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site iconSeth GodinModify

Coordinator of The Carbon Almanac. Founder of Akimbo, home of the altMBA. Author of THE PRACTICE and THIS IS MARKETING.
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How to win a bidding war

2026-02-28 18:03:00

Pundits are saying that Netflix “lost” the bidding for Warner.

Actually, they won. They didn’t just win because they got a nearly $3 billion breakup fee.

They won because in just about every contentious public auction, the winner is the one who is willing to overpay the most.

The best way to win a bidding war is to not bid.

Justice and luck

2026-02-27 18:03:00

Orson Welles may have said, “Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.”

I think it’s more productive to imagine that “Justice is how society deals with luck.”

Good and bad.

No.

2026-02-26 18:03:00

Is a complete sentence.

So is, “yes.”

Love your customers

2026-02-25 18:03:00

It’s nice if you do, but it’s not required.

You’re not them. You may have had different experiences, been exposed to different ideas or simply be prepared to make different choices.

That’s okay.

What’s useful: loving the change you’re able to make. Being proud of helping people get from here to there. Focusing on utility and being of service.

You don’t have to invite them to your birthday party, but it helps to care about impact and transformation.

Time is the wildcard

2026-02-24 18:03:00

There are two feet of snow blocking your car from the road. This is a problem.

Except it’s not a problem if you don’t need to leave the house for a few days—the snow will melt on its own.

And it’s not a problem if you had decided to move to the island of Saba a few years ago. It never snows there.

Traffic on the way to an important meeting is only a problem because we didn’t leave twenty minutes earlier. The rent that’s hard to cover after a vacation—same thing.

The real world feels like the source of our problems. But our decisions over time might be the actual culprits, hiding in the corner.

Instead of treating time as a given and the real world as an impediment, what happens if we accept the real world and make different decisions about time?

Sarcasm self-defeats

2026-02-23 18:51:00

Sarcasm is an easy way to amplify feedback.

It has two hidden costs:

  1. It reveals low status. People with power don’t need to use sarcasm to make a point. If you want to lead with status, using sarcasm undermines that goal.
  2. It adds emotion where it’s not always needed. The emotion is an amplifier, but it often causes division and defensiveness.

If you have confidence in your standing and your idea, then sarcasm is simply getting in the way, because it undermines both.