

Aristotle's Three Musketeers, or, A Swiftly Tipping Stool
What might the Greek philosopher and Jack-of-all-trades Aristotle think of the latest findings in neuroscience? How would his notion of...


Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Secret to Will-Power
If you run up a long steep incline, it doesn’t take very long before you burn through the energy stored in your muscles and find your...


The Final Word on Word-of-Mouth
Let’s start at the location where every single sale begins. I’m talking, of course, about a customer’s brain. Inside each customer’s...


The Robert Frost Quandary, or How Irrational Thinking Might Save Your Life
You stumble out of the wilderness, having had no contact with humans for at least ten days. You’re weak from hunger and fatigue and you...


The Morality Lag: Smartphones and Dumb Feelings
Your smartphone has more computing power than the computer that took Neil Armstrong and crew to the moon. And this is only one of the...


How to Run Your Company Like Da Vinci
It's hard to overestimate the power of whole-brain thinking. Sometimes defined as "systems thinking", it occurs when your creative right...


Why your brain is no match for Vegas
Thanks to modern jet travel, I am currently high above the American Great Plains, winging my way to Las Vegas tonight to speak at a...


The D'Oh Effect, the Heath Brothers, and the Secrets to Good Decision-Making
Buyer's remorse is a terrible thing. It occurs when you have the realization that you've bought the wrong thing and now you can't return...


Gaming the memory: the 'Peak-end' Rule
How do you decide on whether to go back to the same restaurant again, buy the same breakfast cereal, or even whether to read this blog...


How Smart are You?
How do we measure intelligence? The ancient Chinese had some of the first tests designed to evaluate a person's smarts: a game called...