Safety is knowing the result before the action. Risk isn’t.

Everyone likes safety. Especially in matters of business. And the crystal ball works pretty well in the short term. If you’ve done it before, it will work again. At least one more time. Right up until it doesn’t. But there’s the rub. Because no one knows where the long term will go and when the short term will stop.

But if there are certainties, I’ll stake it on two things. Change will come, and it will only keep coming faster. Which means safety will become that much riskier. And the more you play it safe, the less you’ll be ready for the change. You’ll be playing the same old game, … Read more...

5 of the most common resolutions:

1. Save money.
2. Lose weight.
3. Quit smoking or drinking.
4. Find a relationship
5. Spend more time with family and friends

Where did all the time go? Here we are, at it again, at the start of another year, with a new set of resolutions, a new future, and another fresh start. But the problem with New Year’s resolutions are twofold.

First: There’s really no commitment device. There’s nothing to bind us to the resolution, or to put it another way, to connect us to our future, so breaking a resolution is easy. Willpower is an expendable resource. Like a muscle, it gets tired, bending, bending, bending, until it breaks. And people … Read more...

This is for the challenges and the results. It’s for the best and the worst. It’s for those who gave, those who took, every second of every day of every week of every month in the year. It’s for each person we talk to and hear about. Each picture we see, each word we read. For the fact the there is nothing more heroic than that effort to move, to keep on going, to shoot for the stars, in the face of it all.

This is not for what happened. Not for what we acquired. It is but for that we are what we are. We owe it to each and every one of these things for that simple fact, … Read more...

Or course, I couldn’t really say how to do that, but that would make for a pretty short article. However, I did tally the results of 137 images from the previous two years, as well as reviewing the images submitted over the past couple of days, and there do seem to be some distinct discrepancies between what people submit and what actually wins. Can you gain an advantage by looking for certain things? I think so. There’s nothing terribly scientific about this, so do what you will with this information and draw your own conclusions. If you have something you love, enter it. Better to try than not. But if you’re trying to figure out the best way to invest … Read more...

So, I wasn’t quite sure about it after I published the last Kill List. But I figured it was up, so I should leave it up. Alp replied to me last night, and I think he had some valid points. What do you think. Did I go too far? If so, I apologize for that, sincerely. Here’s what Alp wrote. My (extremely long) reply follows. Thanks again to Alp for raising the issues. Also, I made a few minor updates from the post earlier this morning, now that I’m more awake.

From Alp:

Thanks spencer, but your article is conceited. You know that, though, right?

You know that your clients actually want the cliche. That they might often want to