I’m a fan of meta-skills. These are the skills that allow you to learn faster and master new disciplines more quickly. I love meta-skills so much that a good portion of this blog writing, and my entire upcoming program are devoted to them. One of the most important meta-skills for becoming good at anything is […]
The Crowd is Stupid (You Don’t Need Genius to Beat Them)
“They say that for every open audition for a role, there are 500 applicants. But that isn’t too important, so long as you remember 490 of those applicants are idiots.” This was an example given to me by Cal Newport (although the origin is lost). The numbers aren’t real, but I think the message is […]
What if You Have More Than One Passion?
If you have many different passions, pursue all of them. Recently, I’ve had a couple emails from readers explaining that their problem is simply having too many passions. Far from being members of the apathetic masses, these people seem to have difficulty focusing because there are simply so many things to be interested about. I […]
Why Most People Give Up and Fail
Simple answer: because success almost always takes longer than you think. Sure, there are exceptions (and they tend to be overhyped by greedy marketers). However, I’ve noticed human beings tend to make two types of errors: They are overly optimistic with their timing They are overly pessimistic with their ambitions The first error results in […]
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.