I occasionally get emails asking about various ways to improve cognitive performance: supplements, brain-wave audio CDs, drugs or therapies. Usually I refuse to comment on them because I don’t know the research, but I’m generally skeptical. However, there is one category of brain-enhancing products I will comment on: braintraining exercises. These are games or puzzles […]
Never Be Too Pleased With Your Past Work
Out of the thousand articles I’ve written, there are few that I genuinely like. Most of those I feel are mostly correct or useful, upon reflection, are still lacking in a lot of ways. Sometimes they’re too wordy, the research is too sparse or there are obvious counterarguments I ignored. I feel the same way […]
Learning Portuguese Over 2 Months + 1 Week
I originally wrote this article about learning Portuguese in the last week of our stay in Brazil. Now, more than a month later, we’re finally able to upload the video. Hopefully the nearly one-month lateness of this post doesn’t confuse anyone. —— It’s my last week here in Brazil, learning Portuguese. Vat and I landed […]
I Was Wrong About China: A First Two Weeks in China (and Chinese)
A little less than two weeks ago, Vat and I arrived in Kunming, China with the goal of not speaking any English. Now that we’re in I wanted to write about life in China and first impressions on learning Chinese. I wanted to be as thorough as possible documenting the progress in learning Chinese, so […]
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.