Learning
Experts vs. Imitators
If you want the highest quality information, you have to speak to the best people. The problem is many people claim to be experts, who really aren’t. Safeguard: Take time to distinguish real experts from imitators.
Let Go of the Learning Baggage
We all want to learn better. That means retaining information, processing it, being able to use it when needed. More knowledge means better instincts; better insights into opportunities for both you and your organization.
Language: Why We Hear More Than Words
It’s a classic complaint in relationships, especially romantic ones: “She said she was okay with me forgetting her birthday! Then why is she throwing dishes in the kitchen? Are the two things related?
Math Makes Life Beautiful.
Math has long been the language of science, engineering, and finance, but can math help you feel calm on a turbulent flight? Get a date? Make better decisions? Here are some heroic ways math shows up in our everyday life.
Advice for Young Scientists—and Curious People in General
The Nobel Prize-winning biologist Peter Medawar (1915–1987) is best known for work that made the first organ transplants and skin grafts possible. Medawar was also a lively, witty writer who penned numerous books on science and philosophy.
The Ultimate Deliberate Practice Guide: How to Be the Best
Everything You Need to Know to Improve Your Performance at Anything—For Beginners and Experts. Deliberate practice is the best technique for achieving expert performance in every field.
What Information Do You Need in Order to Change?
“Feedback is an effective tool for promoting efficient behavior: it enhances individuals’ awareness of choice consequences in complex settings.” —“Feedback and Efficient Behavior.”
The Feynman Learning Technique
The Feynman Technique is the best way to supercharge your learning. And it works no matter the subject. Devised by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.
Why You Should Practice Failure
We learn valuable lessons when we experience failure and setbacks. Most of us wait for those failures to happen to us, however, instead of seeking them out.
We Are What We Remember
Memory is an intrinsic part of our life experience. It is critical for learning, and without memories we would have no sense of self.
“Jootsing”: The Key to Creativity
Creativity can seem like a mysterious process. But many of the most creative people understand that you can actually break it down into a simple formula, involving what researcher Douglas Hofstadter calls “jootsing.”
How Julia Child Used First Principles Thinking
There’s a big difference between knowing how to follow a recipe and knowing how to cook. If you can master the first principles within a domain, you can see much further.
Being Smart is Not Enough
When hiring a team, we tend to favor the geniuses who hatch innovative ideas, but overlook the butterflies, the crucial ones who share and implement them.
Stop Preparing For The Last Disaster
When something goes wrong, we often strive to be better prepared if the same thing happens again. A more effective approach is simply to prepare to be surprised by life.
Bad Arguments and How to Avoid Them
Productive arguments serve two purposes: to open our minds to truths we couldn’t see — and help others do the same.
Muscular Bonding: How Dance Made Us Human
Do we dance simply for recreation? Or is there a primal urge that compels us to do it?
Why We Focus on Trivial Things: The Bikeshed Effect
Bikeshedding is a metaphor to illustrate the strange tendency we have to spend excessive time on trivial matters.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Doers and thinkers from Shakespeare to Jobs have liberally “stolen” inspiration from those who came before.
What You Truly Value
Our devotion to our values gets tested in the face of a true crisis. But it’s also an opportunity to reconnect and recommit.
The Illusory Truth Effect: Why We Believe Fake News, Conspiracy Theories and Propaganda
When a “fact” tastes good and is repeated enough, we tend to believe it, no matter how false it may be.
The Power of Questions
The quality of the answers we get are directly correlated with the quality of the questions we ask.
The Spacing Effect: How to Improve Learning and Maximize Retention
The spacing effect is a far more effective way to learn and retain information that works with our brain instead of against it.
Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain
Double loop learning is the quickest and most efficient way to learn anything that you want to “stick.”
Pain Plus Reflection Equals Progress
Our most painful moments are also our most important. Rather than run from pain, we need to identify it, accept it, and learn how to use it.