The vestigial pattern bias explains why we get trapped by prevailing wisdom. In biology, vestigial structures are ones that have no apparent current function and appear to be left over from a past ancestor. Common examples are the human appendix, the pelvic bone of a snake, and the wings of flightless birds. In business, vestigial…
You might not have heard of MIT professor Gian-Carlo Rota but you should know Rota’s 10 Life Lessons. Rota was an internationally respected mathematician and philosopher, and an influential and admired teacher. He was credited with transforming the field of combinatorial logic into one with a wide range industrial applications – from computers to communications…
Reject the rat race and embrace the parable of the contented fisherman. I’ve lived in Silicon Valley for all of my adult life, whole-heartedly embracing the culture of innovation. I’m repeatedly energized with the amazing people I’ve been able to meet. But I’m not an idealist – as much as I love living here, I…
There are many frequently debated but ultimately unanswerable questions such as leader vs manager and strategy vs execution. One that gets less attention – but is just as important – is the question: rules or standards? In law, the distinction is clear and the choice is somewhat obvious. Rules differentiate legal from illegal behavior, hopefully…
In the 50 years since 1970, the world’s population has doubled while the number of chickens we eat has increased nearly 7-fold, from 11 billion to 74 billion. So, why do we eat so much chicken? According to the National Chicken Council, it started with a mistake in 1923. Like many rural Americans, Cecile Steele…
You should always get the bigger pizza. No, this isn’t some bigger-is-better American standard where size matters more than quality or consistency. It’s not because everyone loves pizza so you might as well get more of it (it’s the glutamate we find so irresistible). And I’m definitely not using the number of slices rule that…
Would you eat an Antarctic toothfish? Probably not. It’s an ugly-looking human-sized fish with an unappetizing sounding name. But chances are you have eaten it. That’s because the seafood industry has mastered the art of rebranding. In the 1970s, American seafood entrepreneur Lee Lantz realized a fish with buttery white flesh and a mild, non-fishy…
The Find The Umbrella parable is likely apocryphal but it’s a useful way to explain why absolute rules in companies can backfire from their intentions. While there are many versions of the story, here’s the one I’ve told: A salesperson flies to meet a client only to find an unexpected severe thunderstorm is drenching the…
If you tell a brazen untruth, is it called a bald-faced lie or a bold-faced lie? 100 years ago, the answer might have been neither, as the phrase barefaced lie was in fashion. Barefaced literally means beardless but implied bold or even brazen, perhaps because it was unacceptable for a man not to have a…
Weather modification, also known as geoengineering, is intentionally altering or controlling the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding, spraying small particles, such as silver iodide, onto clouds in the attempt to increase rain or snow. Weather modification can also have the goal of preventing damaging weather, such as hail or…