I’ve traveled to a lot of cities. I’ve also lived for more than a few months in several of them. It would seem obvious that the places I know best be the ones that I spent the most time in. But strangely, this often isn’t the case. I did far more sightseeing and tourist activities […]
What’s Wrong With Just Reading Book Summaries?
I was having a conversation with a friend who likes to read book summaries. He’s not a big reader, but still wants the ideas from great books, so he goes out of his way to read the summaries of lots of books to get the gist of their main ideas. I do occasionally read book […]
The Hard, But Effective Way to Learn a New Language
Since learning French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Korean, I get asked a lot about what’s the best way to learn a language. In this article, I’d like to share what I think works, what I think doesn’t and what I think doesn’t matter to learn a new language from zero to a conversational ability. Before […]
Back to China: Thoughts on Business, Culture and Language Learning in Beijing
Visiting China and speaking in front on 40.000 people in Mandarin was one of my biggest challenges. It left me wanting to do more in a slow and right way.
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.