Johanna

“Bursts of high-impact works [are] remarkably universal across diverse domains,” he and his co-authors wrote. Just about everybody has a period in their life when they produce at their best, even if, unlike Aretha, they aren’t pumping out some of the greatest work of the 20th century.

We pay lip service to the idea of hiring the best people in the world — but in reality, we’re only hiring the best people who happen to be close by. Call me crazy, but I think if we’re going to talk about hiring the best talent available, we should actually try to do that. This means letting go of the idea, at least in IT work, that people need to... See more

It’s worth emphasizing that basic income does not have to be an amount of money that meets people’s basic needs. Such an amount may be both desirable and achievable, but it is not part of the definition. Basic income is “basic” only in the sense that everyone gets it. The income itself is basic — not what it buys.

Most people’s mental models of energy are flawed: they think there’s a ‘tank’ of energy that gets depleted as you spend it. This may be roughly true for physical energy, but mental energy is different: spending mental energy on things that you consider productive or important gives you more mental energy for other things: a positive feedback loop.

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After two years of working from home, I don’t have one unified period of getting things done. I have several mini periods. Work isn’t a contiguous landmass of focus; it’s more like an archipelago of productivity amid a sea of chores, meals, mental breaks, and other responsibilities.

I can’t remember the last time I went into (or ordered from) a restaurant without looking up its Google or Yelp reviews first. We have become totally reliant on external factors to tell us how to lead our lives. Where should I go? Check Google maps. What should I wear? Check Instagram shopping. What political opinions should I adopt? Check... See more

Any skill or attribute you claim makes you unique—”I’m really funny”, “I’m good at shining shoes”, “I’m an attentive lover”—you can always find someone else better than you on that dimension. They’re funnier, fitter, richer, sexier, smarter, or better at shining shoes than you are. We can’t help but desperately compete in this unwinnable game of... See more

Invention is easily overrated, and implementation is often underrated.

To show how this might work, let’s take multiple sclerosis as an example. It is a devastating condition in need of better therapies. When testing new drugs in animal studies, researchers measure and report a number of different metrics, including the effects of drug candidates on inflammation, on damage to nerve fibres (axon loss), on damage to the... See more