A little less than three months ago today, I arrived with my friend Vat with very limited Spanish, with the goal of not speaking English for our entire stay. The challenge was an experiment: would it be possible to get by with no English even though our Spanish was rudimentary? And more, how much could […]
Watch Out for “Good” Ideas
Whenever I hear unanimous opinion a new idea or plan I have is “good”, I get suspicious. Until recently, however, I couldn’t articulate the cause of that suspicion. After all, if most people think an idea is good, shouldn’t that give me more confidence in it, not less? I think I’ve figured out the trigger […]
How to Execute a Successful Side Project
I’m a big believer in the power of side projects. This blog was once a side project. Same for the business behind it. Nearly every professional milestone I’ve made was from something that happened in my spare time, and I don’t think that’s an accident. Side projects harness the unexpected. While your regular job and […]
How to Focus
I spoke at an event recently about learning and my MIT Challenge. The talk was about which memory and insight-building methods I found useful during my experiment. After the talk, one of the audience members came and asked me whether I felt the success of the project was mostly due to efficient learning methods or […]
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.