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There’s a parable for upstream thinking and it goes a little like this: Two friends are sitting by a river when suddenly they see a child drowning. They react immediately, diving in and hauling the child to safety. Just then another struggling child appears, so back in they jump to repeat the rescue. Then another child appears, and another, and another… Suddenly one of the friends jumps out and runs off. The other friend keeps working away, rescuing child after child and gett

“It’s better to ask for forgiveness than seek permission.” It’s an axiom that was popularised by Grace Hopper. How do you get into a university you're barred from? Grace Hopper was born in New York in 1906. She wanted to go to university and study mathematics. It was a very unusual option for women at the time. “I loved mathematics all the way through school, especially geometry. I used to draw pretty pictures with it. It’s not really unusual for a woman to have an interest i

Infinite Thinking In 1868, after the death of his father, 14-year-old George Eastman was forced to leave school and find work as a messenger boy. In his early twenties, now working as a bank clerk and planning a vacation, he purchased a photographic outfit to record the trip, which he described as "a pack-horse load.” He quickly became passionate about photography, fascinated with the complex chemical processes involved and experimenting with making the wet film plates used a

Geoffrey Boycott was a cricketer who played 108 test matches (the five day game) for England from 1962 to 1986. By the end of his England career he’d amassed a record number of runs for an England player. He was England's opening batsmen - possibly the hardest role in cricket. His job was to be the anchor of the team, making sure that the team got a good start by facing fresh bowlers and the new ball, with the aim of staying at bat for as long as possible. Boycott had staying

On the 5th January 1922 at the age of 47, legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack. He died during his fourth, and for obvious reasons, final expedition. In the hours before his death the expedition's doctor, Alexander Macklin had advised him to calm down and "lead a more regular life”, to which Shackleton answered, "You are always wanting me to give up things, what is it I ought to give up?" and Macklin replied, "Chiefly alcohol, Boss." Shackleton’s death

I had dinner with a group of founders and business leaders. The person sat on my left was a drummer in a ska band. The person sat on my right played keyboards in a Norwegian wedding band. And, back when blogs were a thing, I ran the third largest snowboard blog in the world, and I continue to write posts like these today. We all had creative hobbies outside of our jobs. Do creative hobbies help? “If you’re gonna make connections which are innovative, you have to not have the

The Philadelphia 76ers were on a terrible run of form. It was the 1972-73 NBA basketball season, they'd lost six games in a row and were busy losing again. The coach Roy Rubin knew he had to make a change. One of his players that night was the notoriously hard playing defensive forward John Q Trapp. Trapp had joined the team at the start of the season and came in with a bad reputation. During his recruitment the 76ers assistant coach warned that he was “absolutely uncoachab

Darwin was not born a genius. In his book, Letters to a Young Scientist , the Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson argued that Darwin probably had an IQ in the 130 range. He was not a genius student. He dropped out of medical school, before completing a Bachelor of Arts degree. In his letters he looked back at his natural abilities saying, “I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men … my power to follow a long and purely abstract tra

If you want to try to learn art where do you start? Where I live there are two options for starter classes: watercolour painting or life...

I’m a father of two young girls. Which means I’m constantly fielding questions. The average four-year-old British girl asks their mum 390...

We hired a talented young account manager. They had valuable sector experience and needed to learn the account manager role. They were...

The history books tell us that Karl Benz was inventor of the car. He was the first person to build a practical car and the first to get a...

Lloyd Fredendall was a young officer when the US entered WW1. He spent the war behind the lines building an excellent reputation as a trainer and administrator. Over the next two decades he continued to serve in training roles, then in a succession of Washington-based posts, surrounded by the key US Army leaders. He built a great reputation as a likeable, capable and ambitious leader. General Marshall described him as "one of the best" and said, "I like that man; you can se

Between 2009 and 2011, a group of researchers surveyed 6,000 sales reps. They were trying to understand what skills, behaviours and...

“If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” - Tom Peters In January 1955 Fortune magazine published their first 500 list,...

I took my family to a restaurant a few weeks ago. As we were seated, the waiter handed us some free taster glass of craft lemonade. It...

About a year into my fledgling career I was fired. I worked for an advertising network, a business that buys space on websites to bundle...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has 55 direct reports! With that many people to manage, and the world's third most valuable company to run, it...

Tom Brady is the most successful American Football quarterback in history. He's won 7 Super Bowl championships. Bill Belichick is one of...

If you’ve ever had a run-in with a badly designed swing door, where you’re not sure if you should be pushing or pulling - you’ve encountered a Norman Door.