Penelope Trunk

Archives

How to take intelligent risks

September 29th, 2010
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Recently, I covered my hallway in wallpaper I bought online (via Wallpaper Weekly). Everyone I showed the wallpaper to said the it would be too busy a pattern. But I loved it. So I bought it anyway.

There are a lot of problems with my hallway now — most notably, I used Elmer’s glue instead of …

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4 Twitter tips no one will give you

Posted to: Diversity | Fulfillment | Networking
September 28th, 2010
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I think it's time for me to address the fact that I have 56,000 followers on Twitter but I have tweeted only 500 times. If I were an aging rock star or philandering basketball player, this might not be remarkable. But I'm basically a normal person.
So I'm going to give you four twitter tips that …

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How to do damage control

Posted to: Self-management
September 24th, 2010
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Remember the donkey in the last post? Well, here's the story of the donkey. The farmer bought it, but he doesn't know very much about donkeys, except “Horses need to be ridden,” he said. About ten thousand times.
The donkey is not trained. And we don't have any riding gear for the donkey, so I rode …

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What are we working for, really?

Posted to: Fulfillment
September 22nd, 2010
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I told the farmer I wanted a horse.
Here are things I know about horses from the farmer's response:
1. Horses are very cheap right now. It used to be that you could buy an estate, put horses on it, call it a horse farm, and take a tax deduction on all the land. But the US …

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Time management is not about tasks

Posted to: Management | Productivity
September 17th, 2010
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When I was in high school, the police took me out of my parents' house and put me at my grandma's house. (Here's the story.)
My grandma spent a lot of time telling me I was special. That's exactly how she'd say it: “You're special.” And I used to think she was lying, saying that to …

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When is it okay to use the F word?

Posted to: Diversity | Office Politics
September 15th, 2010
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A lot of what I learned in college I learned from the New York Times. I was completely incapable of managing the college application process on my own. In hindsight, it strikes me as similar to my experience with the DMV. The application process is way too complicated for someone with Asperger Syndrome. But I …

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How I improved my morning routine

Posted to: Productivity
September 13th, 2010
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When I was a single parent, I would get up at 6am to get ready before my kids woke up — all advice for how to get ready in the morning recommends this. But then the kids realized that if they woke up early they could watch videos, because what else is there to give …

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How I decide to work on Rosh Hashannah

Posted to: Productivity | Self-management
September 9th, 2010
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We drove to Iowa City yesterday, to have Rosh Hashanah with my family. I took the kids out of school and told their teachers it's the Jewish New Year so the kids will miss school. I said it in front of the kids so I can teach them that we take off a day for …

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Forget the job hunt. Have a baby instead.

Posted to: Job Hunt | Women
September 7th, 2010
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Here's an idea for what women should do if they’re unemployed: Have a baby. Your first reaction is probably that this is a throwback to the 1950s. But it's not. This is the most up-to-date career advice you're going to get for dealing with a down-in-the-dumps job market.
Here's why a stint of unemployment is a …

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