“A bottle of juice is not my friend.” Spot on criticism of the attempted anthropomorphism of brands. Nice try, random company I’ve never heard of. But my real friends don’t have to trick me into liking them.

“Ambition drives people forward, relationships hold people
back.” Brilliant article about the tradeoffs of community and career. You could argue either side. It all depends on which pronouns are most important to you. 

“Having a soul is hard without any ins­pi­ra­tion nearby.” Since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with decorating the walls. Even as an adult, it’s impossible for me to function at home or at work without constant, visual stimulation. Thanks, Hugh.

“Yay! Another opportunity not to get paid for something.” A grim chorus for the modern working man. Stupid economy. Seems like nobody wants to pay anybody for anything. But don’t worry, it will be great exposure!

“Working from home can be productive, but not innovative.” I worked alone, out of my living room, for eleven years. And while I enjoyed the clothing optional policy, what killed me was the lack of human interaction. It’s hard to play basketball without a backboard.

“Popular enough to continue doing what he wanted to do.” That’s all artists want. To earn enough attention to underwrite the opportunity to do what they love, with the people they love, the way they love doing it. Mickey will be missed.

“Netflix went from being the biggest user of the postal
service to the biggest user of download space.” A heroic dose of perspective, indeed. David’s insight reminds us that paper is dead, technology is alive, and those who get over themselves quickest get ahead of the competition fastest.

“As soon as you start talking about it, you’re messing with
the magic.” Springsteen’s new book has a ton of great insight about the songwriting process. Personally, I think that’s the best part. Never having to explain your lyrics to anybody.

“Collaboration is how most of our ancestors used to work and
live.” I spent the first eleven years of my professional life creating art alone. But now, my pronouns have switched. I’m at Poke with an amazing team. And my work is lightyears more satisfying. Thanks Twyla.

“Her fame was greater than her contributions as an actress.” This passage comes from the obituary of Marilyn Monroe. So sad. Interestingly, not much has changed in fifty years. People are still famous for being famous. Attention seems to trumps accomplishment. Even more sad.

“If you don’t fall in love with the guitar, you get your
money back.” Now that’s confidence in your product. Paul Reed Smith ain’t no joke. Even though I’m a lifelong Fender guy, I can still appreciate a guarantee like that.

“When we walk into the room, we have to float in like
goddesses.” I’ve always felt I was born in the wrong decade. That’s why I love artists like Stevie Nicks. She’s always been my type of rock star. So hot.

“Your identity is your vector.” Reid Hoffman changed my life. His work on identity was crucial to my transition last year. In fact, I never would have made it out alive without his help. Awesome to read his latest article on my favorite topic.

“Put your ass where your heart wants to be.” Pressfield on the eloquence of action. You know, it’s amazing. People overcomplicate success beyond belief. It’s simple. Just start doing stuff. The end.

“It will be nice to not have to decide between food and
marketing.” Stumbled across this interview with the founder of Stand Offer, a very cool crowd funding search engine. Paints an accurate picture of the sacrifices we make when we follow our own path.

“Creativity is on its way back.” Clive Davis gives us hope that imagination, humanity’s greatest endowment, is not dead. Every morning when I discover new albums to listen to, I am reminded of this very fact. Thank god for good music.

“Please give me a chance to rewrite my story.” Although I don’t care about sports, I love this article about Josh Jarboe. Just a guy trying to close the gap between his on-field performance and on-campus reality. I’m rooting for him.

“Repeating history without noticing it.” Fascinating piece on collective amnesia. Digital natives ought to take notice. This is what happens when you love technology but lose perspective.

“Still living in an antique universe.” Bob Lefsetz’s take on Summly. Dig this sentiment. He’s referring to the music business, but he could easily be talking about fundamentalist religion too.

“The door may be closed but it’s not locked.” Straight from PostSecret. Hard to tell who said this originally, but who cares? We take our hope wherever we can get it.

“Make yourself into a human optical illusion.” Another inspiring but sad story about the life of a professional YouTuber. Billions of clicks. Millions of fans. Few real friends. Is that the tradeoff we’re all clamoring for? Yikes.

“Reality is under no such obligation.” Rushkoff’slatest book discusses the gap between our beloved expectations and life’s actual intentions. As much as we’d like to watch our lives play out like movies, sometimes the film catches on fire.

“We just went to places that they didn’t care
about.” Louiehas earned the right to do and say whatever he wants. One of the few comedians with a lifetime pass. I think it’s beautiful. If I were in his position, I’d be doing the exact same thing. Living my life as a human middle finger.

“Trying to wrestle a marlin back to your boat with dental
floss.” That may be the best explanation of what it feels like to stand on a stage, alone, being accountable to your audience.Henry is the single greatest performer I’ve ever witnessed. 

“I feel the hunger to operate again.” You can only pontificate for so long. Eventually you have to get back out there, get your hands dirty and actually make something. Otherwise you’re just a talking head. ThanksGary.

“Is the name of god the sound of breathing?” I take breathing very seriously. After experiencing a collapsed lung seven years ago, my relationship with my breath is something I work on every single day. Rob’svideoon inhaling and exhaling is tremendous. With or without religion.

“Do we want to get rocked to sleep, or do we want to get
rocked?” I first fell in love with David Carr when I watched Page One, the documentary about the dying medium of print. In his latest interview, he discusses the future of media and journalism. I am smitten once again. 

“I merely float on a tsunami of acceptance of anything life
throws at me.” The Edge is the reason the web was invented. Terry Gilliam’s response to the annual question was beautiful. I wonder how different our world would be if worry was abolished?

“If I could be totally trusted on sex, then I got a lot of
privileges.” Really interesting perspective on abstinence from Temple Grandin. I can totally relate. It’s amazing how the trust equation changes when people know you’re not trying to fuck them.

“Make it about your mind, not your muscles.” This past weekend, I had one of the best yoga instructors I’ve ever experienced. Super articulate. Master of the dialogue. Tons of helpful corrections. What’s more, his insight was a timely reminder of just how mental most things are.

“Open a vein and his whole culture comes out barefoot.” Anyone who publishes his first novel at the age of ninety-six has earned the right to craft a sentence that good. Gosh. Merely the size of Harry Bernstein’s typewriter has to be worth some kind of award.

“Retirement is a false construct.” Alan Weiss, as usual, strikes a cord through the economy of words. In fact, I did a ton of research on retirement last year. Turns out, the word retirement needs to be retired. Florida is overrated. 

“You can dine here without a dictionary.” Simplicity is eloquence. And delicious. If I owned a pizza joint, this is exactly the kind of review I would want. Too many businesses these days confuse the hell out of their customers in the name of looking cool.

“Her male counterparts marveled at the artistry of her cape work.” Obituary for Patricia McCormick, the pioneer of female bullfighting. Possibly the greatest sentence I’ve ever read in an obituary. Cape work? So good. Inspires me to live a life worth writing about.

“Edges are the only things that can hook people.” Bob reminds us that our most interesting quirks, our most unusual gifts, are the very things that make people lean in and beg for more. Weird is the new normal.

“I miss the monster in the room.” Had a great conversation with my friend Chris about what we miss/don’t miss about our former lives. Personally, I couldn’t be happier not traveling every week, not selling all the time, not having to prove myself to strangers and not having to run my own business. Good riddance.

“It’s not pain, it’s therapeutic discomfort.” Classic mantra from the single nicest yoga studio I’ve ever practiced at. After six years, I think this is the most fascinating benefit of doing Bikram: My relationship with discomfort. Once you master that, life becomes a whole lot easier.


“Wanting to be part of your own life.” Thao is a brilliant songwriter. In this interview, she talks about her life on the road and what it deprives her of. I can relate. Sure is nice to have a daily routine, a homebase and a regular schedule to keep you connected. Traveling gets very old very quickly.

“A careless whisper in my body.” Pretty sweet line from a pretty dopey flick. Which reminds me, when did everybody become a professional movie critic? Look, if a movie entertained you for two hours and made you feel emotions you wouldn’t have felt otherwise, it was a good movie. It’s not that complicated.

“Anything after noon is yesterday’s news.” The guy at the front desk said that to me last night, and I thought it was a really interesting point. I guess when the news travels at the speed of the web, it makes total sense.

“So haunted by talent that you can barely look away from her.” Personally, I love encountering people like this. I think the reason we can’t help but stare is because they’re borderline inhuman. They’re perfect examples of what’s possible when all the planets are aligned. Good observation, Russel.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t have to make sense to anybody but you.” There’s something blissfully relaxing about not having to prove and justify yourself to people anymore. Brilliant thought from my palHilary. 

“We don’t deal in certainty, we deal in probability.” Zero Dark Thirty is a movie about following your hunch. Even if it’s filled to the brim with confirmation bias. I tend to make a lot of decisions that way. Usually works out fine.

“This is one of those zombie ideas that, no matter how many
times you kill it, it comes shambling back at you.” Speaking of hunches. Don’t you just love it when ideas seize you and refuse to go away? Thanks for that, Sam Harris

“How are we to imagine anything if the images are always
provided for us?” This question comes from a speech Adrien Brody gives in Detachment. Reminds me how important is to get lost, to wonder and to tap into the analog device known as my imagination.

“Humans have this propensity to use new technology to inflate
our sense that we are gods.” I am constantly amazed at the way people depend on their devices for pretty much everything. And don’t get me wrong, cell phones are amazing. But in the grand scheme of things, they can’t be as important to our lives as we think.

“I stopped believing most of what I used to preach.” Comes from a PostSecret submission. Really hits home with me, as my life has become the mathematical inverse of what it used to be. Man, there’s something really beautiful about outgrowing your own beliefs.

“I was seeing the world through one point of view for ten
years.” Another great takeaway from Derek’s article about reinvention. Myopia is great for a while, but eventually, we all need new inputs. Otherwise our thoughts are bouncing off too thin of a wall.

“If what you did today wasn’t hard, then you probably didn’t
create enough value.” Seth riffs on the importance of hard work in the context of an organization. Been thinking a lot about this lately. What does it really mean to create value?

“Readiness to wreck everything.” Tim writes about lustful abandon. Beautiful stuff. As someone who intentionally blew up his life (in the best, most loving and most generous kind of way way), I know that feeling of abandon quite well. It’s euphoric. You have to bathe in it while it lasts.

“Summon those innovation juices when you need them.” Hugh Macleod takes us to theedges, where the best ideas happen. That’s a huge part of my job at POKE. Taking clients to places they’re scared to go at first, but once you get there, they’re glad you took them there.

“Angels in a human guise, usually unrecognized.” Cool article about singing sacred songs in secular spots. Very trojan horsey. The odds of me stealing that line and putting it into a song are very high.

“Crawl out from under the chaos and fly above it.” Dylan gives the greatest interviews on the planet. They’re weird, enigmatic and poetic. Like he’s just toying with us the whole time. Just once I’d like to try that.

“Drugs and alcohol are not my problem, reality is
my problem, drugs and alcohol are my solution.” I love reading about drugs and addiction. It’s fascinating to me. Which is strange, since I’ve been sober my whole life. But leave it to Russel Brand to say it perfectly.

“Human beings are built to repeat themselves.” I don’t remember where this sentence comes from, but I agree with it. I do a lot of research in my thinkmapping, and the first place I go is the past. The historical context surrounding the problem almost always contains the seed for the solution.

“Can an algorithm iron out the kinks in our existence?” Fascinating article about using smartphones for therapy. As a person who’s tried everything from therapy to meditation to hypnosis to guided imagery, I dig any tool that enhances your repertoire of meaningfulness. 

“Creating my own breadcrumb trail so that I don’t
get lost.” Picked this one up fromPostSecret. Paints a picture of the simultaneous beauty and terror of getting lost. Perfect for those of us who are directionally retarded.

“Finding a new way to be human.” Interesting idea for abook, but also a great mantra for a business. Imagine how much our customers would love us if we implemented this on a daily basis.

“I eat that feedback for breakfast.” This statement was embedded into the meta data of a Reddit video. This website that has become a staple in my morning news routine. It’s where I’ve discovered many of my favorite new bands.

“I feel useless in the world if I’m just sitting
there being happy.” Derek makes a powerfulpoint. A helpful reminder that we can’t just sit in a corner perfecting ourselves. We have to get out of house and go make something happen that matters to others.

“Occupied with the intricacies of the human
condition.” Greatarticleabout the difference between our online personalities and offline realities. Wait, is there supposed to be a difference?