Doritos Makes Transparent Mice

Here’s a headline that wasn’t on my bingo card Scientists use food dye found in Doritos to make see-through mice I think the writer thought this was a good thing. Apparently, you can see through mice if you rub something called “Tartrazine” on them. Not all the way through, but through their skin. Tartrazine is […]

There is No Mastery Without Competition

I like to carve spoons. I also like meditating in the morning, reading books, and farming. None of these seem “competitive.” There isn’t a prize or adversary. The premium is on learning, attention, and practice. And yet, they are competitive in that by allocating my time, energy, and attention to carving, sitting, or reading, I […]

The Sound of a Human Voice

In 1999, I’m still boggled that it is now 25 years ago, a bunch of clever fellows published something called The Cluetrain Manifesto. It’s called that for a reason, though I no longer remember or care why. The internet was far younger and the idea of doing commerce there was still a young and exciting […]

Labor Day

As a kid, I never much liked Labor Day. I had no sense of its roots or broader meaning. In my young mind, the word “labor” was synonymous for work. I had yet to read Marx. I had yet to hear about the Haymarket Riots. May Day was a day in May. What I did […]

What is Rich?

What is rich? A million dollars? A billion dollars? More than the other guy? Own your own island? Two jets? Not having to follow the rules? Or The love of family and friends? Thinking to yourself, “Nobody is having a better time right now than I am.” A good book and not wanting to do […]

Happy Birthday SkyNet

Fans of the Terminator franchise, and who amongst us doesn’t toss off the occasional “I’ll be back,” will not need reminding that at 2:14 Eastern Time (UTC-5) on August 29, 1997, Skynet became self-aware. This was not good. Nevertheless, happy 27th birthday SkyNet. This leads me to several thoughts. Still waiting Anyone there? Predicting anything […]

Role Models and Teachers. Choose Wisely.

Perhaps you have too. Over the years, I’ve read broadly the stories of the titans of business, statecraft, and war: Rockefeller, Morgan, Lazard, Duveen, Rommel, and Patton are some names that come to mind. The same is true for biographies and hagiographies of contemporaneous figures like Pat Reilly, Phil Jackson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tim […]

A (True) Story of Two Gifts Involving Babe Ruth

My grandfather was an accountant in New York City. One of his clients owned a property called The Dreier Hotel. One of the people who worked for the hotel was a man named Shaeffer, a long-time pal of Babe Ruth. Because of Shaeffer, my father met Babe Ruth and received a picture signed, “To My […]

25 People

In the 1990s, a man named Dunbar suggested a correlation between primate brain size and social group size. Without litigating his research, he proposed that we humans can comfortably maintain between 100 and 200 social relationships. Ever after, this has been referred to as “Dunbar’s Number.” Many people split the difference and call it 150. […]

The Power of Curiosity

Tom Peters’ book In Search of Excellence is regarded as one of the most influential business books of all time. In an article about the book, Peters says, “There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove. I went out and talked to genuinely smart, remarkably interesting, […]