If you want to make a change (or make a living) it might pay to find a topic that people hesitate to talk about. There's enormous leverage in making the uncomfortable urgent enough to take action on. One of the easiest ways to improve public health and reduce cancer is by increasing the adoption of colonoscopies. No scientific breakthrough is needed, just a cultural shift.

There's "regular luck" and "earned luck." When a stranger dies and leaves you $10,000,000, that's regular luck. Undeserved, unearned, a bolt out of the blue. Someone is going to win the lottery and might be you. The other sort of luck happens after a lot of focus and effort. This is the third novel that becomes a bestseller, or the hard work that turns into a promotion to VP of sales.

Friendship is part of it, but it's mutual forward motion that transforms a group. The shared journey and mutual respect of a cohort can change the arc of our work and our lives. When we're in sync, we can find the courage to build something important. Fifteen years ago, I ran a three-day seminar in my office for about 12 women.

For many of us in the industrialized world, happiness is directly related to how big the container is. Overflowing vs. skimpy. Adequate vs. generous. Overloaded vs. slack to spare. We know that making the plate smaller helps us appreciate what we're served. Get the bucket size right and your life changes. This is probably the easiest, fastest and most productive way to improve our well being.

There's more software available for free than ever before, and a lot of it is really good. Handmade by real people, for real people. If we're going to pay for it, it needs to be extraordinary. For the last few years, I've been using Superhuman, which costs me about a dollar a day. Even if you don't use email as much as I do, I think you'll find that it's a bargain.

A problem without a solution isn't a problem, it's a situation we have to live with. But most existing problems do have solutions. We just don't like that solution. The solution might be challenging, or feel risky, or lead to an outcome we're not happy about. It's tempting to announce that this means the problem is unsolvable. It's not. It's just not an easy or low-cost solution.

It doesn't happen all at once. And it doesn't work suddenly. A home pressure cooker doesn't use more electricity than a hot pot. And it isn't as fast as a microwave. Instead, it builds up over time, producing results with a surprisingly small amount of effort. We're impatient, and so we don't consistently apply pressure when we have the chance, and we often crumple under pressure when it arrives. Consistent, gradual and persistent are the unsung forces of cultural change.

We talk about networks but we are rarely clear about what we mean. A specific sort of network is the grid, and even that idea is complicated by two competing meanings. There's the benign and powerful grid of peer-to-peer connection. Culture is built on this grid. This is friends, neighbors, co-workers and people who find and engage with each other without a central authority.

It's easy to come to the conclusion that people with means and high cultural status choose things that are better. Organic vegetables instead of junk food. But there's a long history of traditionally high-status cultural roles embracing demonstrably un-good choices. Things like bound feet, fox hunting, absinthe or cruise ships. It's hard to acknowledge that a choice we make isn't a good one. But it might be, even if it raises our status.

"I'm applying to work at Disney, do you know anyone who can give me a reference..." "My two partners and I are planning a new company, can we ask you for feedback on our business plan before we go out to raise a seed round?" "We're moving to Centerville, which neighborhood should we consider?" "Which famous college should I apply to?"

When we win by having someone else lose, we set up a conflict. It's clear, direct but not generative. But when we win by confronting our fear, everyone benefits. Often, people who choose to battle others are actually better off looking at their fear instead.

Our biggest commitments, the things we are most dedicated to, rarely pay us back in equal measure. That might be the point.

Convenience is seductive, and we trade precious things away for it all the time. Part of the reason it dominates our lives is that we only consider the cost once. After that, it continues to remind us of the benefits--the time and hassle and decisions we save. But convenience can cost us. Our humanity, our health, our well-being, our connection to others and to what we truly care about.

This is the quickest and most direct way to manage. In the short run, compliance is predictable and might even be effective. Over time, it's always outdone by the generative and resilient alternative of, "because it's the course that most effectively helps us achieve our shared objectives." That opens the door to the brains and hearts of the community, and is also the way toward better. Weak leaders (bosses, parents, captains and shift managers) resort to authority because they don't trust themselves and their team enough to actually lead.

On an airplane, we notice even tiny changes in acceleration (including direction) but we're completely unaware that we're traveling at hundreds of miles an hour. "Compared to what" is the unstated question that we ask ourselves, all the time. Consumers, employees and peers are unlikely to think about what's already a given. It's the changes we notice.

Start where you are. Start with what you've got. Start now. Now is the perfect moment. It only feels 'fast' if we're rushing. Don't rush. But act. With deliberate progress.

The next dish. It might be better than the one you have now. The presence of the next dish, its possibility, corrodes our experience. "Compared to what?" keeps needling us. The next email, the next text, the next blog post. It arrives, unbidden, unasked for. Here it comes. Next. Like Lucy in the chocolate factory, we're trained to simply focus on next. Which is rarely as satisfying as now.

Perhaps this metaphor will help: Nails are the easiest to use and require the least skill. Glue can make a more solid bond, but it's often a one-way commitment--you can't undo it without damage. And screws are the most resilient. They require good judgment in their selection and skill in their application. They create a powerful bond but can also be undone without a lot of fuss.

Here's a summary from a book industry newsflash about what's selling right now: Dystopia, Dark Romance, Dark Literary, Horror, Paranormal, True Crime, Alternative Histories, Decline of Democracy, Humor, Digital Wellness, Cozy & Cute, and Escapism. Setting aside just how long it takes to bring a book (or just about anything more important than an instagram post) to market, it's pretty clear that this list, and any list, contradicts itself.

There's a simple law: No one buys anything unless it produces more value than it costs. This seems obvious. Value could be in the form of sustenance, status, affiliation, peace of mind or health. And value is always measured by the user. A $300 caviar spoon will only be purchased if someone believes it produces more than $300 in value (and they can afford it).

Big company customer service has evolved to be pointless, a useless shadow of its former self. Big companies can't take responsibility, only humans can. And when we depersonalize our interactions and work to minimize the time spent and use a refund or policy to 'make it right', we forget what service is usually for. It's simply cheaper to offer a refund and move on (or to fill out a form and ignore the complaint altogether).

This, in itself, is a compromise. When we insist that our vision be accepted, completely, without alteration, we've already compromised. It might be that we've settled for a much smaller audience of people. Or it could be that the laws of physics get in the way, and our no-compromise solution is so heavy, so expensive or so difficult to use that it's not even possible. Mostly, though, we've compromised on who can contribute to our choices and make it better. Compromise isn't always a bug, it's often a feature.

We spend a lot of time responding and reacting to the throws of others. Ejected, rejected, projected, interjected... No one dejects you, of course, but it's easy to feel dejected. Perhaps this is a good moment to take initiative, which is rarely given on its own. No one is coming to pick you. Today's a great day to pick yourself.

It's not just for horror, terror and doom. These are worth preventing. It turns out that the hard work of innovation or the creation of revolution involves imagining what others consider unimaginable and speaking up with the unspeakable. Sometimes we work to avoid the things that scare us. We can't imagine something better if we're not able to speak of it.

The newcomer introduces themselves to the community. The brand runs its first ad. The product's packaging is encountered by a new customer. You rarely get a second chance to make a first impression. For software companies, that first impression is the user interface, and then it's the experience of actually engaging with the software. That's a huge opportunity (and obligation, and risk) that software companies encounter--the product…