“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

Getting Productive with Tesla - There's probably quite a bit Nikola Tesla could teach any of us, but how to be more productive wasn't the first thing that came to my mind. This Lifehacker article, however, says otherwise as it looks at what this genius did to stay productive and accomplish more than anyone could ever hope. Tesla took time to think about problems before jumping to solving them, found that stepping away unlocks "eureka" moments and discovered that a little alone time makes the mind "sharper and keener."

Give People an Exclusive - Robin Sloan writes about one of Minecraft's secrets to success—user discoverability. The game doesn't dictate or tell people what to do or how to do it, so it has built a community around secret knowledge that is available across the web from wikis to YouTube. Minecraft by its very nature has caused a community to be built up around it. It's more than just a game. It's a culture.

How OttoKerect Became Autocorrect - Autocorrect is a feature I use all the time but never really notice. That is until it gets something wrong. But as Gideon Lewis-Kraus points out, it's pretty amazing, and he tracked down the man behind this overlooked but very often used feature that makes touch keyboards useful. This article digs into the history of autocorrect, and shows how complicated seemingly simple things can really be.