idj4thinking

A Shove In The Right Direction

People may forget what you’ve done, or what you’ve said to them. They tend not to forget how you make them feel. Knowing this, it’s important to make strong and positive impressions on other people. Doing so is not only instrumentally beneficial to your life, but it also makes you into a better person. Don’tContinue reading “A Shove In The Right Direction”

Places, People, and Personhood

It’s been said many a time that you are the people you spend the most time with. Despite this, many people rebel from the people they’ve grown around. The recipe for person-hood must be more complex than simply you = others. This is why I think it’s important to recognize that the places, environment, andContinue reading “Places, People, and Personhood”

Tactical Empathy

If you don’t know where those oppose you are coming from, you do yourself a disservice. This is why it’s infuriating to see people talk past each other, it doesn’t work. In Getting To Yes, one central idea is to try and understand the dimensions of which a negotiation is taking place. It may beContinue reading “Tactical Empathy”

Following Leadership, Leading Followership

Are you a leader or a follower? The dichotomy between a leader and follower is overblown. To reach greatness, it’s important to embrace both of these roles, and to know when to use both of them. Brian Tracy, a highly successful self-help entrepreneur makes the point that no one is intrinsically better than anyone else.Continue reading “Following Leadership, Leading Followership”

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

A lot of self-help advice is formulated as what to do to succeed. But, most success is based on avoiding attrition. People generally like those they’ve known for a while for no reason other than the fact that a neutral track record is a positive track record. The bar is in hell. The first stepContinue reading “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People”

Write Stuff Down!

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life? Bettering yourself is the result of thousands of tiny choices. Those small choices need to be visible to you, to have sticking power. A choice in the hand is worth two in the bush. Once you decide what to do, you should write it downContinue reading “Write Stuff Down!”

Debate Coach Delivers Harsh Truth

Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life. When I was younger, I believed that because I was a strong analytical thinker, I’d be unstoppable in debate and the rest of life. My beliefs didn’t match reality. Not only was I mediocre at debate, but I was unfriendly, and aContinue reading “Debate Coach Delivers Harsh Truth”

The Freedom To Be Disliked

What does freedom mean to you? I remember viscerally when one person who I called a friend at the time told me how I had to think about his religion and belief system. I told him in no uncertain terms that I have the ability to make my own judgements about ideas, and while IContinue reading “The Freedom To Be Disliked”

🚨Public intellectual assessment time!🚨

What public figure do you disagree with the most? I’m not naming names. When you try to determine which public figures are credible, it’s important to understand generally how they get to conclusions, how transparent their process is, and whether their track record holds up. For instance, if it’s hard to follow a train ofContinue reading “🚨Public intellectual assessment time!🚨”

All Habits Start Small

The idea that someone wakes up one day, and conquers the world, vanquishing anyone in his way is a delusion fed to us by Hollywood. It’s dramatic, high-stakes, and consistently not based in reality. Instead, successful habits are built gradually over time, step by step. The first step to building a habit is to haveContinue reading “All Habits Start Small”