First, there’s generic advice. The kind that fills books and graduation ceremonies. It represents the advice-giver’s accumulated wisdom, but it’s not directed to an individual. Confucius shared general principles of good living, not just advice for one person. Steve Jobs spoke to the entire Stanford convocation, not just one graduate. The advantage of generic advice […]
Thoughts on Learning a Degree, Without Going to School
It’s been slightly over two months since I started the MIT Challenge, and I’ve already passed the one-year mark for classes completed so far. Now that I’ve finished a significant chunk of the courses, I wanted to share my thoughts so far on the tradeoffs I’ve noticed from taking this rather unconventional approach to learning […]
Swimming Upstream Against Your Destiny
The heritability of IQ increases with age. If this doesn’t surprise you, it should. What it means is that as you have more experiences, they matter even less for your overall intelligence. One explanation for this bizarre fact is that intelligence has a compounding property. If you’re slightly smarter as a child, due to innate […]
How to Stay Focused (Without Extra Caffeine)
This article was originally in my free newsletter, Learn Faster, Achieve More. One of the questions I’ve been getting asked a lot about my MIT Challenge is how can I stay focused during the long working hours? Keeping up with the pace has meant working about 10-12 hours per day. But the time needs to […]
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.