Psychology & Living

Making simple things complicated.

Where there is rule of law and individual freedom, humanity is better off.

The New York City schools were among the best in the country in those days, better than they had been for the European immigrants before me and much better than they would be for the mass influx of blacks from the South after me.

There are, however, many mistakes you can make in goal-setting that will delay and hinder you and make your goals harder to achieve. This book points out these pitfalls and how to avoid them.

In the end, it’s not how you die that matters at all; it’s how you live.

A goal set at the right level of difficulty motivates you to do your best work.

“Poetry of work” is worth pursuing. It gives us purpose—and it gives us happiness.

Steve Jobs and Barack Obama are a contrast in two types of man.

Happiness comes from achieving your values: pursuing a career you love, a romantic relationship, perhaps raising a family, or running a successful business.

An MBA student of mine who had just read my book commented: “Those principles you write about make a lot of sense, but at the same time, business is ruthless, and most people do not follow such moral principles. How can you act on principle when others don’t?” My...

In Thinking Tactics, I teach a set of thinking procedures that each take under 10 minutes. They can be used to clarify most confusion, resolve most conflicts, and figure out the next step on most projects. But not everything. Sometimes you face a bigger...

If you want to better understand the concept of cognitive therapy, tune in to an unlikely source: Chef Robert Irvine’s Food Network series, Restaurant Impossible. Food Network’s website describes the show as follows: “Turning around a failing restaurant is a daunting...

The best way for human beings to survive and flourish is not to be givers or takers but traders.

One of the most important and far reaching questions in moral philosophy is: Who is the proper beneficiary of an individual’s actions? There are only two possible answers to the question: The individual taking the action, or others. “Others” may mean the community,...

At a humor workshop I attended recently, Judy Carter taught us a formula for creating a joke around something mean that someone said to us. The steps were: 1. Remember exactly what words were used, plus the tone and body language, so you can act it out. 2. Backtrack:...

Fear is the great inhibitor. When rational, fear is life-serving and life-protecting. However, the purpose of fear is avoidance. You rationally avoid things in order to obtain what life has to offer. You avoid an oncoming car when crossing a street in order to survive...

“I need more time.” That is what a client told me was the solution to his grueling work schedule. We say such things without thinking about it, but it’s worth pausing for a moment to focus on the thought. How could the solution possibly be more time?...

If you were alone on a desert island you would not be able to escape the fact that you must work to sustain your life. Alone on the island you could spend your days in any activity of your choosing—hunting, fishing, building a home, swimming, or napping. But you would...

Dear Dr. Hurd: My mother is a good, well-meaning lady. But every so often she reminds me of the fact that she grew up during the Great Depression, and so learned the value of saving things. And whenever I am seen throwing away a plastic bag or a piece of aluminum foil...

When you love someone in a rational, genuine way, you love that person as an individual. You sincerely want him or her to be happy, and you want to add to their life while, at the same time, experiencing your own enjoyment of that person.

“Moneyball” is a baseball movie that isn’t about baseball. It is a movie about the passionate pursuit of values. And more fundamentally, it is a movie about the source of value creation—the rational, independent judgment of innovators. Starring Brad Pitt as Billy...

By some estimates, people lose 2 hours of work a day due to interruptions. The time is wasted in two ways: First, when you are interrupted, you often lose your place. You have to go back and redo some of the work to restore your working context. Second, the topic of...

When people complain about not getting things done, they almost always wish they had bigger blocks of time to do the work. A surprising solution to this problem is to plan your unstructured time using standard time blocks of 25 minutes. The method, called the Pomodoro...

Don’t be embarrassed if you occasionally feel scattered. It’s a normal transition state.  For example, after you’ve finished a major project, you may feel somewhat scattered until you’ve figured out the next big thing to focus on. But...

“Change your smoke detector batteries when you change the clocks to or from Daylight Savings Time. Otherwise you’ll forget.” This little trick suggests a way to help you achieve some of the most important goals you’ll ever set: your lifetime...

Did something go badly? A “discussion” with a spouse or coworker that ended in acrimony? A proposal that flopped? When something goes badly, you may be tempted to forget about it and just try to do better next time. But the secret to doing better lies in...

Join me in the campaign to eliminate prejudice against messy thinking tactics. Floating in the back of many people’s minds is the idea that “logical” means “neat.” People sometimes hesitate to make a list unless they can write down the...

When you have a big question to think about, don’t wait until you have 2 or 3 hours free to tackle it. There just aren’t enough big blocks of time available to make that a practical strategy. Instead, I learn how to Velcro together smaller blocks of...

Here’s some old-fashioned advice that may be just what you need to get out of a present-day thinking block: Spread out your notes all over your desk. That’s right, your desk, not your computer screen. Yes, programs exist to move around words in many...

Pressure can sabotage your thinking. By pressure, I mean an issue weighing on your mind as you try to concentrate on something else. Perhaps it’s an imminent deadline or a desperate desire to do a fantastic job. Maybe it’s a highly-charged emotional...

Here’s a surprisingly effective technique that can pry information loose from your brain and ignite your thinking when you’re stalled: The “Q&A Technique.” [1]  Here’s the technique:  Write down a question you are puzzling...

It’s easy to fall into a counterproductive pattern. Perhaps you often check email before settling down to work–and then reading the email wipes out your morning work time. Or three days in a row you put off an important call until the afternoon–then...