Normally I share my learning experiences after the fact. I’ve written before about tackling MIT’s calculus, Spanish, linear algebra, finance and other non-academic learning tasks. This time, however, I wanted to do things a little differently. I want to share my thinking process before going to learn Chinese. Then, once we land and the three […]
How Do You Learn a New Language, Without Forgetting the Old One?
The biggest difficulty I had when learning Spanish was, perhaps surprisingly, speaking French. I had learned French to conversational fluency before learning Spanish. However, as my Spanish got better, I found it made speaking French much harder. The problem got so bad, that after only a week or two in Spain, I could speak better […]
Should I Have Done the MIT Challenge Over 4 Years?
One critique I got of the MIT Challenge was that I should have taken the classes over the normal four years, instead of twelve months. The naïve version of this critique was to argue that I should do the classes the way MIT students do—full time over a period of four years. But this criticism […]
How I’m Learning Spanish
I’m reaching the halfway point in Spain, the first of four countries, in my year without speaking English. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on what I’ve been doing to learn Spanish, what’s worked well and what hasn’t. I want to stress that this article is intended to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. […]
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.