The way we think about work is completely outdated — Seven years ago, at 19, I got my first part-time job waiting tables. I lasted a month before I got fired. It was the only time in my life I’ve had a job. Since then, I’ve been side-hustling my way through life like there’s no tomorrow. Copywriting gigs, ghostwriting gigs…

Walter Rothschild may have been the heir to a massive banking empire, but he sure had a lot of free time on his hands. The photo above illustrates Rothschild’s attempt to convince people that exotic animals were not as untameable as previously thought. …

Peter Thiel has always been a bit weird. With a quiet net worth of $4.7 billion, you’d think Thiel should spend his days surfing with half-naked models somewhere in the Caribbean. Instead, he’s busy purchasing massive amounts of land in New Zealand in case of an apocalyptic event.

Let’s play a game. I’ll tell you about the life of someone named John. John constantly feels like something is missing from his life, but he does not know what it is. If you can identify the tiny little habit that keeps him miserable, you win. Every morning, John wakes…

The magic hidden in plain sight — Let’s talk about the obvious things first. The first obvious thing is that Mona Lisa was astonishingly beautiful back in the day. She might not have Angelina Jolie’s cheekbones or Emma Watson’s eyes, but that’s not how people saw her 600 years ago. The Ancient Greeks glorified women with bigger…

A warning for those who still believe their kids are in good hands — I grew up without a father. My mother did a great job substituting. But I had to piece together the image of masculinity all on my own. In high school, I had teachers who helped me with that. I had a wonderful arts teacher who took on a somewhat fatherly…

According to Laszlo Bock, a former Google executive, top students from the best schools often lack the intellectual humility that comes with failure. As a result, they develop a highly egocentric worldview. “If something good happens, it’s because I’m a genius. If something bad happens, it’s because someone’s an idiot…

And the genius writer — A ceramics class. The teacher divides everyone into two groups. People in Group A have to produce as many ceramic pots as possible. They will be graded solely on the quantity of their work. People in Group B can only make one pot. They will be graded solely on the…

“The most cataclysmic peacetime economic collapse of an industrial country in history.” That’s what happened in Russia thirty-two years ago. Before perestroika, businesses and major properties were all owned by the state. People owned things like cars and clothes. The state owned things like corporations and natural resources. Then, the…