In This Episode: Colorado, having seen constant partisan manipulations of redistricting in the past — Gerrymandering — actually did something about it, and did something radical in the process: they exercised Uncommon Sense.
Heroes
061: The Domino Effect
In This Episode: When you follow your gut and push to be the best, amazing things can happen. James Flanagan did that, and the domino effect that followed is so amazing, you’ll find it hard to believe that one guy’s efforts are probably a part of your life every day — even though he’s been dead for several years.
059: Rescuing History
In This Episode: A wild story of several civilians who rescued a piece of history — a little-known account from the sidelines in the race to the moon.
052: Uncommon Sense the Easy Way
In This Episode: Can you quit a bad habit with willpower? Allen Carr thought that was the hard way, but he had insight into what he called the “Easy Way” that would work better, and saved perhaps millions of lives by quitting his day job to help teach others how. It’s a great story of Uncommon Sense at work.
050: The Mother of All Demos
In This Episode: One person with Uncommon Sense can have a profound effect on the world. Wait until you hear the story of Doug Engelbart: he’s the visionary behind many of the technologies you use most every day.
043: The $100 Education
In This Episode: Warren Buffett says the biggest impact on his massive success was one particular class he took. But it wasn’t part of his college or graduate school education. I’ll tell you what it is, for free.
042: Pushing the Uncommon Sense Envelope
In This Episode: Uncommon Sense facilitates some pretty out-of-the-box thinking that not only improves the thinker’s life, but sometimes improves or even saves countless other lives. Doug Lindsay’s story pushed the envelope pretty far — there really is no limit to Uncommon Sense, as you’re about to hear for yourself.
038: The Giant Leap for Mankind
In This Episode: I’m recording this episode the evening of July 20th: the 50th anniversary of the first humans landing on the moon. If you think it maybe took Uncommon Sense to get there, you’re right: it took an extraordinary amount, and this episode talks about some of the details that you may not have heard about before.
One Small Step for [a] Man
It was 50 years ago Saturday that Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong piloted the Eagle — the first manned lunar-landing spacecraft — to the surface of the moon.
032: “Give Me a Shot at It. I’m an Engineer”
In This Episode: The story of a man who wasn’t satisfied with mere success. He took Uncommon Sense to a new level in order to help others, yet refused to get rich from it.
Continue Reading032: “Give Me a Shot at It. I’m an Engineer”
014: Expect the Unexpected
In This Episode: Just how much impact one person can have by refusing to be stymied by those who don’t have it. Because he did that, you might owe this guy your life.
011: We Need Better Heroes
In This Episode: Some people — usually people with Uncommon Sense — aspire to something greater than the whims of the masses and can make a huge impact on the world. This episode looks at what we as a society pay a lot of attention to, at the detriment to the much more important things we pretty much ignore. The difference: mind-blowing.
010: “I Just Don’t Have Time”
In This Episode: “I just don’t have time” is the modern mantra. And I’m here to tell you why that’s total B.S. Because if you apply Uncommon Sense to the time problem, that turns out to not be the problem you think it is.
008: The Man with the Golden Arm
In This Episode: I had heard about the man I’m going to tell you about several times over the past several years, but I didn’t know the whole story of “The Man with the Golden Arm”. It’s a bit of a medical mystery and, as I researched all of this to understand what the heck it was that he did, I discovered he started displaying Uncommon Sense even as a child.
007: A Second Opinion
In This Episode: A very different kind of episode: a story that’s not from the newsletter, but rather one that’s too long and complex to be shortened to 100ish words plus a pithy tagline. It’s an amazing story of despair, hope, and renewal, with a wild twist at the end.
006: The X Factor
In This Episode: How two men 70 years apart inspired others to change the world in a massive display of Uncommon Sense. It’s a story about how someone figured out a way to get people to push forward, to think hard, and to solve real problems. I call it: The X Factor.
004: Full Circle
In This Episode: When sizing up someone in a modest profession, don’t make the mistake of thinking the job title defines the person or their abilities. They might just surprise you with an overabundance of Uncommon Sense.
001: The Best of Humanity
In This Episode: While the stories in This is True usually point out the pitfalls of not thinking, the Honorary Unsubscribe holds up the best of humanity, which often means someone who exhibited Uncommon Sense on a regular basis. This episode not only features a interesting example, but adds some extra details and commentary.
Everyday Heroism
The Feel-Good Story of the Week comes out of Colorado. It starts, however, in tragedy: a family — a man, woman, and four kids — rolled their car over in Brighton, which is northeast of Denver, along Interstate 76. The father of the family was killed. I know, this doesn’t sound too feel-good, but stay with me.
A Friend in Need
Not quite three weeks ago (Wednesday, April 9, the day before my birthday), Kit and I stopped by the local hospital to visit a friend. James, a fellow medic, and sometimes firefighter, was also from California, evidenced by his online handle, “FFEMT1A” (a California designation: Firefighter-Emergency Medical Technician-1A; I was a plain old EMT-1A myself at first, the A designating Ambulance duty certification, which added some elements beyond the non-transporting FF designation. He had both, and was extremely proud that he dedicated most of his life to helping others in need.)