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The Skills That Actually Matter in the Age of AI
Perishable skills decay. Non-perishable skills compound. Here's the framework I use to figure out which is which — and the 6 skills I'm betting on.
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learning articles
56 articles matching this filter.
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Best Books for Building a Better Life (My Shortlist)
A good life isn't built from hacks or breakthroughs. It's built from the ideas you keep returning to. These are the books that shaped how I think about health, wealth, and wisdom.
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Ship 30 for 30 Review (2023)
My review of the 5-week, cohort-based writing course Ship 30 for 30, which I participated in four times.
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24 Things I Do to Maximize My Productivity
I've tried every productivity tip and tool that I could over the years. This post is a list of the most impactful habits I've developed, those that I've found most valuable and have stuck with me. These are habits anyone can adopt to get more done and make the most of their time.
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Growing the Startup Ecosystem in Your City
Every city would love to have a thriving tech ecosystem. But how do you build one? Where do you start? Here are some of my ideas.
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What is Cognitive Bias?
Cognitive biases affect us all, every day. They change how we think and how we make decisions, yet most people don’t know they exist. Learn what they are and why they’re important for clear thinking.
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Why I Switched From Squarespace to Webflow
I switched from Squarespace to Webflow last year, after seeing a big drop in my traffic. Here's why.
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How I'm Getting Better at Golf
Golf has become one of my favourite sports as of late, and in this post I break down how I'm going about improving my game.
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Find Solutions, Not Problems
Pointing out problems is easy. But we all have a choice to make: do we want to be critics, or optimists?
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Valuing Time
We are terrible at managing our time. Here are two techniques I've found useful for helping understand the value of time.
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What This Blog Is About
This blog is about living a better life. It took me almost 5 years of writing to come to that conclusion. This post describes why.
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How to Make Mistakes
We all make mistakes—but how we deal with them has a dramatic impact on our lives. Learn the mindset shift that transforms errors from setbacks into stepping stones for growth.
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My 2020 Annual Review
My 2020 annual review covering what went well, what didn't, and the biggest lessons learned—a framework for honest self-assessment and planning ahead.
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Why You Should Work Transparently
Working in view of others is uncomfortable for everyone. But working transparently is by far the fastest way to improve and produce a great product. This post explores why you should be working transparently.
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Advice for Those Graduating College
I've learned far more in the years since I've graduated than I did while at school. Here's my advice for those finishing university or college.
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What Makes a Great Product Manager?
What makes a great product manager? This list of attributes is extensive, but all are important to being a great PM.
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How to Pack Light for Work or Adventure Travel
Packing light makes everything easier, simpler, and more fun. Find out exactly what I pack to keep things light when I travel for both work and pleasure.
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How to Take Book Notes
This post tells you how to take book notes in an easy process designed to extract the most important information from the books you read, letting you search it, retain it, and use it in the future. Includes screenshots from Kindle and iBook reading applications to make the process clear.
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My Morning Routine - 7 Things to Win the Day
Details of my morning routine, which includes 7 things I do to win the day, as well as my tips for creating your own morning routine.
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Obstacles Are Opportunities
We all face obstacles. Some–like a pandemic–are larger than others. What doesn’t have to change is our response to them. Will you view it as an obstacle? Or an opportunity?
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Techstars Boston Week 10 - Acquisition
Customer acquisition is usually the foremost topic on a founder's mind. This week was full of workshops, focused on various aspects of this topic. We also heard one of the most powerful Founder Stories of the program.
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Techstars Boston Week 4 - Efficiency
Sales and efficiency were the key topics this week, with a workshop focused on sales, and some insights from the Founder Story.
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No, Coronavirus Probably Won't Kill You–Yes, You Should Still Prepare
Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has been sweeping the world. Here are my recommendations for preparation and why I believe it’s important.
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How to Balance Ambition & Happiness
Happiness is a skill that can be improved, and it is possible to be both wildly ambitious, yet happy with your day-to-day progress. This post talks about strategies for accomplishing both.
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Techstars Boston Week 3 - Sales are King
Lessons learned from Week 3 at Techstars Boston. This week the focus was sales, on which all businesses are built.
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The 3-Tier Buying Model
In this post, I posit there are three tiers for most goods: cheap, luxury and middle. The value is typically found in the middle, and while there are some good products in the other tiers, you must be careful.
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The Top 10 Books I Read in 2018
The ten books that most impacted my thinking in 2018—covering strategy, psychology, habits, and personal development, with key takeaways from each.
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Techstars NYC Week 4 - Conference Tips
I spent most of Week 4 in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, attending the NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers conference which happens once every year. In theory, these are exactly the people we want to be talking to, learning from, and eventually helping, so it was a great opportunity.
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How to Study in College
Learn about preparation and strategies for studying efficiently and succeeding in university/college.
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How to Take Notes in College
Learn how to take effective notes in college/university, with tips on what parts of the lecture to pay attention to, specific products, and the system I used to keep track of tasks.
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Inversion - How to Succeed by Avoiding Mistakes
Inversion is a powerful concept that charts the path to success by looking at the opposite - the things guaranteed to make you fail. Understanding this mental model will help you solve problems throughout life.
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Mental Models: Your Decision-Making Superpower
Mental models exist to help us understand how the world works. There are thousands of mental models from many different disciplines. Mastering the most important will make you a powerful thinker.
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My First 3 Months at Unito
Reflections on my first 3 months at Unito, a Montreal-based tech startup—lessons on joining a growing company, product development, and startup culture.
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Techstars NYC Week 3 - Mentor Madness & Customer Acquisition
Mentor Madness is an interesting time – you repeatedly get questioned, given opinions, and you usually end the week feeling as if you have no idea what you’re doing.
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What is Confirmation Bias?
Confirmation bias affects us all, every day. Do you know where it occurs in your own life? Do you know how to reduce the effects? This post will teach you to identify and counter confirmation bias throughout your life.
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Making the Most of College
This fall, my two brothers are both applying to college (used interchangeably with university throughout). Both are in different situations, and separated by three years; they’re likely going to have very different experiences. But the fact that both are going to be heading off to university for at least the next four years prompted me to reflect on my time at university, and what I’d do differently if I had to do it again.
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The Growth Process (for Startups)
Expanding upon the growth framework I introduced in the last post, I describe in detail how I think about growth, and the steps I go through when working on growth experiments.
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Just-in-Case vs. Just-in-Time Learning
Just-in-case learning is what we’re taught in school. But just-in-case learning is vastly more efficient. Learn when and why you should use each.
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10 Things I Do to Sleep Better
Good sleep has a huge impact on our lives, and most of us spend around a third of our lives sleeping. Don’t you want the best sleep you can get? Here are 10 things I do to get better sleep.
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Awair 2nd Edition Home Air Quality Monitor Review
A review of the Awair 2nd Edition air quality monitor. I got one because I wanted more information on my environment and to improve my sleep. Turns out, it’s useful for more than that.
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How 25+ Cognitive Biases Influence Your Decisions
Cognitive biases affect the decisions we make every day. Understanding 25 of the most common biases will help you improve your thinking and decision-making in business, relationships, and more.
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Extreme Ownership: Taking Responsibility to Improve
Learn how the concept of Extreme Ownership can help you overcome self-justification and cognitive dissonance to take responsibility and improve faster.
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How to Form Good Habits (and Break Bad Ones)
Forming new habits is tough–most of us fail when we try. But creating good habits is worth the effort. This post provides a detailed guide on how to form good habits and break bad ones.
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The Jocko Willink Workout Advice That Changed My Habits
Learn about the Jocko Willink workout advice that has changed my habits, helping me stick to things like scheduled workouts.
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Techstars Boston Week 7 - Fundraising
Lessons from Week 7 of Techstars Boston focusing on fundraising strategy, cap table structure, and how to approach early-stage investors with confidence.
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Why You Should be Buying Solar for Your Home (2018 Update)
Solar prices have dropped, new incentives are available, and it makes more sense to install solar than ever. Just how much sense? In this post I examine the payback period of installing solar panels in the Canadian climate, and provide tools to calculate the cost for your own situation and location.
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20 Rules to Make Travel Better (For You and Others)
Traveling can be stressful. After spending a lot of time traveling, here is my list of 20 things you can do to make your life, and the life of those around you, easier.
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Camping in Scotland
Video, itinerary and details from my recent trip hiking and camping in Scotland with my two brothers.
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Fighting Anxiety – How to Cope When Feeling Overwhelmed
Feeling anxious and overwhelmed happens to everyone at some point. This article outlines the three principles I return to when I feel overwhelmed, and the strategies I use to truly internalize the principles.
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How to Communicate Effectively
Effective communication is important for every aspect of life. Here are two communication techniques I’ve learned that have proven to be exceptionally useful.
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How to Read a Book
Learning and applying knowledge from books doesn’t happen automatically. This article outlines how to make the most of the books you read.
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Lean Systems - My Next Project
I've joined a new startup called Lean Systems (as of September)! I'm super excited about the project, in which I'm now a cofounder, and the last few months since joining have been awesome. I wanted to share a bit about the company, as well as my thought process in selecting a new challenge following my time as an Associate with Techstars Boston (Spring 2016).
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Patrick Collison on Decision Making
Patrick Collison, cofounder and CEO of Stripe, is widely admired in tech circles. This article summarizes his decision making tips and process, as told on The Tim Ferriss Show and The Knowledge Project podcasts.
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The Complete Guide to Personality Tests
Find out which personality tests you should use to figure out your strengths and weaknesses, essential knowledge for success both personally and professionally.
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Techstars NYC Week 8 - Investor Pitches
The alternate format to Demo Day continued this week, and in preparation for Investor Preview in Week 9, we were preparing to record investor pitches. I was reminded how difficult and time-consuming it is to prepare a great company pitch, and how difficult it is to pitch in front of a camera.
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You Must Tell Yourself the Truth
Telling yourself the truth may seem trivial in situations like casual golf games. But it may be more important than you think. Learning to see the truth is a fundamental life skill. This post explains why.