It has been a very long year here at Oceans. We doubled in size and put in place the structures that allow us to do it again in 2026, all while managing through a Chikungunya epidemic and a devastating cyclone. So, for the holidays and with the help of my diver Abdul, I decided to […]
As a social psychologist by training, I always loved the TV show “What Would You Do”. Loosely based on social experiments, it uses a hidden camera format to show the varied reactions people have to ordinary situations based on environmental cues. One of my favorite episodes from the very first season had a simple premise: […]
But it plays one on TV. In the mid-80s, Vicks launched cough syrup commercials with a simple hook: they got actors who played doctors on soap operas to endorse the benefits of the product. “I’m not a doctor but I play one on TV” became an instant notable quotable. Recently, I got an email from […]
A lot of hustle porn (a term I first heard from Alexis Ohanian Sr.) has the same bombastic quality as sexual porn; a recent article I saw on LinkedIn screamed that you absolutely should expect your employees to spend 20% of their time outside of work on professional growth activities, because otherwise they must be […]
When I wrote Start At The End, my goal was to help folks apply behavioral science in their everyday lives. And while it sold well and got good reviews, it was also an artifact fixed in time – the downside of books is that they can’t grow with you. So in 2023, with the help […]
Technology has always been at its best when it allows us to selectively reject it, to choose our own hardship. I don’t really use AI for much but periodically, it comes in handy. And then, just when I’m not paying attention, it punches me right in the gut. Because I’m doing a workshop on pressure […]
Lower-wage workers are using lower-quality digital tools for no good reason. Recently, we started looking for a new applicant tracking system at Oceans and so I queried my network. Everyone seemed to be recommending the same trendy, venture-backed ATS startup, so I arranged for a sales call. And it was all going swimmingly until we […]
Consider productive uncertainty as a more mission-aligned approach. In most sports, you always know where you stand. The score is continuously updated, so whether it is a touchdown or a goal or a basket, you know the balance between you and your opponent at all times. And you often make strategic decisions with this knowledge: […]
The process is easy: replace the word “AI” (or whatever they are using) with “calculator” and see what it does to the comment. And the reason it works is simple. We already know that the introduction of the calculator did not destroy humanity. It didn’t reduce the number of jobs, or make people less smart, […]
Job descriptions are always imperfect, so rather than pitch what is written, pitch what makes sense. Recently, I’ve been helping out at a company where many of the senior leaders didn’t have updated job descriptions. This isn’t uncommon at high-growth startups, where hiring competent generalists and letting them loose on the things that need doing […]