During my time in academia, I was appointed the chair of a faculty committee. When I took over as chair, the committee had a decades-old practice of holding meetings every month. Having sat through (more accurately, suffered through) these meetings as a junior committee member, I knew we could cut …
Personal Development
Time isn’t your most scarce resource. This is.
Quick question: Where’s your phone right now? For most people, the answer is “Within arm’s reach.” We’ve become inseparable from our phones. We walk with them, have dinner with them, and even take them into the bathroom to share the most private of moments. They’re the first thing we grab …
The one strategy I use most often
During interviews, I’m often asked, “What’s the one strategy from Think Like a Rocket Scientist that you personally use most often?” It’s called backcasting. For most of us, planning for the future means forecasting. In our businesses, we review the current supply and demand for widgets and extrapolate them into …
The dark underbelly of meditation
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” Megan told her mother on the phone. “I’ll talk to you in ten days.” She then went off to her first silent meditation retreat. For Megan, the retreat would symbolize the turning of a new leaf. She had just gotten over …