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Continue reading →: The Collison InstallationStripe is now worth over $100 billion, but it started with nine lines of code and a radically hands-on approach. When potential customers showed interest but hesitated to act, founders John and Patrick Collison didn’t just send instructions—they asked for their laptops and installed the code themselves. This “Collison Installation”…
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Continue reading →: The Broccoli ProblemWhat if your incentive system is quietly sabotaging the very behavior you want? From broccoli and pudding to bonuses and beach trips, most rewards teach the wrong lesson. They signal that the work itself has no value—only the prize at the end does. Over time, that logic creates compliance machines,…
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Continue reading →: Choose Your Customers, Choose Your FutureEvery business makes a critical choice early on: Who will we serve? Most don’t even realize they’re making it—but that choice determines everything that follows. In the 1930s, Barnett Helzberg Sr. made a decision that seemed crazy: he would only sell “Certified Perfect” diamonds. His competitor Zales took a different…
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Continue reading →: All-22You’re in the match. Heart racing. Three seconds to decide. You make your move—and get pinned. Your coach says, “You had it the whole time.” The problem wasn’t effort. It was perspective. In football, teams use something called the All-22—a camera angle that shows every player on the field at…
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Continue reading →: Let Them PlayIn Let Them Play, we look at how Jack Smith and Vungle reinvented mobile ads by doing something radical: letting users try before they buy. Instead of slick trailers and empty clicks, they built short, playable ads that gave people a taste of the real thing—and trust followed naturally. Like…
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Continue reading →: The Man in the MirrorWade Boggs ate chicken before every game. Jason Giambi had a lucky golden thong. Moises Alou peed on his hands. Baseball players negotiate with randomness the only way they know how—rituals, superstitions, anything to feel in control. This piece is about something different. The performers who figured out how to…
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Continue reading →: Junk MailWhen Harvey Mudd College mailed envelopes labeled “JUNK MAIL,” they took a counterintuitive approach that worked. In a sea of glossy brochures and empty slogans, their humor and honesty stood out. They didn’t try to impress—they connected. From Harvey Mudd to Avis and Domino’s, brands that own the truth earn…
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Continue reading →: Keep the Brush MovingBefore he painted happy little trees, Bob Ross spent twenty years as Master Sergeant Robert Ross—the voice that corrected, inspected, and demanded perfection. This piece traces how he deliberately killed that voice and built a method designed to silence self-doubt by never stopping. Wet-on-wet painting wasn’t just a technique; it…
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