Richard Feynman, professor and Nobel-prize winning physicist purportedly only had an IQ of 125. Smart, but hardly in the rarefied spectrum we normally consider for genius. This trivia is usually brought up to show the ridiculousness of IQ testing. If an obvious genius doesn’t qualify for Mensa, how valid can it be for normal people? […]
Completing an MIT Physics Class in 4.5 Days?
Reprinted from my free newsletter, Learn Faster, Achieve More. Last week I sat down to write one of the hardest exams I’ve ever had to prepare for, and I’m not even a student anymore. The class was Classical Mechanics, an MIT physics class. MIT generously puts up many courses online, for free, so you can […]
Is Obsession a Prerequisite for Success?
In chemistry, there’s the idea of an activation cost. This is the threshold of energy you need to surpass to start a chemical reaction. Dynamite, for example, contains a lot of energy. But unless a spark or lit fuse pays the activation cost it won’t explode. Life also has activation costs. There are many pursuits […]
Why It’s Hard Not to Be a Hypocrite
I recently came upon this quote from the social-news aggregator reddit: “What I’ve seen is that in the museums and in the textbooks, whenever they claim to show the evolutionary differences from one species to another, it relies on illustrations and drawings… not any material evidence.” – Wendy Wright The comments mock the obvious hypocrisy […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.