with someone who'd actually read a book. Or, you know, all of them. How well could a cold,…
doubt there’s a lot wrong with the modern workplace. Open-plan offices? It's like trying to work in the middle of a daycare. The cubicle? A solitary confinement cell decorated in dismal shades of practicality. And the meetings. Oh, the meetings. Time bends and distorts, leaving us trapped in an eternal now. The clock ticks so loudly you can hear the sound of your youth escaping. But this all pales in comparison to the challenge of work teams. Those glorious…
rategy. It's treated with a reverence usually reserved for sacred relics or the last slice of pizza. I love reading corporate strategy because I’m a big fan of fiction. Typically, it’s a phrasebook of jargon that could make a dictionary weep. It says nothing, offends no one, has no clear actions, and makes no hard decisions. It’s all “blue sky” vision. Rarely are challenges mentioned or any insight provided. It’s all mission, values, and lots of vague goals. And when…
the International Space Station nothing is comfortable and everything is a challenge. There’s no running water and even less privacy. Your world is covered in Velcro. And it’s loud. Fans whir and hum constantly, interrupted by the occasional micrometerorite slamming into the Station’s armor. Weightlessness does a number on your sinuses causing congestion, so food always tastes bland like when you have a head cold. There’s an emphasis on oatmeal, pudding and cooked spinach because food that clumps is…
all have to deal with frazzled, harried, extremely stressed-out people… some of whom are unfortunately ourselves. There are days where it feels like life is going to grab you by one ankle and one wrist and just wishbone you. These are the moments in any job, project, or career where you want to quit. I discussed the issue of quitting in my first book but today we’re gonna focus on the not-quitting option: resilience. We hear this issue get…
’ve all wondered about it. You’re not crazy: yes, our attention spans really are declining. In 2004, people averaged 150 seconds on a computer screen before switching to a different screen. In 2012, that dropped to 75 seconds. Studies from 2016 to 2021 showed it had dropped again to somewhere between 44 to 50 seconds. And that’s an average. So half the time it’s shorter than that. Yes, I know, now you want a t-shirt that says, “I Read Eric’s…
metimes “productivity” feels like a country you’ve heard a lot about but never thought you’d get a chance to visit. Articles, Twitter threads and YouTube Vox Pops all claim to have answers – which never seem to hold up when subjected to real life. It’s amazing you’re still sitting at a desk instead of shrieking on a ledge. Well, distractedness is nothing new. And we can get some answers from people who struggled valiantly with the issue a long time…
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