I had a conversation with a friend once who complained about his lack of success with women. Yet this same person rarely did anything social, preferring to do solo activities or hang out with the same group of friends. It may seem crazy that someone can want to change an element of their life badly, […]
Do What Others Won’t or Can’t Do
Most career-advice today deals with matching—trying to pair people’s aptitudes and passions with specific jobs. So, the advice goes, if you’re friendly, maybe you should go in sales. Good at math? Consider engineering or science. The matching paradigm here strikes me as too optimistically egalitarian. It somehow assumes that all jobs are equally desirable, but […]
Why Learn Math?
Math often has a bad reputation. Learn my views about why learning math might be beneficial in the real world.
First Lessons in Trying to Finish 4 Years of MIT in 12 Months
It’s been exactly one month since I started working on my goal to learn MIT’s computer science program at 4x the pace, without taking classes. In that time, I’ve written the final exams for 4 of the 33 classes I’ll need to take over the next year. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about […]
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.