2026-03-31 19:37:00
When researchers from Heinz followed consumers home, they found something odd – people were storing their tall, thin ketchup bottles upside down in the refrigerator door. This was a precarious hack to get the last of the ketchup out.
That duct tape moment – the workaround customers invent when a product almost works – turned into one of the great packaging innovations of its time. A Michigan engineer named Paul Brown designed an inverted bottle with a silicone valve that seals automatically and releases the moment you squeeze. Clean, simple, elegant.
It came entirely from watching what customers were already doing.
The duct tape is always powerful signal. When customers hack your product, they’re telling you exactly what they need – more precisely than any survey could.
The acute problem, observed closely, often contains the innovative solution hiding inside it.
2026-03-30 19:01:00
There’s a fictional story about Nobel Prize winner Max Planck touring Germany giving the same lecture on quantum mechanics. Over time, his chauffeur memorized it and proposed a switch – he’d give the lecture in Munich while Planck sat in the front row wearing the chauffeur’s hat.
Planck agreed. The chauffeur delivered the lecture flawlessly.
Then a physics professor stood up and asked a difficult question. Without missing a beat, the chauffeur replied: “I’m surprised that in an advanced city like Munich, I get such an elementary question. I’m going to ask my chauffeur to reply.”
This was one of Charlie Munger’s favorite stories – not because of the quick-wittedness of the chauffeur – but because it illustrated two kinds of knowledge.
There are people with Planck knowledge – they’ve done the work, wrestled with the hard questions, and earned the understanding.
And then there are people with Chauffeur knowledge who have learned to talk the talk. They can make a great impression but there’s nothing underneath the surface.
The challenge is to surround ourselves with people who have Planck knowledge – and stay away from those who have chauffeur knowledge.
But as Munger warns – there are huge forces working against you.
2026-03-29 21:50:00
Brian Grazer’s book – A Curious Mind – makes a point that I hadn’t considered before.
Curiosity has a negative connotation in our culture. And it isn’t accidental.
People in power have always found curiosity threatening. The Adam and Eve parable is the oldest example – the moral being that curiosity leads to suffering.
Curiosity also killed the cat.
Even in everyday language, when we describe something as “curious,” we mean it’s an oddity. A little weird. Other than normal.
It makes sense when you think about it. Curiosity asks why things are the way they are. It doesn’t take things for granted. That’s challenging to any established order.
I’d never noticed this bias.
Now I can’t unsee it.
2026-03-28 19:52:00
Dr. Eric Topol published a thoughtful breakdown of why VO2 max has become an overrated marker for cardiorespiratory fitness.
Three simple problems.
I’d add a couple things.
First, metrics should never get in the way of common sense. If you want better cardiorespiratory fitness, sprint up a hill regularly. Or play basketball every week. Go for a brisk walk and occasionally sprint. These are all tests of the very thing you’re trying to improve. It’s important to focus on the actions, not the number.
Next, if you do track VO2 max on a wearable, the absolute number is less useful than the trend. In my experience, even if the reading is imprecise, the direction it moves maps well to periods when I’m consistently active. Trends are often the signal even when the number is noise.
And finally – be careful about treating any one voice as gospel. I read Outlive and it genuinely changed how I think about exercise. Breaking it down into cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, stability, and mobility gave me a framework that pushed me toward a health journey I’m grateful for.
While Dr. Peter Attia’s work has been valuable to me, I’ve also been upfront about my gripe with his push for expensive scans and statins (and his fall from grace recently has been sad to see).
All in all, a reminder to read widely, think critically, and don’t let metrics get in the way of common sense.
2026-03-27 19:32:00
When you work with competent leaders – the ones who are genuinely in the details – any attempt at self-preservation has the opposite of the intended effect.
You might withhold knowledge to seem more valuable. Or obscure a problem to look good. Or try to spin a failure into a learning.
All of it backfires. Every time.
Competent leaders will see straight through.
Honesty, ownership, and a good attitude are a significantly better strategy.
2026-03-26 19:23:00
Episode 3 of The Last Dance on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls is essentially a documentary within a documentary – it’s the Dennis Rodman episode.
Rodman was a character in every sense of the word. Off-court drama that was considerable. A rebel and a maverick whose antics made the rest of the NBA nervous. The only reason he stayed functional during those Bulls years was a combination of Phil Jackson’s incredibly wise man-management and the no-nonsense inspiration of Michael Jordan, backed by the steady presence of Scottie Pippen.
And yet – Jordan and Pippen both speak about Rodman with enormous appreciation. Big smiles. Genuine warmth.
Because they knew exactly what he brought.
Rodman averaged maybe 5 to 7 points a game. But that stat tells you everything about what kind of player he was – a master class of a defender who did all the dirty work, freed Jordan and Pippen to do what they did best, and made the second three-peat possible in ways that don’t show up in those offensive stats.
When Pippen was asked what it was like integrating Rodman into the team, he didn’t hesitate. He said – “Like a hand in a glove.”
Great teams recognize complementary players. They give them space to be who they are. They don’t try to sand down the edges – they build around them.
The Chicago Bulls had tremendous success before that era and none after it. But during that window, they were arguably the greatest team the NBA has ever seen. And a big part of why is that they knew how to take someone like Dennis Rodman – someone the rest of the league couldn’t figure out what to do with – and make him the final piece of an impressive puzzle.
That’s what great teams do.
