In This Episode: Sure, it’s cool to hear stories of famous (and completely obscure) people who exhibit Uncommon Sense. But there’s one other thing you need to know about every one of them: they’re definitely not perfect, and that’s important to know because neither are you.
Podcasts
071: Taking It To the Extreme
In This Episode: Humans mostly pay attention to the short term. If we can lift our eyes and look much farther out, not only does that benefit us personally, but business leaders that truly have Uncommon Sense sometimes take it to the extreme, and their results, actual and still in the works, can be absolutely mind-blowing.
070: Pushing for Better
In This Episode: Company owners aren’t just employers: sometimes they’re mentors who can change lives. My buddy Doc recently told me about his old boss, and his story illustrates what I mean very clearly.
069: A Link to the Future
In This Episode: When you really look into something that’s “obvious” and “common sense,” sometimes you’ll find that …the “experts” are wrong! This is the story of a man who was pretty sure the industry experts were wrong about something, and boy did it take him a lot of effort to turn that industry around. But he did, because his Uncommon Sense beat their common sense.
068: What Normal?
In This Episode: Everyone says they want to “go back” to “normal” rather than have the constant uncertainty of the pandemic. But what “normal” do we want to “go back” to? It’s time to think about a new normal — what do we want to go to as this craziness ramps down?
067: Counterintuitive
In This Episode: An American company that makes masks and other PPE chose NOT to ramp up production to help with the Covid pandemic. That sounds like a decision to be criticized, but it’s actually an example of Uncommon Sense. This episode explores why.
066: Masking the Problem
In This Episode: Some of the stories told in Uncommon Sense are wonderful, but we can’t always relate to the person in the sense we can’t necessarily emulate them: we’re not all well-connected technology geeks, born at the right point in history, or whatever. But here’s a couple of stories about regular people who got past whatever fears they have of the coronavirus, and stepped up to make a difference that anyone can do — if they apply a little Uncommon Sense.
065: Beating the Fear over Covid
In This Episode: The rise of Covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, is exceeded only by the fear it engenders. Yet Uncommon Sense tells us that fear is getting in the way of what we should be focusing on, not just in the face of the pandemic but always.
064: The Line in the Sand
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.
063: The Contrarian
In This Episode: Having Uncommon Sense often means going against what “everyone” says is the right way to do something. Being a contrarian can absolutely be the correct way to succeed, as Dan Price demonstrates. He even had to fight off his own brother to take his company to the next level: it’s quite a story.
062: “Why Should I Have to Develop a Sense of Humor?”
In This Episode: After This is True stories on religion, it’s fairly typical for a reader or two to complain. This time the complaint was, ‘Why should I have to develop a sense of humor’ (about his religion)? This episode is my response to that question; it of course comes down to …a matter of Uncommon Sense.
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.
060: Uncommon Sense in Kids
(How to Help Your Kids be Millionaires …when you aren’t rich.)
In This Episode: Can children have Uncommon Sense? Let me tell you the story of Colin Flynn, and then see what you think.
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.
058: Solving Cultural Amnesia
In This Episode: We know our ancient cultural history because of stone tablets and paper scrolls. We know more recent history because it was printed in books. But with the Internet, where is our history? There are millions of web sites, but if the owner dies and stops paying the bills for their server, it’s shut down, the domain name expires, and all of its knowledge can instantly be lost forever. Someone is trying to do something about that.
057: The Key to Innovation
In This Episode: Two episodes ago I talked about the “diffusion” of innovation. The next episode was about where innovations occur: they happen in forward-thinking companies perhaps as much or more than in entrepreneurial startups. But what is innovation really? And, more importantly, how do you get it, especially if you’re a creative type and maybe don’t think of yourself as brave? The answer may surprise you.
056: Running with An Idea
In This Episode: What if you have a business idea, but you’re not sure if you want to take the risk to pursue it: should you quit your day job? Well, there’s an alternative to quitting your job, and it’s something a lot of people with Uncommon Sense are doing instead: they’re getting their employers to back their innovative ideas.
055: Resisting Uncommon Sense
In This Episode: Why isn’t there more Uncommon Sense? Because the default for humans is to resist change. Uncommon Sense requires your mind to be open to new ideas, to be convinced that “the way we’ve always done it” might not be the best way. Yet humans resist change even when sick and dying, and the change might save their lives. Don’t believe me? Then you haven’t heard this story.
054: Pre-Silicon Valley
In This Episode: A news story going around on social media sounds too amazing to be true. So I’m going to dig into the idea that the smartphone was invented in 1953. The back story is even more impressive: it nicely demonstrates that you don’t need a college education to have Uncommon Sense.
053: Leveraging Uncommon Sense
In This Episode: Sometimes people are forced into thinking up solutions because of an emergency. But when they practice Uncommon Sense, they can leverage their thinking into, once in awhile, saving millions of lives. This is the story of a married couple who did just that.