Mark Twain
All ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.
Content: Quotation | Author: Mark Twain | Source: Brain Pickings | Subject: Innovation
Maria Konnikova
Over and over, people would overestimate the degree of control they had over events — smart people, people who excelled at many things, people who should have known better… The more they overestimated their own skill relative to luck, the less they learned from what the environment was trying to tell them, and the worse their decisions became… The illusion of control is what prevented … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Maria Konnikova | Source: Brain Pickings | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development
David Bohm
No really creative transformation can possibly be effected by human beings unless they are in the creative state of mind that is generally sensitive to the differences that always exist between the observed fact and any preconceived ideas, however noble, beautiful, and magnificent they may seem to be.
Content: Quotation | Author: David Bohm | Source: Brain Pickings | Subjects: Innovation, Management
The Power Paradox: The Surprising and Sobering Science of How We Gain and Lose Influence
“We rise in power and make a difference in the world due to what is best about human nature, but we fall from power due to what is worst.”
Content: Article | Author: Maria Popova | Source: Brain Pickings | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Power / Authority
Barry Schwartz
When we lose confidence that people have the will to do the right thing, and we turn to incentives, we find that we get what we pay for. […] There is really no substitute for the integrity that inspires people to do good work because they want to do good work. And the more we rely on incentives as substitutes for integrity, the more we … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Barry Schwartz | Source: Brain Pickings | Subjects: Human Resources, Integrity, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior
Maria Popova
I often think of reading not as the acquisition of static knowledge but as the active springboard for thinking and dynamic contemplation — hence the combinatorial, LEGO-like nature of creativity, wherein we assemble building blocks of existing knowledge into new formations of understanding that we consider our original ideas.
Content: Quotation | Author: Maria Popova | Source: Brain Pickings | Subjects: Creativity, Innovation, Knowledge
The Shape of Spectacular Speech: An Infographic Analysis of What Made MLK’s “I Have a Dream” Great
The poetics of presenting, or why beautiful metaphors are better than beautiful slides.
Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Maria Popova, Nancy Duarte | Source: Brain Pickings | Subject: Personal Development
How to Give a Great Presentation: Timeless Advice from a Legendary Adman, 1981
Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively In Business by former Ogilvy & Mather CEO Kenneth Roman and legendary adman Joel Raphaelson offers some timelessly practical tips on the art, science, and psychology of successful communication.
Content: Article | Authors: Joel Raphaelson, Kenneth Roman, Maria Popova | Source: Brain Pickings | Subject: Personal Development
Thomas Edison
You do something all day long, don’t you? Everyone does. If you get up at seven o’clock and go to bed at eleven, you have put sixteen good hours, and it is certain that you have been doing something all that time. The only difference is that you do a great many things and I do one. If you took the time in question and … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Thomas Edison | Source: Brain Pickings | Subjects: Achievement, Career, Success / Failure
William J. Reilly
Money never comes first in self-expression of any kind.
Content: Quotation | Author: William J. Reilly | Source: Brain Pickings | Subject: Career
William J. Reilly
In a world marked by constant change, the only security is your ability to produce something of value for your fellow man, and your only guarantee of happiness is your joy in producing it.
Content: Quotation | Author: William J. Reilly | Source: Brain Pickings | Subjects: Achievement, Career