I heard about “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depends On It” by Chris Voss when he did a Reddit AMA. Chris Voss was the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator and having the possibility of people dying when he didn’t do a good job motivated him to improve his negotiation skills. The FBI historically tried […]
Business
A Humble Proposal For Future Olympic Games
The Beijing Olympics are set to begin on Friday, July 26, 2024. For every Olympic game, there is a fight by cities and countries around the world to host it. The cities promise extensive municipal improvements along with the construction of appropriate facilities for the various events. Why Would Anyone WANT To Host The Olympics? The […]
Analyzing Opportunity Cost in Entrepreneurial Ventures
A Reddit user asked an interesting question about an analytical method for calculating opportunity cost in a car transaction he made. I felt like the commenters kind of blew it with their suggestions, often only offering “rules of thumb” or general principles in a situation that was quite tractable. What is Opportunity Cost? Opportunity cost is […]
Execution is Everything
One of the big, abstract, philosophical debates is which is more valuable, the inspiration or the execution? Is Google a two-trillion-dollar company because of the clever PageRank algorithm the founders came up with or because of the wise business decisions they’ve been making since? Was Harry Potter a global phenomenon because J.K. Rowling thought of […]
Drone Roof Inspections
A while back, water started coming through the ceiling of one of my rental properties. I talked to a handy friend and he said I needed my roof repaired as there’s nothing else in the attic that could be creating water (no pipes or anything). I called a number of roofers and asked them to come […]
People Don’t Leave Jobs, They Leave Managers
I’ve been interested in retention: why employees stay with or leave an organization. There’s been a recent focus on Silicon Valley misogyny, with Susan Fowler’s poignant blog post leading to shakeups at Uber. A cynic might suggest that the people being fired are a public relation’s sacrifice and that the company has an inherent problem going all the way to […]
How Do “If We Don’t Sell It, We’ll Buy It!” Deals From Real Estate Agents Work?
It seems just about every town has a real estate agent that offers some sort of “I’ll buy your house if it doesn’t sell” deal. It’s natural to wonder how this could work – does the agent have dozens of homes they own? Are they just THAT good? Is it a scam? How It Works […]
The Magic Of Multiple Bids
It’s often a tricky thing when you’re trying to make a purchase for the first time. My wife and I have decided that 17 windows in the duplex that we’re living in need to be updated. It’s a 90-year-old house and we think the windows are original. Every time I look into windows they always […]
Using Money To Understand The Publishing Industry
A woman recently posted in a Facebook authors’ group I’m a part of that she was rejected after submitting her series to a publisher. She wrote, “It was an audiobook company who said my sales aren’t enough for them to be successful. What stung the most was when she said, ‘you just released your fifth […]
Professional Dungeon Masters
There’s been a new trend in role-playing games (RPG): professional dungeon masters, who are people that run role-playing games for money. With RPGs, the dungeon master (DM) does quite a bit more work than the other players. They need to understand the system better than anyone else playing, design the adventure, keep track of the […]