The Blend, Nov 24

People are sharing good stuff all the time. Things that make us smarter, think more creatively and encourage us to push ourselves just a little bit harder. When we find these things, we put them in The Blend and share them with you.

Here’s some good stuff from good thinkers to carry us into Thanksgiving…

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What important truth do very few people agree with you on? That’s perhaps the best interview question you can ask. Thanks Peter Thiel.

 

One truth could be that the future of news isn’t really about long articles but rather collections of well-tagged particles.

 

Another truth could be that while most people believe multi-tasking is bad, in the end, it makes us more creative.

 

But to be really good you need to give important moments your full attention, which is part of what’s made Oprah so successful.

 

Focus can make a career. Take Adele, who doesn’t want to be the face of anything. Just music.

 

Focus is also hard. Which is why Taylor Swift had to keep telling her record company to keep the fiddles and country twang out of ‘1989’.

 

Switching topics, if you’re a student studying marketing or advertising today (and that’s all of us, isn’t it?) you should know these five things about technology.

 

That type of thinking is key because desire for things like wearables will take over as two out of five of us will be sporting one in three years.

 

But despite the excitement of the new, don’t forget the old: U.S. shoppers still prefer to use paper coupons today.

 

It’s enough to keep us all working well into the evening. Thankfully, here’s a piece about how we only need 6.5 hours of sleep a night.

 

And here’s the same information, said better, with one-third fewer words. (If it doesn’t have to be long, don’t make it long.)

So here are five quick bits:

40 percent of us plan to spend more on holiday shopping this year.

 

Teens are now feeling the need to create finstagram accounts so they can be themselves.

 

We must not become so obsessed with measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it.

 

Startups can use these 16 startup metrics, but they’re helpful to all ambitious organization.

 

And being too peaceful with your competitors has a downside—according to the iconic Karl Lagerfeld.

 

In closing, I leave you with an excerpt from an excellent Q&A with Colleen DeCourcy on How Did She Get There?

Q: What motivates you?

A: Fear. A Fear that I would be invisible and that I would start and finish my life and no one would ever know. It’s not ego. It’s not that I have to be important. It’s that I have to matter. When you combine that with a lot of curiosity and the curse of being easily distracted, it’s a bit of a shit show really. Still, it keeps me going. It makes me work hard.

Read the whole bit here:

Here’s to a productive, creative and thought-filled week. As always, if you find stuff that belongs in The Blend, please let @JohnDrake know.