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 […]
My Plan for Learning Chinese Over Three Months
Normally I share my learning experiences after the fact. I’ve written before about tackling MIT’s calculus, Spanish, linear algebra, finance and other non-academic learning tasks. This time, however, I wanted to do things a little differently. I want to share my thinking process before going to learn Chinese. Then, once we land and the three […]
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.