Best of Berkun (my best posts of all time)

I’ve written 1400 posts over 11 years.

In 2011 I published Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds, a collection of 30 of my most provocative essays.

The list below is wildly more comprehensive: it covers all my work published online across all categories. Hope you find things you enjoy. Please subscribe or follow to get more good work as it’s published.

 Creativity

How to be Creative: the Short Honest Truth
Creative Thinking Hacks* (video)
Why You Get Ideas in The Shower
How to be a Genius
How to Pitch an Idea*
How to Survive Creative Burnout*
How to run a Brainstorming Meeting
Idea Killers: Ways to kill ideas and countermeasures
Ideas vs. Time
John Cleese On Creativity (with notes)

Innovation

Good beats ‘Innovative” nearly every time
Innovation vs. Improvement: How do you know what you have?
Stop Saying Innovation / Why Jargon Feeds on Lazy Minds
Where do Your Ideas Die?
How to Diagnose Creative Failures
How to Innovate Right Now
The 5 Best Books on Innovation EVER
Inside Pixar’s Leadership
The Simple Plan: My speech at The Economist
9 Ways to Understand How Ideas Spread
The Idea Approval Index
The Secret About Innovation Secrets

Writing

How to Write a Book – the short honest truth
How to Write a Book, part 2
Is Your Book Idea Good? Yes, I promise
On Insecurity and Writing
Why you Fail at Writing
Writing Hacks Part 1: Starting
How to write 1000 words (video)
How to  Find Your Voice
Confessions of a Self Published Author
How to Start Writing a Book

Life Philosophy

The Cult of Busy*
How to Learn From Your Mistakes*
How to Be a Free Thinker*
How to Give and Receive Criticism*
Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts*
How to Stay Motivated*
Attention and Sex*
How to Make a Difference*
Hating vs. Loving*
The Three Piles of Life
Why It’s OK to Be Obvious
How to Be Good At Anything
Should You Always Trust Your Gut? (NO)
How to Discuss Politics with Friends

Working Life

How to survive a bad manager
Why You Must Lead or Follow*
Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas*
Ten Reasons Managers Become Great
Ten Reasons Managers Become Assholes
Advice for New Managers
How to Manage Smart People
How to Convince Anyone of Anything
An Open Letter to Micromanagers
How to Call Bullshit on a Guru
Why Do Big Companies Suck?
How to Keep Your Mouth Shut
Experience is Overrated

Interface Design / Making Software

The Myth of Optimal Design
The Myth of Discoverability
The Top Mistakes UX Designers Make
Why Software Sucks
How to Run a Design Critique
5 Dangerous Ideas for Designers
Software is Not Epic
The Future of UI Will Be Boring
Why Ease of Use Doesn’t Happen
Asshole Driven Development

Project Management

Why Project Managers Get No Respect
Are You a Leader or A Tracker?
How To Fix A Team
How to Make Things Happen
What To Do When Things Go Wrong
How to Stop Over-communication
How To Start Meetings on Time

Public Speaking

How to Prepare: A Checklist for Great Talks
How to Fix Boring Lectures
How to be Passionate
The Attack of the Butterflies (how to overcome fear)
An Open Letter to Speakers
An Open Letter to Conference Organizers
How to Give a Perfect Demo
How To Speak to A Bored Audience
Why Panel Sessions Suck and How to Fix Them
How to Get Paid to Speak
The Myth of the Tough Crowd

Posts marked with * appear in Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds.

Did I miss a post you think belongs here? Leave a comment.