My Eight Favorite Podcasts
I am a heavy podcast listener. It’s a primary source of news, entertainment and education for me. Between daily…
Latest Blog Posts
8 Reasons To Take My Public Speaking Workshop (April in Seattle)
I recently announced a new workshop on public speaking, taught here in Seattle. Here’s why you should sign up:…
iPhone vs. Light Switch: which invention is more impressive?
If you could only pick one, would you rather have power in your home or a working iPhone? We…
Creativity Is Not An Accident
[This is an excerpt from The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to creativity] Many…
My Best Posts of 2015
Best of lists are fascinating things. They have their problems, but they’re a fun way to summarize, review and…
The Problems with ‘Best Of’ Lists
I like “best of lists” as they are fun, convenient and easy to argue about with friends, but beneath…
Holiday Music That Won’t Kill You: A List
One consistent annoyance of the holiday season is the terrible music that comes along with it. It seems stores…
5 Things I Learned From My Amtrak Writer’s Residency
Last month I took a long train ride from Atlanta to Seattle over six days for my Amtrak Writer’s…
Help me plan my Amtrak Writers Residency
I’m honored to be one of the winners of the Amtrak Writer’s Residency. All 24 winners were announced last…
The Advice Paradox
“The ultimate question of any advice, rules, or traditions is, What do you ignore and why? No one can…
Questions For The Next Design Revolution
(I gave the opening comments at a keynote panel on The Next Industrial Design Revolution for IDSA’s Future of…
The Mistakes Of Writing About Company Culture
Recently the New York Times published an article called Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace. It describes…
Designers, Morality and the AK-47
Recently Mike Monteiro wrote about whether the AK-47 is worthy of study for a design student. I agree and…
Live Notes from World Domination Summit 2015
I spoke last year at The World Domination Summit about Saving Your Creative Soul, and had such an excellent…
The Many Mothers of Invention
[This is an excerpt from chapter 3 of the bestseller, The Myths of Innovation] All the clichés about beginnings…
The Four Lies of Storytelling
Recently on The Gist podcast novelist and storytelling coach Matthew Dicks offered his four useful lies of telling true stories. He believes…
We Are All Politicians
Mike Pesca hosts The Gist podcast on Slate, one of my favorite news/opinion shows. He had an excellent piece on…
Giveaway: A Ticket to World Domination Summit 2015
I spoke at WDS 2014 in Portland last year about Saving Your Creative Soul and had an amazing time, which…
Coming Soon: Updated Edition of Ghost of My Father
[Update May, 18 2016: Yes I know, a year has passed. My father died October of last year, more…
My Burnout Update
Thanks to everyone who left a comment or sent me email in response to the previous burnout post. I’m…