Many people who are talented in their various fields have access to insight they can’t share with others. They simply see something we can’t. They try to describe it—picture any Paris Review interview—and often hearing them talk about their process is interesting and informative. But they’re unable to describe the core thing—what gives them the sto... See more

In 1985, Nike held a 24-hour shoe design contest. Nike was struggling. Their stock dropped 50%. They had to lay off people. Adidas, Converse, and Reebok were all selling more shoes. So in a panicked attempt to find creative talent, Nike held a shoe design contest. The winner was a corporate architect named Tinker Hatfield. “Two days after the compe... See more

Emily Henderson said this: People, especially women, will really love doing something, and so they’ll be like, “You don’t have to pay me, I loved it,” or not really fight for their rate. But if you love something, you are better at it. You’re more valuable. You’re faster. You think about it on your off time, you bring a lot of energy to it. If you ... See more

“Schmooze” derives from the Yiddish “shmuesn”, which in turn derives from Hebrew “shemuah,” meaning “rumor.”

I feel totally overwhelmed by the state of the world, but I think music and creativity, to me, is a way of exploring what's possible. There's always something when I'm making music that I didn't see that comes from nowhere and appears. When you go to create something, you're opening yourself up to possibility. It is a way that I continuously touch ... See more

Entrepreneur Phil Levin on the importance of neighborhoods:

"You are going to spend 1000x more time in your surrounding 5 blocks than you will in any other neighborhood in your city. Thinking about all the things that New York City has—or the next city has—is a lot less important than thinking about the things within the five blocks where you live.

M... See more

There are a lot of organizational structures and lived practices embedded in our bodies that we just enact by default. But through explicit facilitation practices or when we make meetings happen in a certain way, that helps change these conditioned ways of operating. In the process of learning to work this way, what really helps is, again, trust. T... See more

When Amabile analyzed 12,000 diary entries of employees from a variety of industries, she found that 76% of people reported that their best days involved making progress toward goals.

Only that nothing works out the way you plan, which is a blessing every hour. Life always takes a different form, if only because life will always be more imaginative — deeper, wiser, more surprising — than you are.