True Story: Circa 1989, I was about 17 years old, sitting in a small town family restaurant with my father. It was one of our many “bachelor” meals out, before I went off to college and he remarried. I sat and ate my meal. It was a hot beef sandwich, if I recall my

eQuipsadvanced.com – like espresso for your brain – strives to pack a punch and catalyze not only your critical faculties but your sense of humor, adventure, and awe. The aim of this project is to inspire and help nourish advanced modes of thinking, for business and day to day life. Advanced thinkers are courageous

“eQuips” are the practical philosophies of advanced thinkers, distilled through aphorism and crisp one-liners. We are not left to fend for ourselves, bereft of guiding lights. We can read the testaments of those who have gone before us. We can listen to the podcasts of those who press on ahead. We can learn from

As advanced thinkers, we equip ourselves with the wisdom of fellow adventurers. We need not go it alone. Many have gone before us. Many have imparted the wealth of their vision, experience, and openheartedness. They blazed a trail we can advance along, by way of their example. We must not fail to learn what

Dear Reader Welcome back! Readership is a writer’s reward. I appreciate your time and attention! It has been some time since I posted here but this project remains important to me. By way of diving back in, I’d like to revisit my hopes for this website and address the reasons for its existence. What,

The real world is a complicated place – our ideas about it, not so much. Yet we should always be smarter than our ideas! Ideas exist within certain structural contexts, so called “mental models,” or frames of reference. It’s important to be able to look at these structures with an objective and critical eye.

“Think outside the box!” we say to each other cheerfully, whenever there is pressure to innovate. The advanced players will quip back: “Which box?” Think outside the box indeed. Fresh ideas come from challenging the status quo. If we keep doing things the same way, we should expect the same results. We need to

It may sound ridiculous but people need to learn to chill. I’m not talking about “vegging” or “zoning” out. I am talking about achieving a state of being:  super chill. That is, a state of well-being that includes physical as well as mental ease. Decompression. Rejuvenation. Are you over stressed or anxious? Are Mondays

I learned something surprising from keeping a daily gratitude log. It is a wonderful metric! – It is a great way of measuring aggregate personal performance. Part of a Good Journaling Habit I’ve long been an advocate of journaling. I’ve kept a journal, in some form or other, since I was a teenager. Journals

Asked how he developed his famous law of universal gravitation, Isaac Newton quipped: “By thinking on it continually.” Contrast this with the myth that it came to him all at once when an apple fell on his head! Albert Einstein attributed his own achievements to his willingness to spend 20 minutes on a problem

If your desk or work space is a disaster area, does that mean you are a creative dynamo, a genius even, or just a run-of-the-mill slob? The debate rages on! Few may push the notion that order is a bad. But we’ve all heard the classic argument in favor of disorder: I know exactly

Wouldn’t it be great if every conflict or problem we encountered included this cautionary flag? If every project we took on, had a little pop-up box – like our computers do – warning us to “SEEK CLARITY” before proceeding?   But it’s something we have to discipline ourselves to do for ourselves! We have

Do you think philosophy is bullshit?   Maybe it’s not total bullshit. Philosophy is well and good for kids in school, for instance, but not practical in the real world?   We love to joke about philosophy majors flipping burgers for a living, don’t we?   Philosophy sounds like a lot of talk and

“Though – as naturally as a seed becomes a tree of arm wide girth – There can rise a nine-tiered tower from a man’s handful of earth Or here at your feet a thousand mile journey have birth” – Lao Tzu   Now, after years of gestation and months of preparation, the time has