Whenever a highly lucrative business is offered for sale to the general public, you can be pretty sure there’s a gargantuan catch and the whole thing is likely to crap out, or at least become a whole lot less lucrative … Continued
TLDR version: What you measure, you optimize. But there are important caveats. Two things happened in a day that triggered pattern recognition (no, not the looting and rioting in Charlotte): A study reports that fitness trackers make people lose less weight. … Continued
People in tech have been arguing whether programming is something that everyone should know at least a bit (pun not intended), or whether it should remain a highly specialized and exclusive (i.e. expensive) skill. There are two camps: 1) The reasonable people … Continued
Cover photo credit: James Cridland. On June 6th, the Swiss rejected Universal Basic Income (UBI) in a referendum by an overwhelming margin of 77 to 23 %, which I publicly predicted on reddit weeks ago based on intimate knowledge of the … Continued
By now, I could start most articles with “popular opinion has stuff the wrong way around“. For instance, you hear people saying they want to start a business, but worry that “the economy” might not be good enough right now. Let me … Continued
When people can’t find a good answer to an important question, it is usually the case that they’re not asking the right question. Obviously, that doesn’t apply to scientifically hard objective problems like nuclear fusion, room temperature superconductors and faster than … Continued
The purpose of this article is not deliberately playing devil’s advocate, however, not jumping on hysterical bandwagons frequently looks like devil’s advocacy. The entire planet knows that Volkswagen got caught cheating on emissions. On the face of it, this is a … Continued
As promised, here are the reading recommendations for 2016. Twelve books, one per month, which should fit all schedules. Links are to Amazon just out of convenience because that’s where the reviews are, but of course get the books you like … Continued
This article is going to make some people very angry. Consider yourself warned. Why do some people get what they want, while others not so much? There are a few reasons: Problems of goal setting: Lack of realistic information about … Continued
Last night, some friends and I went out to grab sausage and punch. And I noticed something interesting. The best restaurant in town is called “The Little Pub”. Conversely, the worst salmonella-ridden joints tend to call themselves things like “Le Grand … Continued
This blog seems to have become popular by giving advice people find helpful. To date, we have covered a number of topics, and hope to do many more in the future. The drafts list is at almost 100 articles and counting. But if … Continued
My friend has a problem that’s uniquely European – only through incredible effort can he avoid being given money by several government agencies. As he is currently quitting his job and preparing for impending fatherhood, the amount of cash various … Continued
I make a lot of fun of the startup culture. And to be sure, there is a lot to make fun of. However, I have a secret to share. I am actually enthusiastic that this is what young people today … Continued
They certainly are the normal places to get, develop and share great ideas. A handful of friends and I have launched a startup. I will share more info here when the time is right, so check back often or, better yet, … Continued
All the significant success stories that I am aware of – including firsthand – have one thing in common. If you look at Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Tesla… They did nothing radically new. Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player, the … Continued
If you want to get anything done, there are two basic ways to get yourself to do it. The first, more popular and devastatingly wrong option is to try to motivate yourself. The second, somewhat unpopular and entirely correct choice is to … Continued