We all have been a victim of something at one or another point in our lives. Those situations can widely range in scale from an atrocity such as rape to being affected by a questionable change in the workplace. This post particularly addresses that latter piece and purposefully does not seek to put down great atrocities at all. (I hate having to begin posts that way because I hope you'd naturally trust me and assume that I have no ill intentions.)

We all know those folks. The people who persistently point out where a comma was misplaced, where a word was misspelled, and where something wasn't properly capitalized. Mistakes happen, and spelling / grammar is definitely important. But when a person takes it upon themselves to start correcting these minor mistakes, there is a much deeper problem going on.

A few posts back, I noted that we should focus on big things because we become preoccupied with the details of the goals we set for ourselves. So if you set the goal to lose 20 pounds over 6 months, you'll adopt strategies to make that goal a reality when if you set a goal to lost 100 pounds over 6 months, you'll adopt strategies to make that goal a reality. The time doesn't change, nor does the mentality. I'm currently reading through Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck  and learned about a concept called Parkinson's Law. Parkinson's Law states the following: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Have you ever read something or been told something that hits you so hard that it virtually stops you in your tracks? Unable to write, speak, or even think? My mouthy self has spoken for eight months now on this blog, and not once has something hit me so hard as it did yesterday. The reason I'm able to continuously churn out content is because I believe wholeheartedly that, opinion pieces aside, what I have to say is true. And I've come across a lot of truth in things like books, podcasts, and videos. But there's something I've semi-unknowingly buried. And yesterday, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Back in the day, if you wanted to publish a book, you had to sign a deal with the book publisher. The book publisher would then work with bookstores, who would ultimately sell the book to the consumer. That book would get lost in a sea of other books, so the probability of somebody finding the book you wrote was really, really low. Even if they did discover your book, the bookstore and book publisher gets a cut of that revenue before you do. That's all different now.

I've gotten back into Ramit Sethi's work in a big way, and I've found a lot of his stuff has complemented previous posts on this blog quite nicely. I'm specifically referring to decision fatigue. As a very quick reminder, decision fatigue is the idea that we make poorer and poorer decisions as the day goes on because our brains just aren't wired that way. In an Art of Charm podcast featuring Ramit Sethi, host Jordan Harbinger questions Ramit on that balance between creativity and basically re-using concepts tested by other people. Ramit was all for re-using tested concepts. Why? Because he discerned that cognitive thinking should be reserved for times when creativity is needed, and creativity isn't needed in every aspect.

Education is a tricky thing. Many jobs require you to learn things prior to you getting on the job, but sometimes, that education is more valued in retrospect. What is and what isn't valuable gets especially lost in four year degrees that mandate something like 130 credit hours for graduation. A college isn't going to tell you, "These classes are important, and these classes... not so much." To be fair to colleges, value is a subjective thing. What I might have found valuable might be different to somebody else. This is especially true for a more general major like mine, Business Administration. I took courses in macroeconomics, marketing, communications, finance, accounting, HR management, and more. If you go ask my fellow graduates which courses they valued the most, I bet every one of them would give you different answers. Anyway, I was reflecting back on my own undergraduate education and thinking about the classes I wish I could go retake. It's not that I...