Choking is a ubiquitous and extremely frustrating human weakness – as the stakes are raised, our performance usually improves, but only up to a point, beyond which the pressure gets too much and our skills suddenly deteriorate. Any new psychological tricks to ameliorate this problem will be welcomed by sports competitors, students and anyone else…
Now that May is in the rear vision mirror you will no doubt be bombarded by invocations to sell In May and go away. The rationale being that the markets best months are behind it and you are best off leaving and coming back in October. I have always found finances little myths quite quaint…
Here’s an argument you hear a lot: the gigantic cash burn rates at the likes of Tesla and Uber are nothing new, because today’s established tech greats also churned through tons of cash in their early years. In fact, we keep hearing from champions of these glamor stocks on business TV shows and pundits’ blogs…
As you know I tend to collect junk mail that I am randomly sent – I am always interested in what people have to say about various bits and pieces. I am particularly interested in the material sent out by professional money managers. It must be difficult to justify taking money off people when you…
As you know I am a believer in luck being a powerful driver in the trajectory of one’s life. Matters out of your control such as which vagina you get shot out of and what colour you come out dictate the opportunities presented to you. Granted there are exceptional individuals who defy the odds presented…
Changing our behavior is a self-engineering challenge with few equals. I’m talking about long-term, sustained change, not short-run bursts that sputter out before real change happens. Whether the change involves diet, exercise, habits, dependencies, or anything else, changing behavior is one of the hardest things any of us will ever try to do. This is a…
Every organization, whether small or big, early or late stage — and every individual, whether for themselves or others — makes countless decisions every day, under conditions of uncertainty. The question is, are we allowing that uncertainty to bubble to the surface, and if so, how much and when? Where does consensus, transparency, forecasting, backcasting,…
I once ended up at a Boy Scout ceremony in the northeast United States, where I inhaled the American spirit unfiltered. The boys’ uniforms had Stars-and-Stripes patches sewn on next to their badges. We recited the Pledge of Allegiance in front of an oversize US flag, and we prayed to America’s vague God, giving thanks…
The bet was on, and it was over the fate of humanity. On one side was the Stanford biologist Paul R. Ehrlich. In his 1968 best seller, The Population Bomb, Ehrlich insisted that it was too late to prevent a doomsday apocalypse resulting from overpopulation. Resource shortages would cause hundreds of millions of starvation deaths within a…
MY NIECE WAS THREE at the time. A trip to the historical mansion, Ripponlea, seemed like a great way to share this sparkling Spring day. Hand in hand, arms swinging, we ventured through the ornate metal entrance gate. A majestic peacock turned to face us, looked my niece directly in the eye, and I imperceptibly…
IS IT BETTER TO work on your weaknesses, or to focus on developing your strengths? When you’re working on your weaknesses, it is like staggering through half-set concrete. Dirty. Agonising. Demoralising. I’ve personally found that my weaknesses are so huge, gaping and embarrassing. For example, I’m so locationally dyslexic that sometimes I get lost after…
WILLIAM JAMES’S LIFE sucked. As a child, he faced debilitating health issues – constant vomiting, blindness in one eye and hideous back spasms. His siblings were brilliant goody-two-shoes-show-offs, and all William could do is look at them with envy. William’s Dad, through his connections, managed to get him into Harvard Medical School. William HATED it.…
