Working hard doesn't matter if it's on the wrong things. Thoughts on making the hard decisions about what to focus on.
Desirable Difficulties: When Harder is Better for Learning
Can you learn more efficiently by making things harder for yourself? These three strategies let you learn faster (even if it feels slower).
What I’ve Been Reading
It’s been almost a year since I started my current research project. My initial starting point was the intriguing, if somewhat pessimistic, research on learning transfer. However, crawling through citations has gotten me to some of the more interesting science on how people think the mind works. Having now read over 70 books and 250 […]
Cultural Literacy: Does Knowledge Need to Be Deep to Be Useful?
A review of E.D. Hirsch's controversial bestseller. Is education undermined by focusing on useless trivia? Or is that its greatest strength?
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.