This month we read The Enigma of Reason. In the book, Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber consider a double enigma: If reason is so valuable, such a boon to our cognition, why did it evolve only in human beings? Second, if reason is supposed to be so good, why are we so bad at it? […]
How to Commit to Long-Term Goals
Recently, I wrote a piece about how to commit to the things you start. In it, I argued that most people are spectacularly bad at committing to things which don’t have a culturally or socially-enforced system of accountability. This is unfortunate, because being successful in life inevitably depends on either doing things that weren’t mandatory […]
The Art of Unlearning
“It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain Most people think about learning as adding knowledge and skills. When you learn French, you learn that the word, avoir means “to have.” You now have a new fact in your mind […]
How to Commit to the Things You Start
One of the most important skills you can cultivate is the ability to plan, execute and finish your projects. Unfortunately, most people are spectacularly bad at this skill. I’ve witnessed this firsthand. Over the lifetime of this blog, I’ve ran several small-scale courses where I’ve tried to help people one-on-one. Because I usually have more […]
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.