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Why Work Expands to Fill All the Time You Give It
During my consulting stint in New York, I had two Jewish colleagues who observed Sabbath and would leave office sharp at 5 pm on Friday. And for the next 24 hours they were unreachable. And this was in a firm where late nights, long hours, and fast...
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Keep Life Simple
A TikToker Canadian mom got hospitalized after drinking too much water as part of a '75-Hard' challenge. Another influencer died of starvation after...
The Familiarity Trap
Many professional thieves exhibit a curious behavior pattern -- they follow the exact same methodology and rituals (modus operandi) every time they...
Why We Seek Validation
Why do we do social comparison even though we know it is toxic? Why do we seek external validation knowing that it ruins our happiness? Turns out,...
The Three Career Curves: Choose Your Climb
There are three kinds of jobs: The 'flatline' jobs: Here you do the same thing for the same inflation-adjusted salary, all your life. E.g., a...
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Work Behind the Glamour
At the beginning of the Ukraine war, Russians were abandoning their tanks at an alarming rate due to breakdowns and technical glitches. On CNN, one American general was asked why. He said that whenever an American tank convoy rests, the crew...
Leadership is Hard
Stress spreads like a contagion. Just one person needs to have it -- especially the boss -- and soon, everybody around will feel it. Once the boss is snappy and angry, team members get scared and are on the defensive. Everybody's fight-or-flight...
Focus Is Binary
Focus is binary. When a sharpshooter goes from 100% focus to 50% focus, his score does not decline by 50% but it goes to zero. He misses every target. 50% focus is as good as no focus. And yet, when it comes to our work, we believe that we can make...
The Beauty in the Ordinary
You feel you don't have a story to tell because your life is not exciting? Let me then tell you about Neman Ashraf, a police constable in Pakistan. A few years ago, I came across Neman's posts on Quora, where he used to write stories about his...