Blog
My video setup
I get a lot of questions about my camera setup, because my video quality is so obviously the bomb.
Last was after I got off interviewing Jerry Colonna for my podcast. I ended up writing up the whole thing in an email to him, and figured I'd repost here.
The only thing that matters
At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is your relationships: the relationship with yourself, with your family and loved ones, with friends, with customers, with prospects, with strangers. Relationships. And it all starts with your relationship with yourself.
The only way you can have a good relationship with anyone is by being authentic, by being real, by being your true self. Authenticity has gotten get bad rap recently. It’s had some pushback, and I want to push back on that pus…
Air Fried Chicken Wings Recipe
Got myself an air fryer today, and immediately made chicken wings.
Verdict: It's absolutely awesome!
Here's what I did:
- 24 minutes at 380℉
- 6 minutes at 400℉
For the sauce:
- 3 tbsp melted butter
- 4 tbsp Frank's Red Hot
For the dip:
- A few solid spoonfuls of of Sir Kensington avocado oil mayo
- A tiny amount of Gochujang hot pepper paste
- A dollop of mustard
- A few splashes of Maggi seasoning
- Salt
- Pepper
I prefer mayo dip to ranch or blue cheese. I just mix something up with wh…
My simple yet massively effective system for never forget to pack stuff when I'm traveling
I'm flying out to Phoenix tonight to spend some days with my wonderful team members out there, and so I will be packing my bags in a little bit.
What used to be a stressful experience, always worrying that I might forget something, is now super easy. I don't have to think, I can just be watching my favorite TV show while I methodically collect all my stuff.
How, you ask?
I'm glad you asked. Because as it happens, I've just made a short video showing you how:
Enjoy, and let me know your tho…
Minimum Wage
When you raise the minimum wage, a lot of things are bound to happen, to different degrees.
- Costs go up
- Profits go down
- Fewer people get hired
- People get hired for fewer hours
- People make more money
- People buy more stuff
- Tax revenue goes up
- Welfare payments go down
- People save more
- People have been priced out of the market and can't get a job
- Companies invest more in automation, leading to permanent job loss
- Workers improve their skills because the low-skilled jobs are gone
- Prices…
Calvin Cuts to the Core: Climate Change
I've been trying to figure out what's up and down when it comes to climate change. For years, something's felt off with the religious nature of the people who advocate drastic action against climate change.
The first time this happened was back in 2001 when Bjørn Lomborg had just burst onto the scene with his book The Skeptical Environmentalist. His argument was basically that, sure, the world is heating up, but trying to fight this by reducing CO2 through switching to wind and solar and cuttin…
More customer service fun

Received this one from fitbit this morning:
Let me translate:
Hi Calvin,
Thank you very much for getting back with us and providing us with the information requested. Your help through this process is highly appreciated.
Translation: Okay, we feel a tiny bit bad for making you jump through all these hoops to get to this point.
Your happiness and satisfaction remains to be our number one goal and priority. We understand that the situation encountered with your Aria scale is not ideal. Al…
My scented candle making process
Here it is, in condensed form:
- Fill up the ziploc container with wax flakes
- Microwave at 100% for 2 minutes
- Add a few more flakes, but don’t fill it up all the way
- Microwave again at 100% for 2 minutes
- Take the temperature
- Microwave at 100% in 30-second increments until temperature reaches 185 F
- Let i cool to about 120 F
- Add whatever the essential oils you want. Haven't figured out exactly how much. I guess that also depends on how strong they are.
- Thread the wick, put it in the glass…
Venting
My friend and colleague Nick told me about a therapist who'd told him that the first 5-10 sessions, people usually need to just vent and get all their anger out. Only then can we get to the real issues. I'm thinking there might be a point here.
Then this morning, I was listening to a book on the law of attraction, and it mentioned that if you're feeling depressed, moving from depression to anger is actually a step up, a move in the right direction. It's a first step towards joy and bliss and ha…
Apart from what you're thinking and believing ...
One of the things Byron Katie kept saying at her workshop at Esalen last weekend was this:
Apart from what you're thinking and believing, are you okay?
You might notice, that if you really check in, and you're honest with yourself, the answer is probably "yes".
It falls well in line with everything else I've heard or read from her, but that particular way of phrasing it was new to me. And I love it.