I recently took up drumming. Again. One of the first things you realize, other than you suck, is that you’re gripping the sticks too hard. A tight grip denies certain degrees of freedom, limits subtlety, and ups the fatigue factor. Plus you give up the gift of bounce the drum heads happily offer. It’s like you’re constantly paying interest vs....

In my experience, a key skill to develop is the ability to separate one thing from another. To prevent the small from becoming the all. Take a policy, for example. Could be a government, or a school, or a home owner’s association, or something at work. Whatever it is, you don’t like it. You don’t agree, you don’t like the decision maker, you don’t...

I’ve been doing this for 25 years, so I’ll often be asked why I’m still in it and how I stay motivated. It ain’t the money, as I’ve been fortunate enough to make more than I’ll ever be able to spend. I enjoy the work and we have a great crew, each a true pleasure to work with. I remain filled with ideas. So that’s part of it. But it’s more that...

Osmo Wiio was a Finnish researcher of human communication. His laws of communication are the human communications equivalent of Murphy’s Laws. Wiio's laws state... If communication can fail, it will.If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm.There is always somebody who knows...

Some of the most rewarding features to add to products are ones that don’t increase surface area, but increase depth. This is how you continue to make a product a whole lot better without it feeling like it got a whole lot bigger. Basecamp’s new References feature is a great example of this. Video + write-up: https://updates.37signals.com/post/new-in-basecamp-references...

I can fake enough. I can fake a lot. But I’ve noticed there’s one thing in particular I can’t fake: Motivation. And in the end, at least for me, it all comes down to motivation. I may have the talent, I may know the tricks, I may be able to go through the motions. But if I deeply don’t want to do it, it won’t be good. Simple as that. It might...