I used to drop everything to focus on a single project at a time. I would try to do all the tasks as soon as possible, in the hopes of getting it done and out of the way so I could relax. For example, if I had an administrative project, I told myself I’d just […]
The lyrics from a good song will put your feelings into words better than you could have. That’s really the songwriter’s only job. Similarly, the prose from a blog post, article, or book should put your feelings into words better than you could have as well. A good piece of prose should energize you and […]
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a sports commentator. I enjoyed watching sports, and I liked talking, so that sounded like a sweet job. My family gave me a hard reality check: How many people were there on TV that looked like me? How often did such job opportunities open up? What […]
There are enough people who don’t like how software has evolved, don’t need all of the bells and whistles (and don’t want to pay for it), and remember how much simpler software used to be. It’s how I feel about the music app, Doppler. I don’t know the team at Good Enough, but it seems […] The post Good Enough appeared first on Herbert Lui.
When I was a teenager, I spent hours trying to improve my computer’s interface. I can’t tell you how many times I changed my Windows XP interface to try to look like a Mac. When Windows Longhorn was out in beta, I spent many afternoons trying to get it to work too—even partitioning my hard […] The post Teenage years, interfaces, and classic...
Uncertainty is very difficult to live with—borderline painful. I used to think it was best to make a decision and move on, as soon as possible. Don’t look back, either. Flip–flopping was not acceptable. In her book Working Identity, professor Herminia Ibarra explores career transitions. She explains that rushing into a premature decision—to...
In 2019, Jay-Z and his company Roc Nation partnered up with the NFL to advise on the social justice initiative Inspire Change and advise on the Super Bowl halftime show. That year, the Super Bowl drew in 98.2 million viewers. It’s a coveted event for recording artists to play. Before working with Jay-Z, the NFL […] The post Sometimes, you just...
This is worth being curious about. But for starters, you need to be mindful and not distracted—sometimes, bored—in order to remember to ask yourself this question. “Our changing moods and energy levels, and how inspired we’re feeling on any given day, are part of the hard reality we must accept in order to take effective […] The post What do you...
When Charles Duhigg attended his Harvard Business School class’s 15-year reunion, he was surprised to discover how many of his former classmates were miserable. One of them was earning over a million dollars a year, and said to him, “If you spend 12 hours a day doing work you hate, at some point it doesn’t […] The post The natural game appeared...
Personas are packages for people. But of course, they’re not actually people. When you see someone with a crafted persona, you don’t actually know who that person actually is. Sure—you know that they’re ambitious, chasing status, wealth, and power. You could say that they are “moving up in the world.” But without living up to […] The post You...
An extraordinary professional moment happened to me in a very ordinary finance class. Instead of paying attention to what the teacher was saying, I read an article in HBR and emailed the author asking for advice about how I could find my passion. They graciously responded with valuable advice—essentially, to try a lot of things!—and […] The post...
An earlier blog post I wrote has been bouncing around my mind lately: consistency starts with inconsistency. If the fear of commitment—or the avoidance of hard, consistent work—prevents you from getting started on something, the best solution is to find another way to see it. What could make the work easy? Do you need to […] The post A path to...
An architecture student asks her professor for advice. As they review her work together, he challenges her, “Is your design as good as the Chartres Cathedral?” The student grimaces in confusion, looks out the window, and responds earnestly, “Of course not, I could never do that.” A few seconds pass, and she glances at the […] The post The right...