Guide for First Time Readers

Thanks for reading my blog. Below you'll find some of my best posts from June 2004 to now.

I blog about many topics, although one constant theme seems to be entrepreneurship and business. I publish new posts about 7-8 times a week. You can subscribe to my RSS feed or by email -- see the links on my blog homepage. If you can also subscribe to my email newsletter -- again, that link is on the homepage of my blog.

Feel free to email me with any comments or questions.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP / BUSINESS

• Casnocha's Laws of Successful Confabs - How to run better mini conferences
• Emotion and Passion in CEO Decision Making - How important is it?
• Two Kinds of CEO Negotiation Styles - The most popular is high-low-middle
• My networking - theory and practice
• Easier to learn in big or small company? - Should a college grad work for a start-up or big corp?
• Investment banking firms only hiring jocks - The athlete's edge
• What separates a talker and doer?
• Framing decisions as cost of failure
• Is killer instinct necessary in business?
• Creating and projecting a personal brand
• Resisting frugality creep
• What makes a good mentor
• How do busy execs manage their lives - I'm fascinated by the productivity strategies of highly effective people
• Risk-taking Is Overrated - Better to mitigate risk
• When do we overvalue advice? - When the problem is hard. We undervalue advice when the problem is easy.
• Luck is the most underrated factor to success - Luck is key to success
• Common Knowledge + Uncommon experiences - This is the winning formula
• Who knows what could happen if you raise your hand? So much of business is showing up.
• Is business intellectually stimulating? - If not, does overwhelming focus preclude non-business exploration?
• My personal finance infrastructure - How I manage my money
• True Motivators vs. Hygiene Factors - Herzberg's theory
• Can You Imagine If You Needed an MBA to Be in Business? - In praise of the de-credentialization of society
• By Locating Your Start-Up in Silicon Valley, Are You More Likely to Succeed? - Yes!
• Can Companies Accelerate the Adoption Curve? - It's harder than executing well.
• The Expected Value of Being a Hedgehog vs. Fox - Some of us do one big thing really well, some of us do many things well.
• The Myth of One Giant Eureka Moment - We don't need to have a groundbreaking idea on day 1.
• Are you an ambitious person who doesn't set long term goals? - I am. 20% of amibitous people are like me, I think.
• The Right Hand Man in a $20 B Corporation - A fascinating role!
• Stay on the Q& A Offensive During Presentations - Prep as much for Q&A as for your main presentation.
• Marrying Your Business But Also Keeping a Safe Distance - How do you pour your life into your buisness without becoming depressed when it fails?

AMERICANISM

• Our Evolving National Character - Excellent essay on American character
• American Spirituality - Spirituality in America
• How the U.S. / Italy world cup game explains some larger ideas
• Big City America - Why I love San Francisco
• Comparing U.S. and French culture
• You know you live in San Francisco when...
• Does the simple nature of Americanism allow it to assimilate immigrants better?
• This I believe: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - An inspiring Andrew Sullivan recording of central beliefs

CURRENT AFFAIRS

• In praise of gay marriage
• Emotive Vitality Essential to a Politician - The best politicians are emotionally rich

TRAVEL

• Importance of Cultural Geography
• Feeling more American AND cosmopolitan
• Morality of 5 star visits to third world - Is it wrong to travel in luxury in the third world?
• What I learned in China - Lessons and reflections from 2.5 weeks in the country
• The psychological beating of the third world - A reflection after day 1 in India
• Seeing the connections among your own experiences
• Hating your country abroad and then returning
• Reflections on 3 months of international travel - A roundup of my international travel
• Small Town, USA: Limon, CO
• New Orleans Two Years Later - A visit.

BOOKS

• Formal Book Review: Running the World - An inside look at the U.S. national security council
• Formal Book Review: Ghost Wars - A review of the CIA's role in Afghanistan
• 2005 Book Roundup - My 2005 reading
• 2006 Book Roundup - My 2006 reading
• Book Review and Notes: The Blank Slate - A wonderful book
• Fooled by Randomness - A book that's become key to my worldview
• A reading list for an educated person
• Book review on globalization's effect on culture
• Formal book review: I Am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe's novel about a brilliant girl corrupted by Ivy League school
• Formal Book review: Consider the Lobster - A review of David Foster Wallace's wonderful book of essays
• The culture of independent bookstores - A long debate between me and several others over the value of independent bookstores in our culture
• Teen sex novels - A new lit genre -- teen sex!
• Emotional Intelligence - review and notes
• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life - assorted notes
• Your favorite quotes from books - What's your favorite quote from a book?
• Book Notes: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
• How I Think About Books - How I pick what books to read and how I read them
• Formal Book Review: Four Hour Workweek

PERSONAL

• My Non-Professional Life - A reader wonders where my "personal life" is on this blog
• 18th birthday responses - Dozens of friends tell me what they regret not doing when they were 18
• My nipple on Valleywag - My nipple slip in USA Today
• "Ben Is Insensitive and Like a Machine" - A classmate's impression of me
• On Grief- Something I've never truly experienced
• MTV True Life - Why I said "No"
• A California Softie Meets Boulder - Reflecting on my move to Boulder, CO
• A Blog Reader's Desire for More Emotion

PSYCHOLOGY

• Making Your Threat Credible - How to win a game of "chicken"
• Quotes from Man's Search for Meaning - Excerpts from this inspiring book
• Dangerous Decision-Making Heuristics - Be careful of these when making a decision!
• Constructing our preferred narrative - We tell stories to ourselves about our life to make ourselves feel good
• Maintaining an intrapersonal culture of improvement
• The Blank Slate and Other Myths - A key concept -- no such thing as a blank slate
• Self-Deception and Confirmation Bias - Two important heuristics
• It's risky to work hard - When we don't work hard, we can blame it on our lack of hard work as as act of self-protection.
• Does the Flow distorted time criterion work in small chunks, too?
• Do you believe tomorrow will be better than today? - The power of optimism
• Do wealthy people consume high culture to signal? - Billionaires who wear t-shirts
• Those profound words of advice... - If it's cliche, why does it work?
• How do you fall upwards? - Nurture the creative instinct
• How do you develop self-confidence?
• Is original thinking orthogonal to cognitive speed? - Would you rather be swift/derivative or slow/original?
• How does nudeness affect human behavior? - Reduces sexual urges

TECHNOLOGY

• Can non-engineers run software companies?
• Results of a Study on Media and Blogging - The role of blogging in new media
• When you're going to blog something, you want it to be positive - Can blogging improve your life?
• You never know who you're touching - The reach of a blog

QUOTES

• On daring to meet your heart's longing
• On the beauty of pursuit of happiness
• On optimism
• On a democratic man
• On people in our lives
• On the human heart and on writing
• On a renaissance men
• On why some ideas become spells
• On TV
• On intellecutal heroism

EDUCATION

• I'll be attending Claremont McKenna College
• Valedictorian Madness - What kinds of people are destined for preeminence?
• Young Intellectuals In Pursuit of Ideas - young intellectuals in pursuit of ideas
• Does Giving to Elite Higher Education Count as Charity? - Giving to elite colleges helps the privileged
• American charity and education
• Child Prodigies -- Nurturing the Young Genius
• Innate Smarts Have Never Mattered Less - innate smarts have never mattered less
• What Does It Mean to be Well Educated? - what does it mean to be well educated
• How do you process information best? - Listening, reading, interacting?
• The emergence of kids as kings
• Five Things Wrong With Universities Today - A laundry list
• Our Education System: A Big Waste of Time and Money? (and another post: Weighing the Costs and Benefits)

GLOBALIZATION

• Globalization's Impact on Culture- It's positive
• Globalization and the village
• The new world of cosmopolitan liberals
• Life's Interesting at the Intersections - The intersection of ideas and cultures
• The emergence of boutique cities
• What does it mean for something to be culturally "authentic"?

PHILOSOPHY

• A philosophy of life driven by death
• The stability/stimulation tradeoff - The most stimulating jobs are also the least stable
• Our Fundamental Need for Identity - Do some people outsource identity to religion?
• The Examined Life - Cultivating Self-Reflection - the examined life, cultivating self-reflection
• The myth of moment driven lives - We overvalue "moments" -- key events in our life happen over a continuum
• The worst case if you believe in God and it's not true -- You were duped. Best case? Heaven.
• Truth Under Cultural and Conceptual Assault - The proliferation of bullshit
• Cultural relativism - Is cultural relativism a good idea?
• Examining your worldview
• People are basically good - Are people out to help you or out to get you?
• Our obsession with consistency and hypocrisy - What's wrong with changing your mind?
• Cultural pessimism remains flip - "Now, go suck the gaspipe"
• Getting the lowest A possible - Settle for "good enough"
• The joys of wondering through life without a map - Going where opportunity tugs
• When can you generalize from a specific experience?
• An iterative approach to living
• What Does Society Overcomplicate? - Just because something is hard doesn't mean it's complicated.
• What Makes Up Your Identity? - Race, location, education?
• Would you rather be rich or influential? - I'm not sure.
• Slinkily Dressed Women = Empowerment? - Why do strippers think their profession is empowering?
• My Basic Beliefs When It Comes to Religion - Principles.

RANDOM

• Thinking about things in context of describing it to others - When I know I'm going to blog something, it changes the way I actually live the event
• Narcissism and Successful People - A character trait of many successful people
• Power of Full Engagement - How to be a corporate athlete
• Our Obsession Over Memories - When does the process of creating memories overtake the importance of the memory itself?
• Everybody's an Expert Now - The corrupt world of "experts" in society
• If You Work Hard, Do You Deserve a Reward? - Hard work doesn't equal a reward
• No Better Way to Master an Idea Than to Write About It - Clear writing reflects clear thinking
• Are Motherhood and Feminism Mutually Exclusive? - If you don't work to raise kids, are you helping the feminist cause?
  
• Shockingly poor career skills - Why are so many resumes / cover letters so poor?
• Black culture's effect on black men
• True Kinship Doesn't Happen During the Manicured Moments of Social Bonding -  It happens when you least expect it
• In Tense Situations, Do You Want the Ball? - Do you want to be the go-to guy?
• Making and keeping commitments for yourself - Don't let yourself don!
• Are you smartest guy in the room? - Probably not, so how do you add value?
• Have richer first time interactions
• Who Are You instead of What Do You Do? - I hate "What do you do?"
• Rap music gold's soundtrack from black people - Rap music is a destructive influence in black culture
• How to build resilience - A transferable quotient. If you're resilient on the treadmill, it can transfer to the board room.
• Capturing the fringe thoughts of your life - Essential for new ideas
• In Praise of No Names - Sometimes the best mentors/teachers are folks you've never heard of
• When a private conversation turns public - Does its content change?
• My Information Diet - My daily, weekly, and monthly intake
• The joy of conversation - Great conversations are magical
• Keeping Faith in my Doubt - Religion
• Original Insults from Lee Siegel - Some of the best insults I've heard
• When you learn a new word you see it everywhere
• The Days of a Corporate Secretary Are Over- "Personal assistants" are better
• The All-Time Best "Signs of the Apocalypse" - From Sports Illustrated
• The best ideas of 2006
• Earthquake Zone vs. Hurricane Zone - In which would you rather live?

HAPPINESS

• Happiness is about the little things
• Happiness: In our genes or head?
• Pursuing Happiness - Does thinking about it make you less happy?
• Happiness and the Role of Introspection
• Luck, Money, and Happiness - Put me in Bangladesh and you'll see how real my "talents" are
• The effect of our obsession with the lifestyle of the megawealthy

RELATIONSHIPS

• Do you have deal breakers in relationships?
• Hyberambitious workaholics w/ sensual side
• Mutual investment in relationships - Do both parties in a relationship need to invest the same amount of energy?
• Girl on girl hookups - A new, performative lesbianism in teenage circles
• Seeing your parents as pals - Being friends with your parents
• How do you interact with people more successful than you?
• The insane world of greetings -- hugging, etc
• Is love the killer app? - Do nice guys in business win?
• Can a best friend be a composite? - Can a best friend be pieces of several different people?