Personal Opinion

Please

I need to rant a little.

As you might expect, my “day job“, and a lot of my not-so-day-job, involves answering questions. It varies, of course. Some questions are simple yes/no, some are translating consumer terminology into more accurate terms and returning a “search result” from one of my websites to help, and so on.

Mostly it’s pretty simple Q&A.

Sometimes it’s less simple.

Sometimes it’s iterative. And sometimes that’s very, very frustrating.

Read more

But not absolution from the consequences

We often hear people complaining they’re being discriminated against, losing friends and acquaintances, and even being so-called “cancelled” because of the opinions they hold. Somehow they seem to feel that they should be able to hold, and express, their opinions, often loudly, to anyone, without consequence.

Because, of course, they believe their opinion is correct, and that should be honored and respected.

Nope.

Read more

(Long one, today. I didn’t plan on it, but here we are. )

I’ve been asked a couple of time how I manage to do so much. If I look at what I produce each week, it adds up:

• Ask Leo! Articles, Videos, direct answers, and Newsletter
• Not All news is Bad
• 7 Takeaways
• HeroicStories
• My personal blog and 65 Thoughts
• My volunteer work
• An assortment of other things

Even considering all that I don’t accomplish every week even if I’m supposed to (my wife has that list), it’s still quite a lot.

The answer to the question turned out to be longer than I expected. I have a combination of frameworks, routines, habits, tools, and mindset that are probably pretty unique to me. While I pay attention to a lot of “productivity porn”, as it’s sometimes called, I think I’ve ended up with a blend of approaches that work fairly well for me.

I don’t expect they’ll work for everyone. But let’s look at how I do what I do hoping you might find a nugget or two that resonates and can help you get s**t done.

Read more

I didn’t realize it at the time, but one of the most important skills I got from my education was the ability to find answers.

I wish education in general was more focused on that skill. Rather than accumulating (and, gak, testing for) knowledge, teach the skill set required to acquire knowledge as needed; a kind of “just in time” skill. When you need to know something, you know how to find it.

Read more

A fundamental skill for success

Polina Pompliano’s The Profile just celebrated five years of publishing consistently.

… 263 Sunday emails, 100 Profile Dossiers, and thousands of longform profiles.

Quite the achievement.

Coincidentally, I also celebrated a five-year anniversary with one of my publications, Not All News is Bad.

I realized if I had a super-power, it might be consistency.

Read more

Over the last few years I’ve found myself not just subscribing to an assortment of news and other publications, but actually paying for the privilege.

In the spirit of full transparency for my own publications influenced by these choices, here’s a list of everything I’m actually paying cold hard cash for.

Read more

As you might imagine I read, skim, and scan (let’s just call that all “consume”, shall we?) a lot of content as I pull together 7 Takeaways each week. I do the same for Not All News is Bad, for that matter. (I do it for Ask Leo! as well, but that’s different for the purposes of this discussion.)

Some items call to me, and I’ve never been quite sure why. If you’d asked me my criteria I would have said I have no idea, but, like porn, I just know it when I see it.

As I was meditating this morning one of the reasons made itself known.

Read more

(Once again, sorry for the delays between postings. Life. If interested and if you’re not already there I have been sending out 7 Takeaways every week. Generally not my writing, but I do share some thoughts on each takeaway I collect.)

A friend is dealing with one of life’s issues, to put it vaguely. It’s led me to notice our friends and acquaintances often fall into two categories. It’s important to acknowledge them.

Read more

One more step is required.

In 2014 I lost 56 pounds. I went on to lose 10 more beyond my goal after that.

It was intentional and methodical.

After reaching that goal, occasional lapses (Hello, Thanksgiving) would be met with “oh well, I know how to do this”, and the holiday weight would eventually come off.

And then: pandemic.

Read more

If people can’t put you in the right bucket, you must belong in the wrong one.

Being able to see both sides of an argument is a curse.

People want black and white. If you’re cursed with an ability to articulate shades of grey, it’ll be taken as blanket disagreement no matter what your actual opinion.

Anything seen as less than 100% agreement is disagreement.

If we are to survive, that must change.

Read more

Democrats, you’re under the microscope

In a recent political discussion, I discovered something shocking: the person I was talking with attributed the same horrible fears to my side as I did to theirs.

The bullet lists were nearly identical.

Wow.

I don’t believe there’s a short term fix. “How do we change their minds?” is not the question, because minds aren’t going to change any time soon.

The answer is both simpler and more difficult.

Show them they’re wrong.

Read more

No, I’m not saying you’re a dick for not wearing a mask. Maybe you are, maybe you’re not, but that’s not what I’m saying.

In fact it’s very possible I’m saying exactly the opposite.

People are so freakin’ quick to judge, it’s frustrating. We’ve become so incredibly judgmental, and most often without even a shred of evidence. And yes, if that makes me sound judgmental, so be it. I also can’t tolerate intolerance.

Read more

There’s a line of thought among some of the COVID-19 conspiracy or anti-mask crowds running like this: do nothing and let people get sick. It’s how evolution works; the strong will survive, and humanity will be better for it. Besides, things aren’t as bad as [the government / the media / the liberals / the fraidy-cats] makes it out to be, anyway.

There’s a lot wrong with that thinking I won’t get into.

My point is more fundamental: it doesn’t have to be that way. Evolution can do better, and is, in fact, doing so right now. You can watch if you want to see it, and know where to look.

But you might also want to help.

Read more

“When this is over…”

It’s a phrase we’re hearing or saying often, of late, frequently followed by a litany of activities to resume after things return to normal.

I’ll admit, it’s comforting to dream of a time when we’ll do what we did as we did before.

Unfortunately “when this is over…” is a lie.

Read more

Two months ago the coronavirus wiped out two thirds of Ask Leo!‘s ad revenue.

Two weeks ago a Google search algorithm update cut my traffic in half.

I’m not the only business in this position, online or off. For these and other reasons many businesses around the world are suffering.

Here’s what I’m doing about it, in the hopes it’ll give you ideas to follow along, survive, and perhaps even thrive.

Read more

Fuck.

Did that word offend you?

Did you react negatively?

Are you now so offended that you’ve unsubscribed and will never return to my blog?

Congratulations. You just gave that word — and all those who use it — much more power than they deserve.

Read more