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Your brain doesn’t output a higher wattage than anybody else’s. Neither does mine. Solving hard problems doesn’t come from intensity. You don’t “think harder” at it. Problems are solved during the approach phase. Like Luke Skywalker dropping bombs in the exhaust vents instead of hammering the deflector shields. We talk about problems as if they need to be cracked. But that sensation of cracking is analogous not to brute force, but to the feeling of a strong resistance followed by complete surrender....

Sometimes to be data driven means to compare and contrast original and variant, to require statistical rigour, to follow testing methodologies and isolate variables. That’s great when there’s a baseline. Sometimes to be data driven something else. It’s a search for the first data point. It’s sampling the tantalising, infinite space of possibility. This requires a different approach. Searching, making, and a different type of testing. It’s the difference between two simple questions:...

Even standing on the shoulders of giants, I’m unlikely to intentionally invent that which has not been invented in all our shared forevers. But I can steal something and tweak it. That’s easy. And given enough practice and volume, sometimes, I make something that looks deceptively new. What a wonderful accident.

… Problem Challenge Opportunity Work is consistent. There will always be more. So is that what we’re here for? How does one sustain a lifetime of hard work, fully aware that no dent will be made in the total mass of work that needs to be done?

If you run a business, you have a potential platform to do something positive in the world. Not an obligation. Just a potential platform. The key to making it work is making sure a dollar invested is at least a dollar gained through better response to direct response marketing efforts. CSR doesn’t work if it’s a a cost center. Make CSR a profit center through great marketing and sales, and prove it....