Why would intelligent, capable British and French government officials continue to invest in what was clearly a losing proposition for so long? One reason is a very common psychological phenomenon cal...
When we look back on our careers and our lives, would we rather see a long laundry list of accomplishments that don’t really matter or just a few major accomplishments that have real meaning and signi...
When there is a serious lack of clarity about what the team stands for and what their goals and roles are, people experience confusion, stress, and frustration. When there is a high level of clarity,...
We often think of choice as a thing. But a choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but a choice—a choice is an action
We must simply expend a small amount of initial energy to create the routine, and then all that is left to do is follow it.
Una idea muy popular en Silicon Valley es Algo terminado es mejor que algo perfecto.
To harness the courage we need to get on the right path, it pays to reflect on how short life really is and what we want to accomplish in the little time we have left. As poet Mary Oliver wrote: Tell...
This is why an Essentialist takes the time to explore all his options. The extra investment is justified because some things are so much more important that they repay the effort invested in finding t...
The tendency to continue doing something simply because we have always done it is sometimes called the status quo bias. I
The second is the pathetically tiny amount of time we have left of our lives. For me this is not a depressing thought but a thrilling one. It removes fear of choosing the wrong thing. It infuses coura...
The results of this research were startling: when there was a high level of clarity of purpose, the teams and the people on it overwhelmingly thrived. When there was a serious lack of clarity about wh...
The moral of the story: ignoring the reality of trade-offs is a terrible strategy for organisations. It turns out to be a terrible strategy for people as well.
The Nonessentialist operates under the false logic that the more he strives, the more he will achieve, but the reality is, the more we reach for the stars, the harder it is to get ourselves off the gr...
Sunk-cost bias is the tendency to continue to invest time, money, or energy into something we know is a losing proposition simply because we have already incurred, or sunk, a cost that cannot be recou...
Our options may be things, but a choice—a choice is an action. It is not just something we have but something we do.
Making our criteria both selective and explicit affords us a systematic tool for discerning what is essential and filtering out the things that are not.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, is one of them. He says: I’m more alert and I think more clearly. I just feel so much better all day long if I’ve had eight hours.
Essentialists will commit and go big on only the vital few ideas or activities, they explore more options at first to ensure they pick the right one later.
Curiously, and overstating the point in order to make it, the pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure
1) What risks do we face and where? (2) What assets and populations are exposed and to what degree? (3) How vulnerable are they? (4) What financial burden do these risks place on individuals, business...