newsletter archive.
(Previously published under the title Extreme Profits
under ISSN 1925-8941)
Focusing on efficiency, procrastination, innovation
It hasn't escaped me how much work I put into everything I do. Somehow, it feels like there's a lot of effort applied, but when I ponder the effort, it really isn't a lot in relation to the result.
If I spend two hours communicating an event to a wide audience, is that a lot of effort? Here are some numbers to consider in this instance: I sent personalized messages to 150 of my contacts in two hours and ended up making 24 sales. Is this a good return on effort? You bet it is! But you might say: How did you manage to send 150 messages in two hours? If you do the math, that's 1.25 messages every minute. Here's how I did it.
Out of chaos, learning from failure
In his 1907 book The Education of Henry Adams, Adams sharply criticizes 19th Century educational theory and practice. Writing that "chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit," his views on formal education as an inert collection of facts suggest that learning must extend beyond the classroom. If education is to be worthwhile, it must "breed life" rather than habit.