Category Archives: People

I’m a big believer in the efficacy of making an effort to remember things about the people you meet. I think that this Dale Carnegie story about Jim Farley illustrates the point well: Whenever he met a new acquaintance, he … Continue reading →

Over at NRO, Jonah Goldberg’s got a piece up on “Clinton Nostalgia”. Clinton, a political prodigy of the first order, loved the human side of politics. He listened to the hoi polloi more than he listened to the Harvard faculty. … Continue reading →

Scott Adams put an interesting post up on his blog. The whole thing is worth reading, but I especially liked this bit: Prior to the Dale Carnegie course I believed that conversation was a process by which I could demonstrate … Continue reading →

I think it a common misconception that people are liked (or disliked) primarily due to their character, abilities, or personality. I believe, rather, that it is the impact of one person on another’s feelings about himself that will determine whether … Continue reading →

I was watching David Mamet’s “House of Games” the other day — more specifically, I was listening to the David Mamet/Ricky Jay commentary track. Jay’s patter is interesting; he’s presenting himself as an expert on confidence games, but 90% of … Continue reading →

A few days ago Seth posted a piece on Sprezzatura, “an archaic Italian word for being able to do your craft without a lot of visible effort”. It’s not a bad piece. I’m not sure the archaic Italian was strictly … Continue reading →

Mark Twain famously wrote: Give a man a reputation as an early riser, and that man can sleep till noon. Which, if you can get the former, is all well and good. But what if you’re unlucky, and have to … Continue reading →

Having written a bunch about Dale Carnegie’s views on persuasion, I’d like to share an anecdote of my own. I was getting my car washed the other day, and, for the first time ever, was “upsold” a hand wax. I … Continue reading →

I was reading a piece about H. P. Lovecraft the other day, which revealed him to be another one of these impoverished-in-life-popular-in-death types. It seems to me that this sort of fellow pops up a lot: In addition to Lovecraft, … Continue reading →