From My Work-in-Progress Basket
283 articles filed under From My Work-in-Progress Basket.
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
Solving Drainage Woes At Fun Limón's Fields
For the past I-don’t-know-how-many years, I’ve been working on about a dozen unfinished books. Two of them are based on my experience in Nicaragua – Rancho Santana: Then and Now, a history of the resort in…
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
Am I Becoming a Conservative? You Tell Me!
Part I: Let’s Look at My Rap Sheet Some friends and family members that read this blog tell me I’m becoming noticeably more conservative. I don’t mind the label. In fact, I like to think that I am properly…
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The Rule of One vs. Listicles: What’s the Deal?
The Rule of One vs. Listicles: What’s the Deal? One of the ideas I’ve written about over the years is something I called the “Rule of One.” It wasn’t an original idea. It was a compilation of similar ideas…
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Cultural Appropriation: Is It Really a Bad Thing?
Richard Hunt, an indigenous sculptor in Canada, is calling on federal authorities there to take action against foreign companies that are copying his carvings and selling them as authentic, native American…
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The Digital Dollar Approaches
As I predicted in past issues, the US government is moving forward with its intention to put an end to cryptocurrencies and replace them with a digital dollar. And as noted on Feb. 3, it’s been happening a lot…
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How Every Little Event in Your Life Is an Opportunity to Grow Rich
Here’s a thought: Every event in life, however small, is an opportunity to become richer. Richer in knowledge. Richer in trust. Richer in friendship. And, of course, richer in financial wealth. There are…
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When You Can’t Just Believe Her
When You Can’t Just Believe Her It’s not been talked about much. And I don’t understand why. But among Amber Heard’s many accusations against Johnny Depp is “sexual abuse.” In Case You Were in Orbit: On Dec…
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Poor You… You Were Dealt a Bad Hand — May 30, 2022
Poor You… You Were Dealt a Bad Hand Part II: The Reality of Playing the Victim Why do so many smart, educated people buy into the ideology of identity theory, a clearly illogical and demonstrably destructive…
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
Poor You… You Were Dealt a Bad Hand
Part I: You Didn’t Choose It… and You Can’t Change It… You didn’t choose and cannot change your parentage. Or the place of your birth. Or the culture you were born into. Or the color of your hair and eyes and…
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How to Be Good at Group Decision-Making…
and Why It Really Matters In making personal decisions, I’ve always followed a simple, two-step protocol. * Step One: Figure out what I want to do. * Step Two: Do it. That worked well and still works well for…
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Why Good Advice Usually Doesn’t Work
Why Good Advice Usually Doesn’t Work “Who’s this guy?” I asked Giovanna. “He’s the brother of a person that used to work for you. You said you’d take his call.” “What brother?” “I can check.” “Don’t bother…
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Well, Okay. Good Luck With That!
They wanted to make it a company holiday. I opposed doing it because I saw it as a passing political fad. Making it an official day off felt like a capitulation. And that’s what I said at the board meeting…
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What I Believe: About Business Management
Why You Should be Sensitive to (but Not Care Too Much About) Your Employees’ Feelings Here’s how I explain it: It’s important to be sensitive to the feelings of your employees. But it’s equally important not…
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Making New Year’s Resolutions: Is There Any Point?
It’s fashionable these days to discount New Year’s resolutions as artificial and ineffective. “I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions,” one well-known guru and friend of mine wrote this time last year…
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No-Nos for Holiday Office Parties
There are three social environments when it comes to your career. At one end is the formal atmosphere of your professional business life. Here, all eyes are on you… and to succeed, you must conduct yourself…
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What You Need to Know Right Now About the Metaverse
Part I: Timmy and the Metaverse Timmy agreed to be homeschooled last year, but his parents couldn’t get the 15-year-old to do the work. As a punishment, his father pulled him from his baseball team. Timmy…
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What’s in a Word?
In Elements of Style, authors Strunk and White define the standard for modern English prose. One of their many rules: Avoid fancy words. “Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute,” they say…
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
Culture, Civilization, and Women’s Rights
There was a time in my life when I embraced the notion that, despite differences, all ethnic, religious, and national populations were ethically and morally equal. No one was any better or worse than any other…
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In Praise of Useless Information
I have, in the past, argued that though you may need an MBA or other technical degree to be accepted for certain jobs, it’s really a waste of time. As I explained in one essay: “Anything you learn will be…
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What Would You Do?
Equal vs. Equitable, Part I You have two adult children. Alissa and Tony. They are twins. At the time of their birth, you had set up a trust account designated to go to them when they turned 30. They are 29…
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A Bird in the Hand
My Approach to Building Wealth When I think about investing – whether it is investing my time or my money – I begin by asking myself: What sort of thing is it that I’d be investing in? Is it a business – like…
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Bits and Pieces — November 11, 2021
The Orient Express: Then and Now Several summers ago, K and I took a train ride from Paris to Vienna. The goal was not to get to Vienna, but rather to experience the train ride itself. We were travelling, you…
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You Say You’re Proud to Be a Liberal, but You Don’t Act Like It!
You believe in equality. You believe in helping those that can’t help themselves. You believe in universal health coverage, free university education, a $20 minimum wage, and mandatory employee benefits like…
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Why Do We Have 9 Supreme Court Judges?
You probably know that the current US Supreme Court has a conservative bias. Thanks to RBG’S death and Trump’s appointments, 6 of the 9 justices are considered conservative. This, the Democrats don’t like…
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COVID Lockdown Update: America’s Restaurants Are Being Decimated
DS, a friend, is the CEO of a substantial restaurant chain. We’ve been talking about the extreme challenges that her industry has been facing since the COVID lockdown began. Between the near-hysterical fear…
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Finally… Everything You’ll Ever Need to Know About
Roman Architecture, Pt. 1: Ancient vs. Classical Rome is my favorite city to indulge my curiosity. During a 15-minute stroll, you can pass the foundation of a temple built prior to the birth of Christ, a…
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Are You Ready to Make Your Big Career Move?
He had just graduated from college with a Liberal Arts degree and a few journalism courses under his belt. Having decided in his senior year that he wanted to be a writer, he reached out to me on social media…
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Ready, Fire, Aim in Action
My book Ready, Fire, Aim, which was published in 2008, made it to the Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestseller lists. John Wiley, the publisher, sold out several editions. It was successful, I think…
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China vs. the USA
During his tenure as president, Donald Trump started a trade war with China. He had an argument. China was subsidizing some of its exports to gain market share. We do that, too. But China did it more. So, he…
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The Washington Post
The Washington Post, which competes neck and neck with the NYT for Financially Dumbest Major Newspaper in the US, recently published two opinion pieces that actually made sense. The first was about taxes. In…
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The Ragged, Ratty, 25-Year-Old Carry-on Bag and the Human ATM
The Ragged, Ratty, 25-Year-Old Carry-on Bag and the Human ATM Bill has a billion-dollar information publishing business. His responsibilities require him to travel all over the world. For the past 25 years…
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Stablecoins: The Latest Buzzword in the Crypto World
Stablecoins are currencies that, like Bitcoin, exist on the blockchain and offer some of the advantages that the blockchain provides. But unlike Bitcoins, they are not issued in limited amounts. Here's how…
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The Invasion of the Digital Dollar
There is indeed something that large governments like about Bitcoin. It exists on a blockchain, which means that each and every financial transaction that is made (including minor purchases) is recorded and…
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My Beef with “Creatives
In my business – the idea-publishing industry – some workers are valued more than others. These are the so-called “Creatives”: writers, marketers, advertising copywriters, and sometimes publishers. The reason…
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White Privilege and Black Power in the Windy City
What’s Happening to Chicago? Inflation is up. Employment is down. Storefronts are shuttered. Offices are empty. The streets are strewn with debris. And homeless people – drug addicts and the mentally…
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Wuhan Lab Theory No Longer a Conspiracy According to Biden and the NYT
When I was covering the upcoming national elections in September, I predicted that most of the scary stories about COVID that were ubiquitous back then would dissipate if Biden was elected. The reason: It was…
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Anti-Asian Hate Crimes: What’s Going On?
On May 20, President Biden signed a bill meant to address hate crimes against Asian-Americans. It was supported overwhelmingly (364-62) by both sides of the aisle. It wasn’t clear from anything I read whether…
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Want to Be a Good Writer? It Isn’t Easy, but This Is the First Step
Want to Be a Good Writer? It Isn’t Easy, but This Is the First Step “Every discourse, even a poetic or oracular sentence, carries with it a system of rules for producing analogous things and thus an outline of…
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My Million-Dollar Minimum Fee
My Million-Dollar Minimum Fee “You get what you pay for.” When Early to Rise was at its peak, I was regularly petitioned by readers asking me to mentor them. I was always flattered by such requests and wrote…
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Customer Service Made Easy… and Profitable
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little better.” – Jeff Bezos Customer Service Made…
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Georgia’s Controversial New Voting Law
“Voting is as much an emotional act as it is an intellectual one.” – Monica Crowley Georgia’s Controversial New Voting Law So, is this new law racist? Is it some new version of Jim Crow? It’s no longer…
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Does the US Really Have a Hunger Crisis?
“The rich swell up with pride, the poor from hunger.” – Sholom Aleichem Does the US Really Have a Hunger Crisis? If you google “hunger in the US,” you’ll get a plethora of articles about something called food…
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So How’s Biden Doing on His Big Immigration Promises?
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain When they took over, the Biden administration was confident that it could quickly repair…
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Something Rotten in the EEC
“By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” – John Maynard Keynes Something Rotten in the EEC In mid-March…
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If It Ain’t Broke… Fix It Anyway!
“Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.” – James Cash Penney If It Ain’t Broke… Fix It Anyway! How to Aim Your Business After It’s Been Started If you want your business to grow quickly and…
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Biden's Stimulus Bill: Popular But Poorly Understood
“If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished.” – Richard Nixon Free money is popular! Who woulda thunk? A vast majority of Americans – 72% to 76% – support…
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The Hidden Choreography of a Compelling (and Very Profitable) Marketing Tool
“Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion is not a science, but an art.” – William Bernbach As a consultant to one of the world’s largest digital publishing networks, I’ve had the opportunity to…
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Buying Investment-Grade Art: An Inside View
“People don’t buy art based on the personality of the artist. Or there wouldn’t be much art bought and sold.” – David L. Wolper Buying Investment-Grade Art: An Inside View There is so much bullshit in the art…
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What Are You Waiting For? Start Firing Already!
“Procrastination is the thief of time.” – Edward Young What Are You Waiting For? Start Firing Already! You are ready. Your start-up idea passed the various tests you gave it. You have a handle on the size of…
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My Take on the GameStop/Reddit Fiasco
“A scam is a scam. A fraud is a fraud.” – Emily Thornberry Last week, I predicted that, despite the hype and bravado of those behind this fiasco, the share price of GameStop would eventually come back down to…
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