The Sunday Summary: Complements, conferences, pointing and Paperlike www.mickmel.com/the-sunday-s...

Learn to lose “If you could tell parents what the one thing is that is most important to teach their kids about success, what would it be?” “I would teach them how to lose” www.mickmel.com/learn-to-lose/

It’s so hard to point “A 21st century academic cites a passage from a history of modern politics but cannot refer to the page number since he is reading a commercially published electronic book or a PDF behind a paywall.” www.mickmel.com/its-so-hard-...

Notes from “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi “Today’s most valuable currency is social capital, defined as the information, expertise, trust, and total value that exist in the relationships you have and social networks to which you belong.” www.mickmel.com/notes-from-n...

AI is getting close to solving big problems, but the gulf is very frustrating I’m seeing more cases where AI can produce something that is almost what is needed, but it turns out to be way off. www.mickmel.com/ai-is-gettin...

The marketing conference that I’d like to attend If you're in the Atlanta area, join us for the first ever Brighter Web marketing conference on October 9. www.mickmel.com/the-marketin...

Commoditize your complement If your company is based on another technology, it’s wise to do your best to help that other technology grow. www.mickmel.com/commoditize-...

The Sunday Summary: Fuzzy baskets, distractions, and wandering minds www.mickmel.com/the-sunday-s...

They would trade places with you in a heartbeat The world is far from perfect, but any of your ancestors would trade places in a heartbeat to live today instead of any time in the past. www.mickmel.com/they-would-t...

Keep your mind wandering “When you are reading there’s something beautiful about the fact that you can pause and let your mind wander for a bit, and then come back to the exact moment where you stopped reading, the text can almost kind of shift and change for you.” www.mickmel.com/keep-your-mi...

Notes from “Selling the Invisible” by Harry Beckwith There is a unique challenge when it comes trying to market services – things you can’t see, touch, or try before buying. Unlike products, services are essentially promises that someone will do something for you. www.mickmel.com/notes-from-s...

What’s distracting you – notifications or boredom? We all know that notifications can be a major problem on our mobile devices, but our inability to sit with boredom is equally problematic. www.mickmel.com/whats-distra...

The Reverse Flynn Effect may only get worse “A really significant feature of books is that if you make a case in print, you have to make it logically add up. You can’t just assert things in the way you can on TikTok or on YouTube…” www.mickmel.com/the-reverse-...

A fuzzy basket of priorities "If something is your number one priority, then you will do it. If you’ve got a fuzzy basket of ten or fifteen different priorities, you’re going to end up getting none of them." www.mickmel.com/a-fuzzy-bask...

The Sunday Summary: ALL CAPS, knowing people, and lots about schools and AI www.mickmel.com/the-sunday-s...

Humble, wise, and woke I’ve always struggled a bit with defining my personal values, because every value seems like one worth reaching for. Still, most exercises do a good job of forcing you to narrow things down and I’ve worked to get mine down to three. www.mickmel.com/humble-wise-...

Should schools pay for AI tools for their students? Increasing I think the answer is “yes”, but I suspect it’ll be a while before we see that on a widespread basis. www.mickmel.com/should-schoo...

Notes from “How to Know a Person” by David Brooks www.mickmel.com/notes-from-h...

Maybe he’s right "Jay Chiat carries a note in his pocket. The note reminds him that whenever he is in an argument he should remember the note’s three words: Maybe he’s right." www.mickmel.com/maybe-hes-ri...

How should high schools and colleges handle AI? “Another school year is beginning—which means another year of AI-written essays, AI-completed problem sets, and, for teachers, AI-generated curricula.“ www.mickmel.com/how-should-h...

ALL CAPS LOWERS COMPREHENSION Not only does writing in all caps lower comprehension, even Writing Everything In Title Case can make things worse too. www.mickmel.com/all-caps-low...

The Sunday Summary: Small hurdles, big minutes, and lingering conversations www.mickmel.com/the-sunday-s...

70% of the information is enough "Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow." www.mickmel.com/70-of-the-in...

Lingering with good conversation “I know a couple who treasure friends who are what they call “lingerable.” They are the sort of people you want to linger with at the table after a meal or in chairs outside by the pool, to let things flow.” www.mickmel.com/lingering-wi...

“The unsettling feeling that your device is spying on you is real — but the culprit isn't a secret microphone. It's the data broker industry," Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said. www.cnet.com/tech/service...

Notes from “Crucial Conversations” by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory www.mickmel.com/notes-from-c...

The minutes add up “Little streams make big rivers, which means that a single minute lost each hour adds up to eight in a day. If the factory employs 20,000 workers, that is eight hundred thousand hours in the year, the equivalent of 333 years of work.” www.mickmel.com/the-minutes-...

Small hurdles can lead to great things A simple change like requiring prescription medicine to be sold in blister packs rather than bottles, helps to reduce tampering, suicide, and accidental poisoning. www.mickmel.com/small-hurdle...

Address yourself in the third person "People who address themselves in the second or even the third person have less anxiety, give better speeches, complete tasks more efficiently, and communicate more effectively." www.mickmel.com/address-your...

The Sunday Summary: AI bubbles, Smart Brevity, and Bluetooth page turners www.mickmel.com/the-sunday-s...

The four love languages of business It’s kind of amazing how the ideas of how to treat those you love and those you work with are so similar. We’re all humans, after all. www.mickmel.com/the-four-lov...

It’s not about your response time – it’s about your response "That’s why people who are brave enough to take a few seconds before talking win." www.mickmel.com/its-not-abou...

Notes from “Smart Brevity” from Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz “How do you get anyone to pay attention to anything that matters in this mess? Our answer: Adapt to how people consume content—not how you wish they did or they did once upon a time.” www.mickmel.com/notes-from-s...

Slight advantages can stack up huge Over the course of his career, Federer played 1,526 matches and won almost 80% of them. Breaking the matches down into sets, games, and then individual points, what percentage of points do you think we won over his entire career? www.mickmel.com/slight-advan...

Andy Grove didn’t care about Apple, which is why Steve did After Andy told Steve that he "didn't give a shit about Apple", it made Steve realize how much he loved it and cause him to return as interim CEO. www.mickmel.com/andy-grove-d...

Are we in an AI bubble? For the last few weeks, fueled by the weak launch of GPT-5, speculation has risen that we might be in an “AI bubble” that is about to burst. Are we? www.mickmel.com/are-we-in-an...

The Sunday Summary: Simple times, gazing, emotional targeting, and sequential focus www.mickmel.com/the-sunday-s...

Clear thinking versus memorization "To think clearly, understand the basics. If you’re memorizing advanced concepts without being able to re-derive them as needed, you’re lost." www.mickmel.com/clear-thinki...

Sequential focus over fake multitasking "There will always be competing priorities. Instead of trying to maintain an artificial balance, you can use sequential focus to choose one priority at a time and devote all your energy to it." www.mickmel.com/sequential-f...

Notes from “Emotional Targeting” by Talia Wolf “Decision making — especially at the highest levels — isn’t as data-driven or as simple as it might appear.” www.mickmel.com/notes-from-e...

Eyes go where you gaze “We also look to the gaze of others to see where we should be looking. My team and I have found that when we add gaze cues to our website, we can help users find their way around.” www.mickmel.com/eyes-go-wher...

Our ability to pay attention is improving “When we want to focus, we can. Our distraction issues are a matter of motivation, not ability.“ www.mickmel.com/our-ability-...

This is the simple time “In 50 years, all of you will remember this as the simple time. Because technology is undefeated. We’re not going backwards, I promise. Just because some people are going off social media for a month, the robots are coming.” www.mickmel.com/this-is-the-...

The Sunday Summary: Traveling light, eliminating hurry, and who should do the thinking? www.mickmel.com/the-sunday-s...

Don’t be a sharecropper with your content “Facebook and other social platforms seem like a shortcut, because they make it apparently easy to reach new people. But the tradeoff is that you’re a sharecropper. It’s not your land.“ www.mickmel.com/dont-be-a-sh...

You should do the thinking, machines should do the labor Machines are getting good at doing so many things, so let them do the manual labor so that you can do the deep work yourself. www.mickmel.com/you-should-d...

Notes from “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer www.mickmel.com/notes-from-t...

As of today, it's been 3,000,000 minutes since Ohio State has beaten Michigan in football.

Travel Light With the landscape shifting so rapidly, it’s likely that most of us will switch our primary AI tool a few times in the coming years. Moving is a pain, but a bit of prep work can make it a little easier. www.mickmel.com/travel-light/

Let AI increase your creativity You can choose to use AI to remove creativity so you can just float along, or you can use it to enhance the creativity that’s already within you. I think you know which direction I’d suggest you lean. www.mickmel.com/let-ai-incre...