I’ve written 1400 posts over 11 years.
In 2011 I published Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds, a collection of 30 of my most provocative essays.
The list below covers my work across many categories. Please subscribe or follow to get good work as it’s published.
Creativity
- How to be Creative: the Short Honest Truth
- Creative Thinking Hacks* (video)
- Why You Get Ideas in The Shower
- How to be a Genius
- How to Pitch an Idea*
- How to Survive Creative Burnout*
- How to run a Brainstorming Meeting
- Idea Killers: Ways to kill ideas and countermeasures
- Ideas vs. Time
- John Cleese On Creativity (with notes)
Philosophy
- The Cult of Busy*
- How to Learn From Your Mistakes*
- How to Be a Free Thinker*
- How to Give and Receive Criticism*
- Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts*
- How to Stay Motivated*
- Attention and Sex*
- How to Make a Difference*
- Hating vs. Loving*
- The Three Piles of Life
- Why It’s OK to Be Obvious
- How to Be Good At Anything
- Should You Always Trust Your Gut? (NO)
- How to Discuss Politics with Friends
Innovation
- Good beats “Innovative” nearly every time
- Innovation vs. Improvement: How do you know what you have?
- Stop Saying Innovation / Why Jargon Feeds on Lazy Minds
- Where do Your Ideas Die?
- How to Diagnose Creative Failures
- How to Innovate Right Now
- The 5 Best Books on Innovation EVER
- Inside Pixar’s Leadership
- The Simple Plan: My speech at The Economist
- 9 Ways to Understand How Ideas Spread
- The Idea Approval Index
- The Secret About Innovation Secrets
Writing
- How to Write a Book – the short honest truth
- How to Write a Book, part 2
- Is Your Book Idea Good? Yes, I promise
- On Insecurity and Writing
- Why you Fail at Writing
- Writing Hacks Part 1: Starting
- How to write 1000 words (video)
- How to Find Your Voice
- Confessions of a Self Published Author
- How to Start Writing a Book
Working Life
- How to survive a bad manager
- Why You Must Lead or Follow*
- Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas*
- Ten Reasons Managers Become Great
- Ten Reasons Managers Become Assholes
- Advice for New Managers
- How to Manage Smart People
- How to Convince Anyone of Anything
- An Open Letter to Micromanagers
- How to Call Bullshit on a Guru
- Why Do Big Companies Suck?
- How to Keep Your Mouth Shut
- Experience is Overrated
Interface Design / Making Software
- The Myth of Optimal Design
- The Myth of Discoverability
- The Top Mistakes UX Designers Make
- Why Software Sucks
- How to Run a Design Critique
- 5 Dangerous Ideas for Designers
- Software is Not Epic
- The Future of UI Will Be Boring
- Why Ease of Use Doesn’t Happen
- Asshole Driven Development
Project Management
- Why Project Managers Get No Respect
- Are You a Leader or A Tracker?
- How To Fix A Team
- How to Make Things Happen
- What To Do When Things Go Wrong
- How to Stop Over-communication
- How To Start Meetings on Time
Public Speaking
- How to Prepare: A Checklist for Great Talks
- How to Fix Boring Lectures
- How to be Passionate
- The Attack of the Butterflies (how to overcome fear)
- An Open Letter to Speakers
- An Open Letter to Conference Organizers
- How to Give a Perfect Demo
- How To Speak to A Bored Audience
- Why Panel Sessions Suck and How to Fix Them
- How to Get Paid to Speak
- The Myth of the Tough Crowd
Posts marked with * appear in Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds.
Did I miss a post you think belongs here? Leave a comment.
FYI, “An Open Letter to Micromanagers” link is not working.
Thanks Fabio. Fixed now.
Hello Scott,
Sorry Cant remember my comment , hope my comments didnt offend you, cant remember leaving one . ,memory must be going with age
Jane Owens