Recently, I introduced the concept of ultralearning—deep, intense self-education. This kind of learning is characterized by grappling with deep concepts and hard practice. My bigger learning projects have used this approach out of necessity. If you’re trying to learn something like differential equations or Chinese characters in a short period of time, those constraints make […]
Which Ideas are Overrated?
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” – George Box There are some ideas which are true. “2+2=4” is an idea that is hard to doubt. There are also ideas which are false. “The moon is made of cheese” is wrong, no matter how you look at it. But most ideas are somewhat in-between—neither […]
With the World’s Knowledge a Click Away, We Spend Our Time Looking at Funny Pictures of Cats
Last week I introduced the concept of ultralearning: deep, aggressive self-education. This is the strategy that I used to learn hard subjects like differential equations or Mandarin Chinese in a short amount of time. This kind of self-education—epitomized by doing intense practice to learn hard subjects—isn’t a normal practice for most people. I believe that […]
Career Planning and the Dao
You’ll swim fastest if you go with the current. You’ll accomplish more in life if you work with the flow of things rather than against it. The ancient Chinese called this the Dao. The ineffable becoming of things to which we are all linked. The height of wisdom, they believed, was to work with this […]
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.