I've been playing with this mental model / formula a lot lately: facts + sentiment = story That means: Story - sentiment = facts And… Story - facts = sentiment The biggest missing variable here is time. To add time, we need to introduce the Snapshot / Movie continuum (and I'll spare you my attempt … Continue reading Story Math: Why Sentiment Matters At Least As Much As The Facts Do (essay)
Category: Essays
Choice (Essay)
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s great observation was that people make choices between descriptions of things, not the things themselves.* Imagine I need to pick a painter for my house. You should know, I am not particularly handy, and wouldn’t exactly know how to independently assess a painter’s work. How should I pick who to … Continue reading Choice (Essay)
Escape The Busyness Trap And Get Down to Business (Essay)
Late one night I was studying and running through practice problems. You’ve probably been there too – when you instinctively know the answer to a question, but deep down you recognize that you only know the answer because of some very superficial context clue. In reality, you have no idea what the answer actually means, … Continue reading Escape The Busyness Trap And Get Down to Business (Essay)
On Easter and Adding the Word “Meta” to Your Daily Vocabulary
Happy Easter to those of you that celebrate. For everyone else, if you at least know the Easter Bunny and that there is some connection to “Easter eggs,” that’s all you’ll need to follow along. My easter gift to you is a brief discussion of one of my favorites words: meta. It’s been pointed out … Continue reading On Easter and Adding the Word “Meta” to Your Daily Vocabulary
From Punchlines to Baselines: Lessons In Thinking Better (essay)
There’s an old Henry Youngman joke that goes, “how’s your wife?” The punchline (I have to make you wait at least a second) is: “Compared to what?” It may help to borrow Daniel Kahneman’s framework of System 1 and System 2 (from his book, “Thinking Fast and Slow”) to break this down. System 1 is … Continue reading From Punchlines to Baselines: Lessons In Thinking Better (essay)
Movies, Music, and How Great Organizations Market Their Mission (Essay)
What's required to make your organization/ business/job "great" from top to bottom? Soup to nuts - customer service to the c-suite and back again? Let's go to the movies. Here’s a game: What do the following in common? Star Wars, Hamilton and Black Panther? Indiana Jones, Grease and Fifty Shades Freed? Movies, right? Good job. … Continue reading Movies, Music, and How Great Organizations Market Their Mission (Essay)