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Marketing as we know it happened because of machines. Machines made factories dramatically more efficient, which meant that producers could no longer easily sell everything they made. When you go f ...

Orchestras are difficult. One reason is that we're really good at noticing when they're out of tune. Just a tiny bit off changes our perception of the sound. The other reason is that if ...

Well, maybe not. In 2024, worldwide gift card sales will pass a trillion dollars for the first time. It's a good grift. Surveys show that the buyer spends about 21% less per gift than they do ...

Lousy tools are dangerous. They endanger our safety (physical or emotional) and undermine our work. Lousy tools are pretty easy to avoid, because they reveal themselves whenever we use them. Great ...

If it happened to us, our memory of it is a story, our record of it with us at the center. Even if it's on video, even if other people were there, our narrative and the context and the play b ...

A bureaucracy recently asked me to submit a few documents. They were very specific and the person on the phone said that the subject line of the email I sent should be blank. This is really unsettl ...

Writing a book is good for you. It clarifies your thinking and it's generous as well. You might not publish it professionally, but sharing it with people you want to teach and lead is a usefu ...

A generation ago, the Generals ruled. General Motors, General Foods, General Mills, General Dynamics they were big, and they had a lot to lose. As a result, people trusted them to show up an ...

Asymmetrical information creates real problems. And fixing the flow of useful proxies benefits both sides. Cigarette companies knew a great deal about the addictions they were causing and the illne ...

Everyone needs more chances, more benefit of the doubt, more opportunity. But what turns a chance into a big break is what we do with it once the chance arrives.