Stuff I Learned Yesterday

Today is the Friday Forum!! I'm Darrell Darnell, and in today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share Friday Forum contributions from Jeff in the UK and Bonita. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

At a very young age my dad taught me that if you're going to do a job, wether for yourself or for someone else, you should always take the initiative and put in a little extra if you can. Because in the long run it always pays off. He also taught me that when you put in that little extra, you appreciate the outcome that much more. Read More...

As you probably remember, I spent nearly 20 years of my life working for a chain of bookstores. At the age of 24, I became the youngest person to become a store manager in the history of the company...except for the guy that started the company. It wasn’t an achievement that I had set out to reach nor was it anything that I ever really thought about. But when it happened I thought it was pretty cool and it gave me a satisfying sense of accomplishment. As I look back on that time of my life, I think that I did a lot of things right and the trust that was placed upon me was given a good return. However, it wasn’t all roses or filled with decisions that King Solomon would approve of. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! I'm Darrell Darnell, and in today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share Friday Forum contributions from Stephanie and Mary. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

"The difference between persuasion and manipulation is guilt. Once you've convinced someone to do something, how you feel about it will determine if you persuaded them or if you manipulated them. If you feel good because you convinced someone and their better off because of it, then you persuaded them. But if you convinced the person in order to benefit yourself, then you manipulated them and you should feel guilty, not all do, but they should" That guilt is how you tell the difference between persuasion and manipulation. Read More...

If you’ve been listening to this podcast or my other podcasts for a while then you probably know my podcast story. Just in case you don’t, let me give you a brief recap. I first started listening to podcasts in 2005 or 2006 because I was looking for other people who were wanting to know more and talk more about the TV show LOST. I then started calling in to The Weekly LOST Podcast with Cliff and Stephanie Ravenscraft, and thought it was really great to be able to interact with them and other LOST fans. At the time, I was working as the eCommerce Director for a bookstore chain, and most of the members of my team were geeks just like me. In the spring of 2008 FOX aired a teaser trailer for a new show they would be premiering in the fall. That show was called Fringe. I remember that when I got to work the next day after the trailer had been shown that my geeky co-workers were as excited as I was about it. We talked about it for several days and discussed the various things that had us intrigued. Among the intriguing elements to the show was that it was a show created by JJ Abrams, the man famous for making LOST and Alias. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! I'm Darrell Darnell, and in today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share Friday Forum contributions from Zach, Daniel, and Linda. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

It's alway nice to be told when you're doing a good job. Back in grade school we were thrilled when the teacher gave us a gold star or a stamp. In high school it was the handwritten "Good Job" or something similar written on the corner of our corrected tests or papers. It wasn't much, but it was validation that the effort we put in was recognized. Unfortunately, outside of school, that validation of a job well done doesn't seem to come as often. I'm not saying it never happens, it just doesn't happen as often as it used to. Bosses don't dish out "Well done" to employees just for doing their jobs. You have to go way above and beyond to receive any sort of validation from some employers and that's not always possible. Read More...

Let’s be honest, okay? Today is Monday, October 5, 2015 and like most other Mondays before it, it’s a Monday. Personally, I think Monday gets a bad rap. I know people dislike Monday because it means the weekend is over and we have to go back to work. It’s the opposite of that that gives Friday a good rap. But the truth is, Monday is just a day with 24 hours just like Friday and every other day. What really matters is what we do with those 24 hours. What really matters is what think about those 24 hours. What really matters is how we invest that 24 hours. While I think most of you will agree with what I’ve said so far, I think I may lose a few of you here. I think the same principle applies to TIMES of day. That is, I think mornings are just as great as evenings. Of course, we may have different energy levels at different times of day, but that does not make mornings a bad time of day or afternoons a good time of day. Each moment of each day is equally good. They are all ripe with opportunity. In fact, I’ll even go so far to say that the only major difference in the times of day is our mindset about them. Read More...

Today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a Friday Flashback. Friday Flashback episodes feature some of the most popular episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Today we take a trip back to episode 243 and hear an episode about parenting "Raising Children is a Daunting Task." Read More...

How am I supposed to follow what Darrell put out yesterday? That was such an emotional episode that I almost thought about hanging up my hat and saying, that's it, I'm done, because it's all downhill from there. I know this is not a competition between the two of us but if it was, then Darrell just blew me out of the water. I mean he made me cry. Read More...

Today’s story is unique in a lot of ways. It’s a story that has touched my life and my heart like no other. What’s better is that my life isn’t even close to being at the top of the list of those impacted most. It’s a story of love, comfort, and compassion. It’s a story of loss, heartbreak, and grief. Most of all, it’s a story of hope. I’ve decided to just turn the mic on and share from my heart for this story. I’m not scripting it or typing out each word I want to say. For some reason I think this one needs to come straight from my heart. So if you’re someone that normally reads these blog posts instead of listening to each episode, I invite you to hit the play button at the top of the page. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! I'm Darrell Darnell, and in today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share Friday Forum contributions from Justina and Bonita. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

My childhood wasn't ruined because I couldn't flip my bike. I had tones of fun riding that fake motorcycle around town with my friends. I didn't become a school drop out or anything because I didn't have the best computer. In fact I excelled at computer programming and was even offered a scholarship to pursue it beyond high school, but I had no desire to become a computer programmer and turned it down. Kind of ironic that I code websites now for a living. Read More...

In case you couldn’t tell from last Monday’s episode that I recorded with my son, I had a great time at Dragon Con earlier this month. Colby and I arrived in Atlanta on a Thursday afternoon, and were highly anticipating the Golden Spiral Media meet up later that night. The evening did not disappoint. Colby and I had a great time hanging out with Doug, Barb, Bonita, Kome, Nathaniel, Jess, Kevin, Emilee, Brian, Martin, Chip, Sara, Brooke, Sherri, Linda, Melissa, and Jodey. It’s always fun when I get to see this group of people. Keep in mind that when I say “this group of people” I mean “a group of Golden Spiral Media people.” Some of the people at the meet up were people I had meet before, some of them were people I was meeting for the first time in person. But each time I meet someone from the GSM community for the first time in person, it’s as if I’m meeting an old friend. For example, I had never met Kome, Jess, Sherri, Martin, or Jodey in person before that night, but that didn’t matter. There’s a cool familiarity that is already in place because they’ve been listening to one of our podcasts for a while and/or they’ve been a feedback contributor. Even an awkward conversationalist like me can feel at ease. Read More...