I was having a conversation with a friend who likes to read book summaries. He’s not a big reader, but still wants the ideas from great books, so he goes out of his way to read the summaries of lots of books to get the gist of their main ideas. I do occasionally read book […]
The Hard, But Effective Way to Learn a New Language
Since learning French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Korean, I get asked a lot about what’s the best way to learn a language. In this article, I’d like to share what I think works, what I think doesn’t and what I think doesn’t matter to learn a new language from zero to a conversational ability. Before […]
Back to China: Thoughts on Business, Culture and Language Learning in Beijing
I just got back from a two week trip to Beijing. Well actually I got back yesterday, but it’s 3:36am now and my body has decided sleep is over so I thought I might as well write. My first trip to China was almost three years ago. In addition to being the third stop in […]
How is Ultralearning Different?
Recently, I tried to introduce the idea of ultralearning: deep, aggressive self-education. Since I’ve been discussing it more frequently, I thought it would be useful to clarify more precisely what I mean by it. To the casual reader this may seem pedantic, but I’m hoping for the more frequent reader of this blog this will […]
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.