- Stop Searching for the Best Productivity System. Don’t keep looking for “better” ideas instead of settling on a “good enough” idea and then putting it into rigorous practice.
- Charlie Munger’s Iron Prescription. Nothing deceives you as much as extreme passion. Stay away from extreme ideologies until you’ve examined the opposing viewpoint. Don’t ignore the counterevidence.
- Do Your Team a Favor: Take a Vacation. When the hardworking manager does go away on vacation, he doesn’t truly get away. By butting in whenever he can, he subtly undermines his team by insinuating that his team members cannot run things on their own.
- Fire Fast—It’s Heartless to Hang on to Bad Employees. Ending a bad fit sooner is better than doing it later—it’s better for both the employee leaving and the employees remaining. Many fired employees feel surprised that the axe didn’t fall sooner.
- Ask This One Question Every Morning to Find Your Focus. Starting your day by mulling over on “what should I have achieved today to leave the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment?” is a wonderful aid in keeping the mind headed in the right direction.
- Benefits, Not Boasts. A tolerable way to promote yourself without sounding boastful: instead of “I have 15 years of experience in this field,” say, “I bring to you 15 years of experience in this field, promising you that, should any problems surface, I will handle them promptly and proficiently.”
- Doesn’t Facebook Make You Unhappy? If you find yourself wasting time on social media or getting demotivated, consider using Facebook less or quitting it totally. Shun the narcissistic inclination to publicize the excruciating minutiae of your life to the world. Limiting social media participation can reduce your anxiety about work.
- Accidents Can Happen When You Least Expect Them. The “overconfidence effect” is a judgmental bias that can cause you to misjudge the likelihood of positive/desirable events as well as negative/undesirable events.
- Don’t One-up Others’ Ideas. A manager who tends to put his oar in his employees’ ideas and “add too much value” ends up killing their ownership of ideas. This diminishes their motivation and performance.
- Make Friends Now with the People You’ll Need Later. An essential lesson from Boeing’s 737 MAX debacle: a network of allies and confidants becomes indispensable during a crisis, whether the crisis is self-inflicted or caused by external events.
And here are some articles of yesteryear that continue to be popular:
- Why good deeds make people act badly
- Everything in life has an opportunity cost
- Be a survivor, not a victim
- Ten commandments of honest thought
- The most potent cure for melancholy
- Care less for what other people think
- Fight ignorance, not each other
- How to manage smart, powerful leaders
- Expressive writing can help you heal
- How smart companies get smarter
We wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2020!