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 […]
How to Get Great Value from Information Products
It’s no secret I’ve taken a lot of online courses. I’ve bought hundreds, perhaps thousands of books. I’ve also bought quite a few online courses ranging from helping improve my business, languages, networking and even painting. In this article, I’d like to talk about how I make the decision to buy information products. Making those […]
Are Anti-Vaxxers Rational? More Thoughts on the Power of Copying
My last post sparked some debate when I suggested that trying to think through a rational answer for every practical problem is likely unwise. Duncan Smith comments: This may be good advice for people with the discipline to distinguish between problems that can be solved with a completely rational approach and those that are complex […]
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.