A few months ago I left my job to do some traveling, and to focus my time on making Unfinished Man the best men’s website on the internet. As I’m sure you can imagine, taking a break from work can be an incredibly worthwhile experience. If you have the means to do so, I highly recommend it. Being unemployed comes with a few drawbacks, though, and the one I want to talk about is a relatively obscure concept that I like to call “leaving the fucking house”.
If you’ve ever been off work for any length of time, be it due to lack of employment or simply because you’re self employed, perhaps you can relate when I suggest that it takes an exceptional amount of mental fortitude to force yourself to leave the house sometimes. One day turns into many days, and eventually continue reading →
A few months ago, I left my job to work on Unfinished Man full time. This extra time gave me an opportunity to really sit back and reflect on my life, and decide what’s important to me. One area I thought a lot about was my friendships. I knew that I had good friends, but I didn’t really know what made them good friends. In typical organizational-freak-manner, I started to write a list. I wrote out all the qualities that I felt were important to me in a friendship. A week later I was satisfied with what I wrote, saved it, and mostly forgot about it… until last night. continue reading →
What you see above is the type of playground that was common before the 1990s – the type of playground that is both awesome, and able to harm children in many grizzly ways – a feature which makes it doubly awesome. In the last 20 years, parents have lobbied to crack down on these so-called “dangerous” playgrounds because of their fear of harm coming to their lame-ass kids. Apparently modern parents think it’s a bad thing for their sons and daughters to come home with gaping animal wounds, or broken bones, and that’s where I say they’re wrong. continue reading →
Women are undisputed masters of the white lie, but before you get too torqued out imagining all the dirty falsehoods your girl’s been telling you, let’s talk about why we do it. Believe it or not, we don’t care to deceive you, but we do care about you. The white lie is a powerful tool that everyone uses at some point in their day, and whether for good or for evil, it’s a pretty normal human interaction. People don’t give a damn about how your lunch went most of the time, and they’re rarely going to stand up and tell you how badly they straight out disagree with you. Consider the white lie as the soothing balm that keeps the nutsack of the world from sticking to its leg; while it may not be a life-saving necessity, it certainly keeps everyone more comfortable and happy. While there are white lies that can help you get out of trouble (“I was just helping my buddy move his patio furniture!” …past the gorgeous, sun-kissed, twenty something neighbor girl), women usually tell white lies to help keep unnecessary man-drama to a minimum (this may be a fairly startling revelation; sometimes, just sometimes, it is the man who’s getting too worked up about something.) The only problem with this is that it may create a sense of security that isn’t 100% true, and if you’re feeling like everything is just a bit too perfect and bland, you may be getting fed a steady diet of polite bull shit. We’ve put together some of the most common white lies that women specifically use with men, and a guide to what they actually mean. continue reading →
For every guy out there that believes he’s an 11 and choirs of amazonian women sing his praises wherever he goes, there are a hundred guys who are a bit uncertain about where they rank when it comes to being attractive to women. If you’re one of the millions of men who are pretty sure that they’re a catch, but don’t know how to project that to the women they’re interested in, read on- I’m going to let you in on a few important secrets that will help you realize your potential. While we may seem like cruel and confusing creatures, the truth is, most of the time we don’t know what the hell is going on either; since you can’t change us, here are a few easy tips that will help you develop yourself for maximum impact with women. continue reading →
Are you one of those people who keeps something simply because you feel that you could maybe, possibly, conceivably use it some day? Or perhaps you’re the type to keep a birthday gift, despite the fact that you don’t like it, have no use for it, and are only keeping it on the off-chance that the giver might notice you got rid of it. There are many reasons that people decide to keep things they don’t need, but all of them result in the same thing – needless clutter. If you’re interested in making a bit more space inside your home, and possibly even making a bit of money in the process, continue reading →
If you’ve ever worked at a company that requires selling, chances are you’ve been asked to do some telemarketing to “help boost sales”. The worst kind of telemarketing being the cold call, especially when it’s you who has to do it. Perhaps your boss finally noticed that sales were slumping, or perhaps he or she just hates you; whatever the reason, cold calling is a horrific soul-wrecking nightmare and should be avoided at all costs. I say this from experience. You know those people who call you during dinner time, or when you’re banging your girlfriend? Yeah, you’ll be one of those guys. No one likes a cold caller.
(Photo: Samael Kreutz)
I just got back from a two-week vacation in the heart of the Belizean jungle. This “vacation”, if you can call it that, was long overdue. The vacation was long overdue not because I needed to sit back and relax (though I did do some of that), but because traveling grants the traveler one thing that’s in short supply; perspective.
A person who’s very dear to me sent me an article by Mike Acton, the director of core tech and tools at Insomniac Games. Mike talks extensively about what he believes is the recipe for not only a successful game development team, but continue reading →
(Photo: stuartpilbrow)
Every day, I find myself faced with the prospect of dealing with someone I don’t like – I can spot them a mile away. I see their enormous girth, right before I catch that look in their eyes – the look that says “I’m morbidly obese with 3 divorces under my belt and I’m angry!”. It would be unfair of me to just pick on the morbidly obese, though – there are so many other types of customers that grace my workplace with a blank stare and an icy determination to ask me mountains of questions that I simply have no interest in answering. So what’s a man to do? I could provide the kind of customer service that so many middle managers expound as the path to corporate greatness, or I could take another path – a path that allows me to shirk my duties and continue looping Paul Rudd’s Computer over and over again.
What I’m about to share with you is a series of simple, but effective, tactics and strategies that I’ve developed on the field over the lengthy course of my “career”. These strategies are not for the faint of heart – the risk of discovery is ever present, but the rewards far outweigh the risks. If you have the iron resolve to ruin your coworkers’ day and provide terrible customer service, continue reading →
Watching this TED talk reminded me of a simple truth I realized years ago but never gave more than brief reflection; talking about your goals bleeds your mind of all ambition to complete them. This may not be true for everyone, but I’ve found that the mere mention of a particular goal or worthwhile habit I intend to work towards is enough to sate my mind and guarantee that I probably won’t actually go through with it.
It’s interesting that this should happen, because logically it makes sense to tell people what you plan to achieve or work towards. They may provide support, and their congratulations and praise should propel you towards you goal… not so.
This brief talk by Derek Sivers explains why talking about your goals is a form of masturbation for your ego, and a simple way to avoid it.
