Paul Graham is one of my favorite essayists. He is incredibly smart, but all his essays are written in a totally straightforward style. My latest favorite is about how society is always scheming to help us procrastinate by giving us distractions, and that while we might feel bad spending 2 hours watching soap operas in front of the TV, somehow we don’t feel quite so bad wasting that same time browsing around on the Internet.

I’ve been guilty of this, and it’s something I’m actively working to change.

Read the article for yourself!

There’s a strange phenomenon I’ve discovered in business and in life: I call them “Counter-Goals”.

So what’s a Counter-Goal? Well, it’s a goal which is achieved best by not pursuing it in the first place. Huh?

Okay, an example. When I was in my first year at Wharton Undergrad, I took a class called Management 100. The concept of the course was (and probably still is) quite novel. I was a member of a group of 12 other freshmen, and as a group we were tasked with completing some kind of major project. One group had to build a playground. Another group had to hold a major fundraising event. Our goal happened to be teaching the basics of economics to sixth graders.

Read More...