The official blog of Brian Hertzog - sharing thoughtful stories that inspire action.
Imagine for a moment, there’s a toy factory with a special machine that produces stuffed zebras. Every time I push a button a stuffed zebra gets made. Now imagine that one day, I decide I don’t want to make zebras any more, but want to make stuffed lions instead. Suddenly, I have a problem. Because the reality is that no matter what I want to happen, nothing is going to change the output of the…
There’s a quiet law humming underneath much of life, a kind of moral physics we don’t openly discuss but sense intuitively, like gravity pulling beneath our feet. It’s this: The most meaningful things in life cannot be pursued directly. Enduring happiness, for example, isn’t something you achieve by indulging in a never-ending buffet of pleasurable experiences (people have tried). Chase happiness…
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the merits of basic good advice. Simple things like: get more sleep, spend less than you earn, call your parents, move your body, put down your phone, save for the long term, pay attention. They’re not great mysteries. They’re not hidden in secret textbooks or locked away by elite institutions. Instead, they’re more likely printed on refrigerator magnets, woven…
Image created with GPT4o | All writing is my own Like many of you, I’ve been fascinated by the A.I. wave which continues to simultaneously amaze me while deeply challenging my previous understanding of uniquely human capabilities on a seemingly weekly basis. Whether it’s writing, music, art, math, or complex coding, it’s a humbling feeling to see computers do things I never imagined possible. And…
Part I: Are You Ready? There’s an old story about two competitive brothers who feuded with each other their entire lives. One day, after a particularly bad argument, they decided the best way to settle their rivalry once and for all, was to see who could run a marathon the fastest. Neither brother had ever run a marathon before, but the challenge seemed audacious enough that whoever won the race…
Every year around my birthday, I like to take some time to pause and reflect on my life. It’s in these still, reflective moments that I find I’m able to see most clearly what’s been working, what’s not, and internalize the all the lessons I’ve learned over the last year. This year, I’ve pulled together a few of these fun ideas to share with you that I hope you’ll enjoy! A good place to start is to…
“ How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives. ” — Annie Dillard Time is the currency of life. From the moment we wake up, our days and schedules are ruled by time. Another beautiful anecdote of time is that it’s truly the ultimate equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you’re Jeff Bezos, Oprah, or just Jenny from the block, everybody has 24 hours in the day, no more and no less.…
Mic check, is this thing on? Hello, friends! 👋 I can now say this is the longest gap between updates since I started this blog over nine years ago in 2012, but as anyone who’s ever blogged knows, sometimes that’s just how things go. I know it’s been a while, but as we wind down 2021, it felt like the perfect moment to pause, check in, say hello, and share a few highlights from the last year.…
Greetings, readers. I write to you in the midst of what’s certainly one of the oddest moments of my life to date. All the petty trivialities and routines of daily life have been halted while nearly every country in the world simultaneously battles a crippling global pandemic. It’s taken me some time to string together some thoughts and process what’s been happening. If you know me well, you know…
Two weekends ago I visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain. The museum houses 4,000 + works of original art, representing but a fraction of the artist’s total creative output. Hung throughout an old gothic building, the sketches and paintings stitch together a tapestry of Picasso’s life, from his earliest works to his final years. While exploring I carried my notebook and pen and recorded…
Sometime in the year 1917, Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn II moved into an American country estate called Filoli . The majestic main house was built on 16 acres (on a 654-acre estate) in San Mateo, California. The property’s notable features include expansive sunken gardens, fruit orchards, winding trails, and meticulously landscaped views. This past weekend, 102 years after Mr. and Mrs. Bourn…
Over the weekend, I watched The Great Hack , a new Netflix documentary on the subject of professional influencing and the backstory of Cambridge Analytica. It’s the kind of documentary that makes you immediately want to delete all the apps from your phone and reach for the nearest tinfoil hat. Although I resisted the temptation to throw my phone in the river, I was astonished at the scale of…
Greetings, wonderful readers! It’s my privilege to be writing to you today, because today is my 29th birthday. I realize you don’t hear from me as frequently as you once did, and I feel a bit guilty about this. To be perfectly honest, as I’ve gotten older, my priorities have shifted and projects I once spent many hours working on simply get a smaller piece of the time and attention pie. That’s not…
“How you do anything, is how you do everything.” One of my biggest life projects over the past six years has been educating myself as much as I possibly can about the subject of investing. I’ve read books , subscribed to industry-leading publications , listened to podcasts , and attended conferences . What I’ve learned—no surprise here—is that there are seemingly infinite strategies for…
The London Underground transports up to 5 million people each day. As digitally hypnotized passengers pour into the tubes, audible instructions remind travelers to please “mind the gap” as they enter and exit trains. While most people don’t have a problem avoiding the gap on their own, the reminder is a useful jolt back to the present moment so we pay attention and don’t accidentally do the splits…
Greetings wonderful readers and happy 2019! It’s my first post of the new year, and I’m psyched to be publishing here again. The end of 2018 was a whirlwind; you may remember me mentioning in my last post, I moved (still in SF) last month. I’m happy to report that, aside from some appliance issues, we’re mostly settled into our new home. The idea I want to share with you today is actually more of…
Greetings friends, family, and readers. It’s been a very busy month for me, so I wanted to update you on what’s going on, and share an idea I’ve been thinking about lately. The biggest update since I last posted here is that I’m moving! Where am I moving? As it so happens, my new place is only three blocks from my old apartment and I’m moving in with my beautiful girlfriend, Diana. This is our…
What makes a great product? Why do some consumer products become super popular while others sit on the shelf? I’ve been thinking about these questions lately, and have decided to create a hierarchy of sorts, similar to that of Maslow’s , but for consumer products. The list is simple. First, and at the base of the pyramid is the product must do what it’s supposed to do. In other words, it has to…
Today, I voted. I dropped my ballot in the mail and went to work. As the midterms approach, there’s a growing amount of media messaging reminding people to get out and vote. Obviously, I support these efforts and encourage any of my U.S.-based readers to do the same. But thinking about my ballot tonight made me wonder why we’re so adamantly vocal around election time yet relatively quiet the rest…
“You won’t be able to recognize the things you really care about until you have released your grip on all the things that you’ve been taught to care about.” - William Deresiewicz At far too young an age, American children will become painfully aware of a strange new desire to “fit in”. In those first few days of school, kids will scramble to form allies in a world without the watchful loving eyes…