Most people lie occasionally. The lies are often trivial and essentially inconsequential – such as pretending to like a tasteless gift. But in other contexts, deception is more serious and can have harmful effects on criminal justice. From a societal perspective, such lying is better detected than ignored and tolerated. Unfortunately, it is difficult to detect lies accurately. Lie detectors, such as polygraphs, which work by measuring the level of anxiety in a subject while they answer questions, are considered “theoretically weak” and of dubious reliability. This is because, as any traveler who has been questioned by customs officials knows,…
Wondering how to get more people to watch your YouTube videos? Looking for a strategy you can model? To explore how to get more views on your YouTube videos, I interview Justin Brown on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Justin is a YouTube expert and video strategist who helps businesses grow an audience and scale […]
Our life is filled with projects. We invest time, effort or money, and perhaps we get a result.
It’s useful to have a portfolio of projects, because not all of them are going to work.
The 4 x 4 grid looks like this:
It might be simple, but it’s not always easy. Success doesn’t always mean money, it just means that you got what you were hoping for. And while every project fits into one of the four quadrants, there’s no right answer for any given person or any given moment..
Here are some of the traps that are worth avoiding:
All your eggs are in a low-chance basket. You’re taking a wild gamble, and it’s your dream. And you want a shortcut. The problem, of course, is that this isn’t a resilient long-term plan. Someone has to win the lottery tomorrow, but alas, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be you.
You’re hoping to come out ahead by doing something that depends on scarcity, but you’re doing it in the top right quadrant. The problem is, so is everyone else. All of a sudden, your odds just went down. It’s easy to start an Insta account, but once everyone does it, the chances of becoming a top .01% traffic generating influencer are close to zero.
You focus on only high-probability, low-value successes, even if the outcomes are not really worth your time. Getting a $3 an hour gig on a freelance site is easy, but it might not be worth it.
On the other hand, consider a portfolio of projects. Some of them have a very high likelihood of working out, and each one of these outcomes is pleasant, if not game-changing. Play often enough, though, and your persistent generosity will pay off.
And then, mix into that some of the moonshot projects that most people are afraid to take on. They’re afraid because they have equated “low chance of success” with “risky.” They’re not the same. Risky implies that failure will cost a lot. It won’t. You can thrive with this strategy because you have a portfolio, and because you realize that “unlikely” is not the same as “not worth trying.”
The best portfolios are persistent (because patience is a rare skill), they’re generous (so others root for you to succeed) and they build on each other (because then, even the ones that don’t work increase your chances for the next one to work out).
People are increasingly aware of the harm plastic waste causes to wildlife, and many would avoid buying single-use plastics if they could help it. But are the alternatives to plastic much better? Let’s look at one example – fizzy drinks. You might assume that plastic bottles are the least green option, but is that always the case? To find out, we compared five different types of pressurized drinks containers. We tested their environmental impact according to a range of criteria, including how each contributes to climate change and the pollution each produces during manufacture, use and disposal. Here they are,…
When the Williamson family from Dundee lost their mother Sue to a rare cancer named phaeochromocytoma in 2003, they didn’t realize that further devastation was to follow. Of her four children, twins Jennie and James discovered that they also have the faulty gene that cut short their mother’s life. Both twins are affected with inoperable tumors wrapped around vital blood vessels and nerves in their necks. Father Jo decided to appear in a Cancer Research pledge video (below) in memory of his wife and to raise awareness of the important work that cancer researchers do for people like his children.…
While the world is eagerly waiting for COVID-19 vaccines to bring an end to the pandemic, wearing a mask to help prevent viral transmission has become more or less mandatory globally. Though many people embrace mask wearing and adhere to public health advice, some rebel and argue that wearing a mask has been imposed upon them against their will. With mask wearing and social distancing, it’s down to the individual to decide whether or not to comply, yet what influences compliance isn’t straightforward. Demographic factors such as income level, political affiliation, and gender have all been associated with whether people…
Did you know TikTok has a Data Saver feature? When you turn this feature on, the TikTok application will use less cellular data when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi. Specifically, you may see videos at a lower resolution, and they may take longer to load. Our guide will show you how to turn on the…Read More
It’s not uncommon in the tech world for new product concepts to never make it to reality. A sizeable number of ideas never even see the light of day and remain the cosseted secrets of boardrooms around the world. In other cases though, companies are very keen to tell the world before the idea, concept, and prototypes drift off into nothingness and exist only in the annals of history. Today, I want to rearrange the annals and remind you all about a little forgotten gem from Russia: the CV-1 electric car. Supposedly made by weapons maker, Kalashnikov. With an economy…
2020 will go down in history for many dubious distinctions, including retail bankruptcies. There have been more than three dozen bankruptcy filings by national and regional chains as stores were shuttered due to Covid-19, decimating sales for nonessential legacy brick-and-mortar businesses. The number of consumer facing businesses that restructured in court is even larger when…Read More
TLDR: These seven kits are all designed to spark STEM learning and get a kid engaged in science, engineering, robotics, and more. And they’re each now an extra 20 percent off. If you noticed a whole bunch of video games and action figures under the tree this year for the kid in your life, that might mean there was a bit of a hole in the gift-giving this time around. Of course a kid wants to have fun. But are they going to be learning anything while they’re at it? In case your kid’s stash came up a little short…
