Perfectly Awesome

A few months ago, I wrote about things that look like work, but aren't. As I paid more attention to founders doing these things, I started thinking about why they were happening. I realized that...

On his way to be sworn in as the most powerful man in the world, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to…

Comparing 30,000 years of human history, researchers found that surviving famine, war or climate change helps groups recover more quickly from future shocks.

Imagine two friends, Steve and Fred, chatting at a New Year’s party. Both of them resolve to abstain from alcohol for January, and attend the gym regularly. They shake on it. They don’t want to let each other down, and they both fulfill their commitments. Afterward, Steve keeps up his routine, and Fred soon drifts back to too much beer

Jia Jiang adventures boldly into a territory so many of us fear: rejection. By seeking out rejection for 100 days -- from asking a stranger to borrow $100 to requesting a "burger refill" at a restaurant -- Jiang desensitized himself to the pain and shame that rejection often brings and, in the process, discovered that simply asking for what you want can open up possibilities where you expect to find dead ends. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

On a supposedly difficult thing

Success in nature and culture depends just as much on timing as it does on brilliance.

American culture celebrates those who persevere in the face of adversity. So how do we know when to walk away from something that’s not working? Today, we kick off our new “Success 2.0” series with economist John List. He says in every domain of our lives, it’s important to know when to pivot to something new.

If you want to get anything done, there are two basic ways to get yourself to do it. The first, more popular and devastatingly wrong option is to try to motivate yourself. The second, somewhat unpo…

And grit is not always a virtue.

Get the best insights into the latest trends and all things human insight, CX, UX , product, marketing and research on our blog.

Navy SEAL platoon leader James Waters explains what keeps elite operators going and how you can apply this type of grit to your own challenges.

There's an increasing amount of talk around failure and the fear of it, but it's largely missing the point. Here's why

Don't set goals. Passion is bullshit. Mediocre skills are valuable. These are just a few of the unexpected truths you'll discover in Scott Adams' new book. Here are 10 more takeaways.

Sliced bread: the greatest thing since...sliced bread.

“The absolute certainty that nobody was going to care about, read or buy Kitchen Confidential was what allowed me to write it. I didn’t have to think about what people expected. I didn’t car…

Many entrepreneurs are naturally optimistic and discouraging pessimistic thinking, but the clever use of constructive pessimism is key to success

Five principles on consistency and sustainable progress, all backed by research and practice.

Failure sucks. Nobody wants to fail. But in the start-up world, most people are doing just that. I'm not sure I've read much about "how" to fail, since failure is so depressing and negative. But I'm...

Born nearly two thousand years before Darwin and Freud, Epictetus seems to have anticipated a way out of their prisons.

By Leo Babauta There are two extremely common obstacles that get in the way of people succeeding at habit change: Messing up on the habit and then quitting. Not starting because the habit change seems to hard or daunting. Have you faced these problems? The answer is almost certainly yes, because pretty much all of […]

I landed on a documentary about a guy who had a headache for years and never had a check-up. They found out later he had a brain tumor.

Ditch the tough talk, it won’t help. Instead cultivate your mental flexibility so you can handle whatever comes your way

When I first started working on Typesense six years ago, I set myself a simple rule: I shall write some code everyday before or after work. That’s it. No deadlines, no quarterly goals, no milestones. I did not have a choice really — I was about to get married and was already working full-time in a demanding role. As you can imagine, building a search engine from scratch is not a trivial undertaking, so that was my way of not having to deal with additional stress.

For all of its other moving parts, ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ relies on teasing out the part of a hustle that I am most fascinated by in real life.

We all want to be better than we are today.  And that often requires pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone, even when you don’t feel like it. It requires getting back up and trying again and again when you fail. It requires sticking with a path long enough to see it through.  In short, becoming […]

The military's toughest training challenges have a lot in common with outdoor sufferfests like the Barkley Marathons and the Leadville Trail 100: you have to be fit and motivated to make the starting line, but your mind and spirit are what carry you to the end. A Ranger graduate breaks down an ordeal that shapes some of the nation's finest soldiers.

Steamboat Willie put Walt Disney on the map as an animator.

Being able to sustain focus is a key to success in work and study. Here's how you can increase your mental stamina with these five strategies.

The experience was surreal and taught me a lot about the world, in the way that only personal experience in a difficult task can.

You didn’t think this was one of those fairytales where the kid gets some pep talk, and everything changes right? It REALLY isn’t that.

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” — Oscar Wilde

After I published test && commit || revert, I got a variety of responses on Twitter and on Hacker News. The Twitter comments were mostly…