Billy Joel wrote "Piano Man" when he was 24. I'm sure there are many other examples of young people writing best selling songs, but these two songs have always stood out in my mind because the lyrics seem to show wisdom beyond their ages. Here are the words to "Dream On": Every time when I … Continue reading Music Monday: How Did Steven and Billy Have Such Insight into Life at Such a Young Age?
Three years ago I wrote about "The Best Night of Summer 2016, Thanks to Gaelic Storm", recounting what a perfect summer night my wife, son, and I had at a free concert featuring Gaelic Storm. Well, tonight they were back in town, putting on another free concert as part of Upper Merion's Summer Concerts Under … Continue reading It Was Deja Vu All Over Again, Thanks to Gaelic Storm
I'll never forget a presentation I made several years ago during an Open House event at Villanova. The event was geared towards high school seniors and their parents who were visiting the campus for the day to learn more about the school. I had volunteered to give about a 15-minute talk about the advantages of … Continue reading How to Lie with Statistics
People are more likely to return a lost wallet with money inside than an empty wallet. That should seem like a given to me, but apparently, it came as a surprise to a group of international researchers who set out to test the tension between financial self-interest and the honesty of people around the world. The … Continue reading People Are More Honest Than We Think, and I Find That Sad
Yesterday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). These data include the average amount of time per day in 2018 that individuals worked, did household activities, and engaged in leisure and sports activities. Additionally, measures of the average time per day spent providing childcare—both as a … Continue reading How Do You Compare – the Annual American Time Use Survey
The title of this post is the closing line from one of Seth Godin's blog posts this week, Even if it’s not graduation week for you… In the post, Seth encourages his readers to write, to simply write. Even in an age where audiobooks outsell print, AI can turn text into speech, and people scan, … Continue reading Writing Is a Symptom of Thinking
Steven Rogelberg is an expert on something that takes place 55 million times per day - meetings. Rogelberg is a professor of Organizational Science at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte, and his latest book is The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance. Rogelberg is featured In the … Continue reading How To Make Meetings More Effective: Separation, Standing, Shrink.
When I first started writing Music Mondays several months ago the original intent was to feature a new artist each week (well, at least new to me). The hope was that doing so would allow me to break out of my fixation on music from the 70s and discover some new artists I would enjoy … Continue reading Music Monday: Scottish Artist Lewis Capaldi
Art Carey, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, shared some words of advice he received from Jack Bogle a few years ago. Carey asked Bogle the following question: "Pretend I am your son. What advice would you give me about how to live a long, happy, honorable life?" Here's a summary of what Bogle had … Continue reading Some Fatherly Words of Wisdom from Jack Bogle, Founder of Vanguard Investments, to My Sons
My name is Jim Borden, and I like Frosted Mini-Wheats. There. I said it. A couple of times per year, for whatever reason, I feel a need to pick up a box of Frosted Mini-Wheats, probably my favorite cereal of all time. And it's just as good, if not better, with almond milk. I know … Continue reading Guilty Pleasure Brings Back Childhood Memory
Borden's Blather 