My 10 Most Popular Essays of 2023

This year was a busy one for me! I finished writing my second book, Get Better at Anything, which will be published in May. My wife and I also welcomed our second child, Julia. Oh, and I published 51 new essays!

Below are some of the most popular essays I published last year, in case you missed any!

1. 10 Ways You Can Use ChatGPT to Learn Better – A compilation of some reader recommendations for how they use ChatGPT to study better.
2. The Key to Sustainable Productivity – In order to become more productive, you have to worry less about feeling productive and more about creating systems that allow you to get more done.
3. 7 Expert Opinions I Agree With (That Most People Don’t) – Following my essay, The Mind is a Computer, I cover seven other popular-among-experts-but-widely-disbelieved opinions I agree with!
4. Ten Great Books on How to Learn Better – My pick for the best ten books on learning how to learn better!
5. The Intermediate Plateau: What Causes It? How Can We Move Beyond It? – Why do we stop improving? I discuss the research behind why skills stagnate and how to move past it.
6. How My Views on Learning Have Changed Over Time – I’ve been writing about learning for over half my life—this essay charts some of my earliest musings to my more research-informed current stance, trying to share some of the key turning points in my thinking.
7. Self-Efficacy: The Key to Understanding What Motivates You – What is self-efficacy and the three most important takeaways to succeed with challenging goals
8. Learning, Fast and Slow: Do Intensive Learning Projects Work Better Than Slow Ones? – Combining the two approaches: Why intensive projects should be followed by more leisurely maintenance.
9. The Simple Rule for Achieving Ambitious Goals – The trick for most ambitious pursuits, I’m afraid, is simply doing the obvious thing much, much more than most other people are willing to do—and accepting that it may hurt at times.
10. Are We Losing the Ability to Read Books? – A Gallup poll shows we’re reading fewer books each year. Is this a trend to be worried about?

See you next year!