The Big Idea: Hidden pricing, overtreatment, and entrenched middlemen have turned American health care into a predatory, wasteful system. Transparency, accountability, and value-based care can restore trust, lower costs, and put patients first. INTRO Most American hospitals were founded to care for the sick and injured regardless of race, creed, or ability to pay. Health…
The Big Idea: Dinosaurs are still awesome.
The Big Idea: Happiness fuels success — not the other way around. When you are happy first, you perform better, build stronger relationships, and ultimately achieve more. The formula shifts from “Work hard → Be successful → Be happy” to “Be happy → Do great work → Achieve success.” Chapter 1: Be Happy First [CONCEPT]…
The Big Idea: Transform any discipline into a lifelong pursuit of mastery by embracing resilience, adaptability, and a deep love for the process. Chapter 1: Innocent Moves [CONCEPT] Beginner’s mind fosters creativity and openness.[CONCEPT] Early learning benefits from playfulness before rigid structure.[CONCEPT] Natural intuition is a powerful starting point. [ACTION] Approach new skills with curiosity…
The Big Idea: Clear Thinking is a practical framework for making better decisions. It helps you create space between stimulus and response, reprogram default reactions, and align choices with what truly matters—turning everyday decisions into consistent growth. Part 1: The Enemies of Clear Thinking [Concept] Four instinctual defaults—Emotion, Ego, Social, Inertia—often hijack judgment.  [Concept]…
The Big Idea: Going 10X in any area of life or business requires less effort than doubling. It demands radical focus on your unique strengths and the courage to eliminate everything else. Chapter 1: The Surprising Simplicity of 10X Growth [Concept] 10X is about eliminating 80% of current activities.[Concept] Complexity increases with incremental (2X) thinking.[Concept]…
The Big Idea: In a world obsessed with comfort, progress, and control, true meaning and emotional resilience come not from avoiding pain or chasing hope, but from choosing values worth suffering for—regardless of outcome. Chapter 1: The Uncomfortable Truth [Insight] Modern abundance hasn’t eliminated human suffering; it has magnified existential angst.[Insight] Hope functions as a…
The Big Idea: Sustainable success comes not from stress and hustle, but from cultivating happiness through presence, resilience, and compassion. Happiness is drives high performance. Chapter 1: Stop Chasing the Future Chapter 2: Step Out of Overdrive Chapter 3: Manage Your Energy Honestly Chapter 4: Get More Done by Doing Nothing Chapter 5: Enjoy a…
The Big Idea: Human beings are governed more by unconscious drives and evolutionary instincts than by reason. Look beneath appearances and understand the true motivations behind people’s behavior. Chapter 1: The Law of Irrationality — Master Your Emotional Self Chapter 2: The Law of Narcissism — Transform Self-Love into Empathy Chapter 3: The Law of…
The Big Idea: A good strategy is a clear diagnosis of a critical challenge, a guiding policy to address it, and a set of coherent actions—no fluff, no wishful thinking. Introduction: Overwhelming Obstacles Key Concepts: Strategy is about confronting a real obstacle, not grand visions or feel‑good slogans.Example: Strategic challenge definition is vital; many organizations…
The Big Idea: Countries go broke through a series of small debt cycles and big debt cycles, which eventually forces governments to choose between painful austerity, destabilizing interest rate hikes, or money printing that leads to inflation, currency devaluation, and capital controls. How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle In a 5-Minute Read by Ray…
The Big Idea: Before we can be happy and successful, we must first learn to see and shape our reality in a more positive and empowering way. Chapter 1: Reality Architecture, How to See a More Positive Reality Chapter 2: Success Mapping, How to Chart Your Course to the Best Possible Reality Chapter 3: The…
The Big Idea: Create uncontested market space through value innovation, simultaneously lowering costs and increasing customer value to make the competition irrelevant. Chapter 1: Creating Blue Oceans Chapter 2: Analytical Tools and Frameworks Chapter 3: Reconstruct Market Boundaries Chapter 4: Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers Chapter 5: Reach Beyond Existing Demand Chapter…
The Big Idea: There is no single “right” way to live. Life is about embracing contradictions and finding what resonates with you.
The Big Idea: Human psychology doesn’t change. In 50 or 500 years, people will still respond to greed, fear, opportunity, exploitation, risk, uncertainty, tribal affiliations, and social persuasion in the same way.
INTRODUCTION ECONOMIC RULES OF THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MEDICAL MARKET CH 1. THE AGE OF INSURANCE CH 2. THE AGE OF HOSPITALS CH 3. THE AGE OF PHYSICIANS CH 4. THE AGE OF PHARMACEUTICALS CH 5. THE AGE OF MEDICAL DEVICES CH 6. THE AGE OF TESTING AND ANCILLARY SERVICES CH 7. THE AGE OF CONTRACTORS CH…
The Big Idea: Protect your safe harbor (people, place, principles, purpose). Understand cognitive biases. Conduct pre-mortems.
The Big Idea: Make faster, smarter decisions by harnessing AI as your strategic thought partner. Ch 1: The Rise of AI and the AI-Driven Leader Ch 2: What Past Technological Revolutions Can Teach AI-Driven Leaders Ch 3: Shift from Operational Overwhelm to Strategic Clarity Ch 4: Understand AI Ch 5: Supercharge Your Leadership Ch 6:…
The Big Idea: Learn the tools to live a more productive, healthy, and intentional life.
Introduction Nobody can hope to succeed without a clear strategy, an effective leadership team, and a well-defined culture. We are not fans of cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches to leadership. The simplest questions of leadership — What is your strategy? What does success look like for your leadership team? — are often the most difficult to answer….
The Big Idea: Leadership is the practice of imperfect humans leading imperfect humans. INTRO: Trust Us, It’s Fixable MONDAY: Identify Your Real Problem TUESDAY: Solve For Trust WEDNESDAY: Make New Friends THURSDAY: Tell a Good Story FRIDAY: Go as Fast as You Can
The Big Idea: Successful CEOs share these qualities. Passionate curiosity. Battle-hardened confidence. Team smarts. A simple mindset. Fearlessness. Introduction While setting overall business strategy is certainly an important part of a CEO’s job, leadership shapes every part of their day. The culture and tone starts at the top, and each company reflects the personalities of…
The Big Idea: Compensation is one of your largest expenses and, therefore, one of your most important strategic decisions. Overview: 5 Principles for Effective Compensation Design Principle #1 – Be Different: Aligning Compensation with Culture and Strategy The first principle of compensation design is to Be Different. Strategy is about being perceived as different versus…
The Big Idea: When you measure yourself against an ideal, you focus on the GAP. When you measure yourself against where you where before, you focus on the GAIN. Focus on the GAIN for happiness and success. INTRODUCTION Why Most People Aren’t Happy “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” —Thich Nhat…
The Big Idea: “How do I achieve this goal?” Although this question seems intuitive, it’s actually the worst possible question you could ask. A much better question is: “Who can help me achieve this?” It takes vulnerability and trust to expand your efforts and build a winning team. It takes wisdom to recognize that other…
The Big Idea: Create job scorecards instead of job descriptions. Use 1) Screening Interviews, 2) Topgrading tandem interviews, and 3) Reference Check interviews to identify A-players for your company. Chapter 1: What is Topgrading? Ch 2: Calculate the cost of your mis-hires. Ch 3: Begin Topgrading from the top down. Ch 4: Conduct a talent…
The Big Idea: The Stoics believed a good life is the pursuit of the cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. We can’t control our fate, only how we think and act. INTRODUCTION The Stoic school in particular focused on the practical side of Socratic philosophy. The philosophical origins of cognitive therapy can be traced…
The Big Idea: In a world of declining populations and advancing AI, you don’t want to be the family shaped by pop culture and operating on auto-pilot. You want to be the family with a culture that has been designed to endure. This book is written to help you build a family culture that is…
ABOUT THIS GUIDE What should I optimize for in life? How do I know what is true? Who should I be? WHY BOTHER? Why were most cultures in human history wrong, whereas the time and place that you just happen to be born into correct? Many books that claim to be about some form of…
The Big Idea: Managing communications and making decisions effectively, in good times and bad, are two critical elements of a board dynamic. Proactively picking the best board members is like assembling the members of a band—the music can be awesome, if done right. Ch 1 Introduction Ch 2 What is a board? Ch 3 Creating…
OVERVIEW PEOPLE STRATEGY EXECUTION CASH READING LIST
The Big Idea: Climate change is dangerous, but it is not an existential threat to humanity. Industrialization, not environmental activism, will save the world’s ecosystems. Rich nations should do everything they can to help poor nations industrialize. Death rates and economic damage from extreme weather events have dropped by 80 to 90 percent during the…
The Big Idea: Historical is shaped by cycles. Each cycle (saeculum) lasts one human lifetime, about 80-90 years. Patterns repeat because generations are shaped by history as children and young adults and, in turn, they shape history as middle aged adults and elders. America is in the middle of the winter season (Fourth Turning) of…
Introduction Why we do things, our purpose, is at least as important as how we do things The most important skills, if you want to lead organizations, are the ability to speak and write. Find that sweet spot where your own passions and ideas intersect with the real needs of real people. Successful people are…
The Big Idea: New CEOs should take the time to learn about corporate governance. Consider subscribing to “Directors & Boards”, “Agenda”, “Directorship”, or “Corporate Board Member”. Terminology for the new CEO Eight components of a high performing board Traits of a high performing board: Board/CEO dynamics to avoid: CEOs should not hesitate to discuss an…
The Big Idea: Mastery is not a question of genetics or luck, but of following your natural inclinations and the deep desire that stirs you from within. Introduction I: Discover Your Calling: The Life’s Task II: Submit to Reality: The Ideal Apprenticeship III: Absorb the Master’s Power: The Mentor Dynamic IV: See People as They…
The Big Idea: The West has achieved global dominance thanks to competition, science, rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and work ethic. In recent decades, the West has lost its monopoly over these and the balance of power has begun to shift back towards other civilizations. Why did the West, for the past five hundred…
The Big Idea: From the 11th to the 15th century, popes and Christian nobles attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to take back Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims. The first crusades was the most successful, establishing, for a time, 4 Latin Christian kingdoms within the Holy Land. Crusade Date Started Date Ended Key Battles Primary…
The Big Idea: As a leader, it’s your job to design and build your organization’s culture. A well-designed culture can overcome a poor product or service in the long-term, but not in the short-term. (Product-market fit probably matters more than culture for a startup trying to survive past the early stages.) The culture you design…
Chapter 1: The Long Game Longevity has two components; how long you live and how well you live. The four main chronic diseases of aging (aka Four Horsemen) are: heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, metabolic disorder (diabetes.) A single, preventative measure (not smoking) saves more lives than any late stage intervention that medicine has devised….
The Big Idea: live long and prosper by eating well, exercising regularly, and sleeping well. Chapter 1 Aging is a treatable disease. Functional medicine looks at the body as an ecosystem; diseases are complex but often have identical root causes. Conventional medicine treats the body as a collection of organ; often only symptoms are treated,…
The Big Idea: Prioritize and focus on what brings happiness, instead of caring about things that don’t matter. Inspired by Stoicism and Buddhism. There is no such thing as permanent happiness. Happiness is the process of solving problems and challenges. Make decisions based on values and reason, not emotions. When you believe you’re special, you…
The Big Idea: When done right, angel investing in technology is the best path to rapid wealth creation. It’s high risk, but high reward.
The Big Idea: Much of what happens in the next thirty years is inevitable. Source: Wikipedia
The Big Idea: From 1914 to 1917, twenty eight men, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, survive for two years on an Antarctic expedition. The crew drifted on ice for a year, then sailed to Elephant Island, then sailed to South Georgia Island, then overland crossed South Georgia Island, before returning to Elephant Island to rescue…
The Big Idea: Stillness is the ability to slow down, clarify your thinking, center your soul, and direct your efforts to achieve great things. Part I: MindBecome Present: You can’t do your best if your mind is elsewhere.Limit Your Inputs: Put up barriers to keep away unimportant things out of your head.Empty the Mind: Chop…
The Big Idea: Think long-term. Stay frugal. Stay obsessed with the customer. When in doubt, take action. Always be trying new ideas. Hire only top talent.
The Big Idea: For Rickson, jiu-jitsu is life.
The Big Idea: Based on analysis of past civil wars (Philippines, Yugoslavia, Iraq), the author argues that right wing Americans, led by Donald Trump, and enabled by social media, are bringing the U.S. closer and closer to civil war.
The Big Idea: The ancient Stoic philosophers came from almost every imaginable background: slave, emperor, water carrier, playwright, merchant, Senator, soldier. However, they all focused not on the external world but on what was solely in their own control: their thoughts, their actions, their beliefs. 1. All we control is how we respond: A crisis…
The Big Idea: Theodore Roosevelt’s expedition down an uncharted tributary of the Amazon River is a story of poor planning, but also incredible courage and grit. Description from the author: The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians…
The Big Idea: Deglobalization and unavoidable demographic changes will produce winners and losers. Winners: United States, Mexico, Canada, France, New Zealand, Argentina. Losers: Russia, China, Middle East. Since Bretton Woods in 1944, the United States promised to provide security for the world, in exchange for support against the Soviet Union. Geography is critical in a…
CHAPTER 2 THE POWER OF STEM CELLS Stem cells, ideally the placenta, are the foundation of the coming wave of regenerative medicine. Panama and Mexico are common destinations for Americans seeking stem cell therapy. In the U.S., Fountain Life (Naples FL) offers many of the diagnostics discussed in the book. If you are interested in…
The Big Idea: Empires rise and fall. The US is in the declining stages of its empire. China appears to be rising. No empire in human history has lasted forever. Empires have life cycles, much like organisms have life cycles. A successful empire lasts 250 years, give or take 150 years. The cycle swings between…
The Big Idea: Reject your limiting beliefs and learn how to learn, in order to unlock your full potential. 1. Mindset: You must believe you can learn and you must be ready to learn. 1.1. Many people learned limiting mindframes when they were young.1.2. Kwik calls this learned helplessness “LIE” or “Limiting Idea Entertained”.1.3. One…
The Big Idea: Show your team you care and they’ll deliver extraordinary results. Bill Campbell has coached Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, Steve Jobs, Al Gore, Ronnie Lott, and John Hennessy. Humanity and compassion => happy employees => extraordinary long-term results. Teamwork > individual performance. Don’t demand respect. Earn respect. Let the best idea…
The Big Idea: a successful and long-lasting marriage requires acquiring skills such as: knowing how to communicate, knowing how to fight, knowing how to build a couple bubble, and knowing how to manage thirds Introduction: Why Should You “We Do?” 42 percent of first marriages end in divorce. If you want to beat the odds,…
The Big Idea: A parent’s ultimate job is to raise a strong, confident, and responsible adult by giving the child 1) space to make (and learn from) mistakes, 2) space to explores their interests, and 3) the right balance between guidance and freedom. INTRODUCTION: Why a Sense of Control Is Such a Big Deal We…
The Big Idea: The Selfish Gene says that all forms of life on Earth begin with genes, and that the purpose of life is to make sure those genes survive. Any form of life anywhere in the universe must begin with some type of replicating molecule. Genes are like a blueprint for the bodies they…
The Big Idea: Falling Into The Gap is the inspirational story of how a man with no retail training built the world’s most successful international apparel company by being willing to take risks based on his natural instincts. Lessons for Founders It’s better to be lucky than smart. Being a (tenacious) novice can be a…
The Big Idea: The rate of change has accelerated since 2007, outpacing humanity’s ability to adapt to the change. We can’t stop change, so we need to adapt. Three forces are shaping the world: technology, globalization, and climate change. There are four types of globalization: flow of technical knowledge, the flow of business, the flow…
The Big Idea: eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains, and fermented foods to maintain a healthy microbiome and discourage disease. An unhealthy microbiome is associated with: infant colic, allergies, autism, auto-immune diseases, obesity, depression, schizophrenia, OCD, stroke, heart disease, systemic inflammation, and cancer. Vaginal childbirth is preferable to C-section. Breast milk helps feed…
The Big Idea: Thinking doesn’t just take place inside the brain; it also takes place outside the brain. When your body (emotions/unconscious mind) is telling you something, listen to it; this is called interoception. Practice meditation to improve your interoception abilities. Regular walks can improve thinking. Physical demonstrations helps students learn abstract concepts better. Gestures…
The Big Idea: Strive for happiness, not success. 1. How to find happiness in your career Understand what motivates you. Internal motivation > external motivation. Money and status are more of a by-product of being happy with a job, than a cause of it. Think about the long-term consequences of your decisions. Make plans but…
The Big Idea: Humans have transformed the Earth and now we are experiencing accelerating rates of species extinction. Until the 18th century, scientists were unaware that species came and went, over the past billion years. Big Five Mass Extinctions End Ordovician, 444 million years ago, sudden cooling Late Devonian, 375 million years ago End Permian,…
The Big Idea: Better mental models (frameworks) mean better thinking. Introduction: Acquiring Wisdom In life and business, the person with the fewest blind spots wins. This book is about avoiding problems. Our failures to update from interacting with reality spring primarily from three things: not having the right perspective or vantage point, ego-induced denial, and…
The Big Idea: For most of the Old West times (1740s – 1870’s), Comanche tribes controlled the Southern Great Plains. The westward migration of settlers decimated their power and population. 1500The Comanches start off as a Shoshone linguistic group that migrate to the Great Plains. 1680The Pueblo tribe revolts against the Spanish colonists. They manage…
The Big Idea: Instead of getting more done, focus on getting the right things done. There are many time management books out there that try to teach you how to get it all done. But that’s a mistake. Because it’s impossible to get it all done. And it’s dangerous to try. You’ll lose focus on…
The Big Idea: Dopamine and H&N neurotransmitters (serotonin, endorphins endocannabinoids, oxytocin) control much of our behavior. Harmony is achieved through a balance of dopamine and H&N. Creative activities are the best way to mix dopamine and H&N. Chapter 1 LOVE Dopamine, they discovered, isn’t about pleasure at all. Dopamine activity is not a marker of…
The Big Idea: Abandon traditional instruction (ie lectures) based on outdated behaviorist theories and replace with Brain Centric Instruction Design based on our improved understanding of neuroscience and learning. Traditional instruction is based on BF Skinner behaviorism theory and reward-punishment thinking. The result is lectures, where the instructor does 99% of the talking, and little…
The Big Idea: America needs to defend freedom of speech, the scientific method, intellectual diversity, and a meritocratic ethos. “For decades now, a set of idea pathogens, largely stemming from universities, has relentlessly assaulted science, reason, logic, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, individual liberty, and individual dignity. If we want our children and grandchildren…
The Big Idea: We have massive data showing the genetic or epigenetic basis of autism, together with a handful of environmental toxins. What Does Cause Autism? We now have data and information on more than one million children that show vaccines do not cause autism. Instead, the brains of kids (and of course, ultimately, adults)…
The Big Idea: Take Naval seriously because he…questions nearly everything, can think from first principles, tests things well, is good at not fooling himself, changes his mind regularly, laughs a lot, thinks holistically, and thinks long-term. Books make for great friends, because the best thinkers of the last few thousand years tell you their nuggets…
The Big Idea: Success in show business is a result of talent, hard work, strategy, and luck — probably in equal portions.
The Big Idea: Brace yourself. Winter is coming. The 2020’s will be a time of crisis and will remake America. CHAPTER 1 – Winter Comes Again The four turnings of the saeculum comprise history’s seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and destruction. The First Turning is a High, an upbeat era of strengthening institutions and…
The Big Idea: Coronavirus: this too shall pass. The pandemic’s most enduring impact will be as an accelerant of existing trends. Look beyond our unprecedented present and predict the future by creating it. In any crisis there is opportunity; the greater and more disruptive the crisis, the greater the opportunities. Three of the largest, and…
The Big Idea: Contrary to what the media might depict, violence has declined over the past decades and centuries. Understanding the driving forces of the decline can help societies continue that momentum. Nearly every form of violence (murder, abuse, torture, rape, assault) has declined over time. The decline can be seen in our attitudes toward…
The Big Idea: the story of Nike, from idea in 1962 to global brand. Nike began as a paper at Stanford on the potential market for importing Japanese athletic shoes to the United States. At age twenty-four, before he started Nike, Knight set out on a backpacking trip around the world. Phil Knight borrowed fifty…
The Big Idea: People are emotional creatures, so negotiations are more emotional than people think. Use tactical empathy to negotiate. Don’t just split the difference. CHAPTER 1 THE NEW RULES Life is negotiation. “Getting to Yes” and BATNA assumes a purely rational interaction. Many negotiations are highly emotional. The key concept in this book is…
The Big Idea: Boost your immune system and reduce inflammation with the Wim Hof Method, based on science and ancient techniques. The Wim Hof Method = 1. Cold Therapy + 2. Breathing Exercises + 3. Commitment. 1. Cold Therapy 2. Wim Hof Breathing 3. Commitment
The Big Idea: Life is short unless you live it well. Study philosophy and protect your valuable time from others. It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. The part of life we really live is small. For all the rest of existence is not…
The Greatest Story Ever Told In the beginning, nearly fourteen billion years ago, all the space and all the matter and all the energy of the known universe was contained in a volume less than one-trillionth the size of the period that ends this sentence. Einstein’s general theory of relativity, put forth in 1916, gives…
The Big Idea: We must protect speech no matter how hateful it may seem. The devil is anyone who disagrees with you. And what he is due is the right to speak his mind. 0. Introduction Who Is the Devil and What Is He Due? Err on the side of freedom. Let Truth and Falsehood…
THE BIG IDEA: American will retreat to the safety of its borders while other countries struggle to find their place behind America is this new global order. Without the American-led global order, the world will face turbulence not seen in a hundred years. 0. Introduction: Moments of Transition Geography might not be destiny, but it…
The Big Idea: If you wish to control others, you must control yourself first. You can only fight the way you practice.To know ten thousand things, know one well.Know your enemy. Know his sword.Get beyond love and grief. Exist for the good of man.If you wish to control others, you must control yourself first.Do nothing…
The Big Idea: Money is made up. But as long as people believe in it, it’s as real as anything else. Money has evolved over time and will probably continue. Money did not evolve from barter. The evolution of money, roughly: communal giving => informal credit systems => commodities and metal coins => paper IOUs…
The Big Idea: Out of every hundred men on the battlefield, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters…and one is a warrior. Only you can master your mind, live a bold life, and become that warrior. “Do you know who you really are? I’m sure you think so,…
The Big Idea: Avoid excessive debt. Protect debtors. The evolution of economies from barter to markets is a myth. -It’s a myth that money evolved out of barter.-Outsid of distrustful exchanges, primitive markets exchanged goods primarily using credit/debt.-Money and violence are inextricably linked in history.-Historically, there were often periodic debt cancellations across an entire economy.-Coins…
The Big Idea: Do less but achieve more by focusing on the true essentials. Most of what typical people do is non-essential. Ignore what typical people do, because typical people tend to focus on being busy — not on doing the right things. Treat your time has highly valuable. If you value your time, then…
The Big Idea: Mindfulness is “the awareness that arises by paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Meditation practice means showing up consistently, not about achieving a specific state. Samadhi is “onepointedness”. Meditation cultivates the ability to focus attention. Meditation trains and reshapes the mind. Sitting meditation means to sit with dignity….
The Big Idea: The federal workforce is full of unsung, passionate people who run important federal programs. The fifth risk = the risk you haven’t considered. Presidents come and go, but the federal workforce persists. Trump’s administration has been incredibly dismissive and antagonistic of these important federal workers Example of important federal programs mentioned in…
The Big Idea: Europeans conquered the world because they existed in a temperate climate and in a long East-West axis connected to the Fertile Crescent and Asia. This geographic starting point led to a faster development of agriculture, which led to larger populations, which led to faster technological development and stronger militaries. How did Europeans…
The Big Idea: Adopt a low-carb, high-fat diet. Early to bed, early to rise. Move more throughout the day. Lift weights. Practice yoga. Limit social media. Meditate regularly. Prioritize experiences, friends, and family. Get healthy, start finding your answers to questions like how much does the bar weight at the gym? Identify => Measure =>…
The Big Idea: The chance of an existential catastrophe in the hundred years is 1 in 6. Man-made risks far outweigh natural risks. We need global cooperation, continued work, and deep reflection to prevent the end of our species and reach our true potential. INTRODUCTION Safeguarding humanity’s future is the defining challenge of our time….
The Big Idea: A Black Swan is an outlier event with low probability and extreme impact. We act as if Black Swans do not exist, but, even though they are impossible to predict, they occur with regularity. A black swan has three traits: it’s an outlier, it carries an extreme impact, it is explainable after…
The Big Idea: Success in poker and life comes from making good decisions while recognizing that luck is also a major factor. There are two things that determine how our lives turn out: the quality of our decisions and luck. Life is poker, not chess. Chess contains no hidden information and very little luck. Most…
The Big Idea: Humans are at risk for a number of cognitive biases that hamper our ability to think analytically and exhibit good judgement. Introduction It is the overdramatic worldview that draws people to the most dramatic and negative answers to my fact questions. The overdramatic worldview is so difficult to shift because it comes…
The Big Idea: Super-efficient irrigation techniques (ollas, clay pipes, terraces, check dams, swales) have been used for thousands of years. Drip irrigation has helped most landscapers like King Green. Drip irrigation has helped increase water-use efficiency in gardens and farms, but drip systems are for the well-off. The key to minimizing water use is to…
The Big Idea: Instead of studying hard sell techniques, a better approach is help the buyer discover for himself why he wants what you’re selling. Get your audience to pay full attention to you and take you seriously, as they would a partner or colleague. Do this by achieving Status Alignment, the first step to…
The Big Idea: What you want in a business is an economic castle with a very wide moat and an honest, talented knight to handle marauders. Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. Think different from the crowd. Think long-term when others are thinking short-term. When the tide goes out,…