Empathy is one of the key signifiers of workplace success. Exhaustive research shows that when businesses fail, it is often because leaders have stopped focusing on understanding different types of environments and instead remain insulated in their own domain. And the Harvard Business Review shows that empathy is key to successful product design. 
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Now that I’ve read, and re-read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I’m more conscious about what I keep and what I throw out. I’m hard-core now. Most birthday cards go in the garbage; we have a lot of birthdays and I saved the cards since when I was five years old, and believe me, I didn’t need to.
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This course includes four days of video sessions and email-based course materials. You can purchase this course for anytime, on-demand access. The cost is $195.  

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I have three siblings. All brothers.

We all know who my mom’s favorite is: Brother number two. And we all know who the smartest one is: Brother number three. But the one who is the most fun to talk to is brother number one.

(Before we go on, I’m sure you’re wondering where I fit here. I am smarter than brother number two, who we all agree is the dumbest of all of us. But when it comes to social skills, brother number two is so far and away better than all of us, that he would be insulted to hear that I am ranking one of us so close to him as to be social skills second best.)

So anyway, brother number one is the most fun to talk to. And now I know why: He’s an INTP.
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Liv Tyler just joined a bunch of other post-30 women in speaking out about how there are too few Hollywood roles for older women. I always read what the women say because the aging process for women is so difficult. I want to know how other women handle it. I want to know if there is a secret to aging gracefully.
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This course includes four days of video sessions and email-based course materials. You can purchase this course for anytime, on-demand access. The cost is $195.  

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My editor is an INFP. He is crazy, but he doesn’t know he’s crazy.

The first crazy thing he did was email me out of the blue and ask if he could be my editor. This is what he wrote, “I have no experience editing but I love your writing and the only way I can figure out how to be able to read more of it is to be your editor.”
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I wake up at 5am and while I wait for the coffee to brew, I do a yoga pose. Not so much to do yoga, because yoga’s been torturing me for years and I’m sick of it. I do the pose to celebrate my kitchen floor. It’s so clean.
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This course includes four days of video sessions and email-based course materials. You can purchase this course for anytime, on-demand access. The cost is $195.  Sign up now!

Whenever I feel like I am a social aberrant because of how many corners I cut, I think about my ENTP friend Cassie. What do you call it if you are cutting more than the corners? Slicing and dicing? That’s what Cassie does.

Cassie is the only person I’ve ever met who has more ideas than I do. Cassie’s attention span is like, fifteen seconds, so her ideas flow faster than mine. Basically, Cassie stays with an idea long enough for everyone to tell her it’s brilliant, and then she moves on.

Cassie and I take little vacations, with Melissa. We do weekends away.

Qustion: What do an INTJ (Melissa) an ENTJ (me) and an ENTP (Cassie) do in a swanky hotel room far away from home?

Answer: We work. But it’s so fun to work in the same hotel room because we all like doing each others’ work. Here’s how it goes.
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I get included in a lot of lists (19 Blogs You Should Bookmark Right Now, Top 10 Aspergers Blogs, Top 100 Education Blogs, Top 50 Productivity Blogs) but I generally don’t pay a lot of attention. Lists are subjective, I don’t know who put the list together, and I mostly measure my success by if people care about what I’m writing (I usually judge by comments and social sharing) and if I’m making enough money to stay out of debt (a seemingly impossible feat).
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Where’s the return on investment for that a bachelor’s in art history or an MFA? How do artists support themselves. What can I do if I’m a visual thinker?

You can answer those questions with, “Get a day job.” But there’s a lot more you could do besides that. Here are some career paths that are open to visual thinkers, whether or not you have a degree.
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Every year I write about 9/11. Because I was there. But this year, I didn’t want to. But then I woke up today and decided that I want to.
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