Barnum's 1880 Money Rules Still Work (Mostly)
P.T. Barnum wrote a money advice book in 1880. Some of the rules are timeless. Some have rotted. A few are quietly more dangerous than they look. Here's the honest audit.
Tag
Business & Entrepreneurship
A focused shelf of PickyFox posts on business & entrepreneurship.
Asking for What You Want Without Sounding Like a Guru
Joshua Bandoch wrote a whole book on asking for what you want. The framework's useful - once you strip away the coaching cliches. Here are the scripts that actually work.
Common Sense Is Usually Right (Even at Work)
Philosopher Michael Huemer argues that when smart arguments lead you to absurd conclusions, the arguments are wrong, not the common sense. That's a useful idea to bring to a pricing meeting.
Why Your Business Problems Keep Repeating (It's a System)
Donella Meadows mapped out twelve places to push on a system to change its behavior. Most freelancers are pushing on the wrong six. Here's where the leverage actually lives.
What to Do When the Business Year Goes Sideways
Bad quarters, lost clients, failed launches. Pema Chödrön has a gentler way of moving through these, and it actually helps. No five-step recovery plan.
Decision Quality vs. Decision Outcomes (Stop Conflating Them)
Annie Duke has a name for the move where you grade your business choices by how they turned out. It's called resulting. It's making you risk-averse in exactly the wrong places.
The Career Pivot You Should Plan Before You're 50
Arthur Brooks split intelligence into two engines - one peaks in your 30s, the other late. The freelancers who plan around that shift age into power. The ones who don't age into panic.
Why You and Your Client Aren't Actually Disagreeing
Kurt Gray's research on moral conflict suggests most disagreements aren't about values - they're about who got hurt. The same model explains almost every client fight I've ever been in.
Die With Zero Is a Trap for Most Freelancers
Bill Perkins wrote Die With Zero for hedge fund managers with predictable income. Then everyone else read it. Here's why the framework breaks for irregular-income workers - and what to use instead.
Spending Money on Happiness Without Lifestyle Inflation
Dunn and Norton's five Happy Money rules sound obvious. They are. Almost no freelancer actually applies them. Here's how to spend on happiness without your overhead quietly eating your raise.
Best Budgeting Apps for Irregular Income
Most budgeting apps assume a steady paycheck. Here are the ones that actually survive irregular income, from someone who's lived the lumpy months.
Freelance Discovery Call Questions That Filter
The right freelance discovery call questions do two jobs: they scope the work and they screen out the clients who'll wreck your month. Here's the short list to ask.